Fruit Procurement App
Program-Ace implemented effective gamification mechanics to help the biggest European fresh fruit exporter establish beneficial relationships with suppliers
Background Info
Our client, the oldest European fresh fruit exporter that specializes in the production, packaging, marketing, and industrialization of citrus and its byproducts, asked us to develop a mobile app to integrate farmers in the business process of fruit reception. This app is the first stage of a big project that implies the implementation of gamification mechanics intended to unite businesses with suppliers and customers digitally.
One of the project’s essential tasks is to make data entry to the ERP system easier and smoother. To reach this goal, Program-Ace suggested using the information from farmers, cooperatives, and suppliers, meanwhile providing all suppliers with a rating to motivate them to give useful and accurate information.
Nevertheless, the business goals of the project were ambitious but simple: first of all, decreasing the waiting time for farmers in a queue before a factory ramp and diminishing rotting fruit losses upon reception.
The first few months after the introduction of a new mobile app showed significant shortening of the waiting time in the queues, so the management team felt exceptionally optimistic about the further development of the project.
Program-Ace provided gamification services for farmers and producers as a packaged solution that includes game scenarios uniquely adapted to client’s business needs, equipped with all the necessary professional, visually-rich materials, and full-cycle mobile application development.
One of the project’s essential tasks is to make data entry to the ERP system easier and smoother. To reach this goal, Program-Ace suggested using the information from farmers, cooperatives, and suppliers, meanwhile providing all suppliers with a rating to motivate them to give useful and accurate information.
Nevertheless, the business goals of the project were ambitious but simple: first of all, decreasing the waiting time for farmers in a queue before a factory ramp and diminishing rotting fruit losses upon reception.
The first few months after the introduction of a new mobile app showed significant shortening of the waiting time in the queues, so the management team felt exceptionally optimistic about the further development of the project.
Program-Ace provided gamification services for farmers and producers as a packaged solution that includes game scenarios uniquely adapted to client’s business needs, equipped with all the necessary professional, visually-rich materials, and full-cycle mobile application development.
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Business Challenges
1
Improve Collaboration b/w Farmers and Plants
The primary goal was to enhance the communication and collaboration between the farmer and the plant, making the supplying process smoother and more reliable. The solution was intended to show farmers the best way to communicate with the plant employees and provide a set of instructions about the best time of arrival for a specific plant, the quality and quantity of fruits, and the suitable price.
2
Improve Relationship with Suppliers
Another task that we faced was to provide additional recognition for responsible farmers so that the plant employees can build and support a relationship with the best suppliers only. We applied advanced gamification mechanics to display the most loyal and active suppliers. On another hand, plant management has a tool for analyzing the impact of staff on farmers loyalty.
3
Mitigate the Risk of Food Shortage
The mobile app is a fun and simple way to engage young farmers to become a partner of a plant or food exporter. Moreover, the supplier will have farmers involved in a new way, which will eventually become a cornerstone for enterprises in the future when the competition for a raw food will increase.
Approach and Solution
We have decided to reach the goals set above by providing a full range of services: from gamification consulting services and software requirement definition to mobile software development and post-implementation support.
The first step was gamification consulting services, which resulted in:
We proposed to choose the Agile approach to software development so that the Program-Ace team was fully able to achieve the project’s goals and ensure proper app delivery to the end-users through only several iterations.
The most interesting part of the solution is a cross-platform mobile app for farmers, which serves as an engine for the engagement of suppliers:
From the plant standpoint:
The first step was gamification consulting services, which resulted in:
- A plan for the implementation of gamification that contained a description of a proposed game scenario, gamification mechanics and features to use, screens’ wireframes, use cases, animation, and an explanation of how to calculate a soft currency.
- Visual assets that include screens’ design, icons, images, animation, storyboards, and other design elements.
We proposed to choose the Agile approach to software development so that the Program-Ace team was fully able to achieve the project’s goals and ensure proper app delivery to the end-users through only several iterations.
The most interesting part of the solution is a cross-platform mobile app for farmers, which serves as an engine for the engagement of suppliers:
- Registration In order to start working with a plant, farmers need to download a mobile app and do a simple sign up procedure just by entering their name, cell phone number, and company name.
- Planning a fruit delivery to the plant After registration, the farmer can choose an appropriate time slot for fruit delivery. The app requires a farmer to enter additional information: field of occupation, track details, fruit kinds and quantity, certificates, etc.
- Check-in in a queue When farmers arrive at the plant, the app displays push notification with a proposition to check-in on the line to ensure that fruit delivery will be served promptly.
- Suppliers rating The system automatically calculates a farmer's score depending on his/her punctuality and feedback from a plant manager.
- Soft currency For each fruit delivery, the farmer gets a certain amount of soft currency. This is not real money, but the farmer can exchange soft currency in an opportunity to get a better price or flexible delivery time.
From the plant standpoint:
- Push notifications for workers and managers Plant managers get push notifications about each farmer’s check-in and special alerts when the waiting time exceeds the limits. The waiting time is defined as a difference between the time of fruit delivery registered in the ERP system and check-in time.
- Suppliers' leaderboard Plant managers regularly review the leaderboard of farmers to plan additional activities to engage farmers or to highlight the most successful suppliers with badges or awards.
Technology Stack
Fruit Procurement App that is primarily designed for iOS and Android was developed by a team of one UI/UX designer, a full-stack developer, and a QA specialist. It took one month for our team to deliver and distribute the solution.
Audience
Uberization of food processing as a service opens vast market opportunities: any enterprise around the world that works with farmers and food cooperatives as suppliers. On the one hand, this is an excellent opportunity to solve a long-lasting issue with losses and queues, and, on another hand, to get a competitive advantage when preparing for the future development of the food market and to distinguish a business among competitors. Also, the product could be attractive for retailers who are willing to collaborate with farmers directly.
Plants & Factories
Farmers
Food Cooperatives
Retailers
Value Delivered
The client was highly satisfied with the following results of the system implementation:
- The mobile application with built-in gamification mechanics allowed for engaging more than 400 farmers successfully;
- Average waiting time in the queue decreased by 60%;
- Two big cooperatives were involved as new suppliers within the first month of implementation;
- A 7% decrease in fruit loss on a whole production cycle.
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Nicosia, Cyprus
Program-Ace Europe Limited
Archiepiskopou Makariou III,
1, Mitsis Building No. 3, Office 310,
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