How we helped IDH develop remarkable sustainability software and save more than $50K per year

IDH’s mission: Transforming supply chains and enabling businesses to create value for people and the planet

Co-creating and co-financing inclusive and sustainable solutions. Those are the values IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative – breathes and lives.

This non-profit organization brings together over 600 businesses, governments, investors, farmers, and communities to build sustainable governance frameworks in tropical sourcing regions. They create areas where agricultural products are grown sustainably, forests and natural resources are protected, and local communities prosper.

They do that by:

• developing, testing, and scaling inclusive and sustainable business models for smallholder farms;
• driving systemic changes in the service delivery market;
• offering tailored services to smallholder farmers.

The challenge: Adding new functionalities to make the platform easier to join and contribute to

Moving past limits. Contributing to change on the global level. In December 2021, IDH launched SourceUp, a platform linking agri-commodity companies with multi-stakeholder initiatives in regions dedicated to sustainable production and inclusive governance to protect vulnerable forest areas and other natural ecosystems as well as smallholder farmer communities.

SourceUp now boasts detailed information on 50+ landscape initiatives convened by 20+ organizations and supported by 80+ companies.

To put simply, the platform supports a multitude of stakeholders in producing regions to come together and contribute to sustainability, including local, civil society, governmental, and private sector actors.

The diversity of these stakeholders allows each to take up the onus of contributing towards sustainable development for that sourcing region. Such collective effort has the potential to transform agricultural production systems far beyond what individual producers, local governments, and civil society organizations can do alone.

Any organization implementing the landscape approach in a region can add a landscape to the map on the SourceUp platform to increase visibility for their work, showcase it to a global audience of private sector stakeholders, and profit from opportunities for engagement and funding.

When we started our collaboration,IDH aimed to introduce new features and enhance the platform's overall usability and performance.

The goal?

IDH wanted to improve user access and the usability of the platform for everyone — the private sector companies, the landscape initiative conveners, and other stakeholders. They aimed to showcase their data and information to demonstrate the great work they are doing on the ground and, in that way, engage the community and contribute more effectively to the platform's mission.

A software partner, sharing the same sustainability values

IDH had amazing ideas and big dreams. To make them true, they needed technical expertise since they didn't have any in-house software engineers. They were not looking for yet another software development company that could solve their problems in the short run. They needed a reliable technical partner that could drive their long-term success and, thus, help them inspire change to an even higher level.

That is where we stepped in. What definitely won IDH’s hearts and fortified our partnership was the fact that we shared the same values. Sustainable. People-first. From a green website to a range of CSR activities, Vega IT focuses on continuously giving back to the community.

We assembled a dream team of five – a delivery manager, three software engineers, and a designer. As their only technical partner, we collaborated with IDH on all aspects of software development, ensuring the highest transparency and accuracy.

The solution: Results-driven software engineering

We started by conducting detailed assessments of the client’s system to help them get the most out of it. Based on those results, we provided them with a list of potential improvements that could ensure their long-term success.

The next step was, of course, implementing these improvements and developing new features for the SourceUp platform. We focused on the effort and impact approach, prioritizing the tasks that provided the greatest impact while requiring minimal effort. We also emphasized sustainability as a significant factor, and based on that, set priorities for improvement.

Some of our processes involved:

• data restructuring to increase its efficiency, accessibility, or usability;
• implementing Terraform that serves as a disaster recovery solution;
• rewriting the code to reduce the costs associated with the third-party software license the client was paying for;
• significant design improvements: For instance, we have enhanced the visualization of progress reporting for landscapes, making the data more insightful and easier to interpret.
• adding a dashboard that demonstrates how mature a particular Landscape initiative is. It demonstrates its scope of work in long-term and has been ongoing for years to ensure that stakeholders see the value in wanting to invest in it;
• improving platform performance, making it faster, more stable, and more intuitive.

Finally, during the last phase of software development, we provided the client with comprehensive support and maintenance, ensuring that all aspects of the platform continued to function smoothly and efficiently. This included addressing issues, implementing updates, and providing ongoing assistance.

The results: Innovative approach, resulting in great software success

Major cost reduction

We identified that IDH was using software with a $50k annual license fee. We proposed rewriting the code to reduce operating costs by $50K per year with only one year RoI. Enticed by the opportunity to achieve significant annual savings, the client enthusiastically accepted our proposal.

We started working on this and, as a result, we enabled them to save up this exact amount of money – every year. Rewriting the code also enhanced the overall software performance and enabled faster delivery.

Building a successful disaster recovery strategy

During the development phase, we noticed that the client didn’t use Terraform, a tool needed to document the entire infrastructure and facilitate disaster recovery by restoring lost components. We implemented it, increasing the overall data security.

Clear goals, outstanding outcomes

We improved the system’s reliability and helped the client optimize processes by creating detailed documentation. We put significant effort into educating IDH’s non-technical staff on technical matters and, in that way, equipping them for better decision-making in the future.

Technical details

• React
• Next.js
• JavaScript
• TypeScript
• .NET
• C#
• HygraphCMS
• ConfluentCloud
• Azure