Digital News Asia (DNA): Cloud-Based Plantation System

Article published in Digital News Asia (DNA) on April 5, 2018

• Biometrics system, location services to improve data recording efficiency
• Can be integrated with Quarto to digitalise both main office and the field

DIGITAL management solutions provider LintraMax (M) Sdn Bhd launched its new application Quarto Connect today. The application, which runs on mobile device functions, helps oil palm planters streamline work processes in their plantations.

Quatro Connect acts as a tool for planters to digitally record data of activities in the field and store the data in a cloud-based system, making it easier for managers at the main office to quickly access field data at any time and eliminating the need for paper-based log books and other manual methods of recording and storing data.

Among key features of Quarto Connect are an integrated biometric device to read fingerprints, allowing  workers’ attendance to be recorded and verified quickly; GPS location tagging to record crop production, which improves traceability and enhances crop quality monitoring; and monitoring of crop evacuation efficiency (an important factor affecting oil extraction rate) to improve crop freshness and reduce crop backlogs and losses

The application is a new module of Quarto, is LintraMax’s award-winning (MSC Malaysia APICTA Merit Award 2017) cloud-based plantation management system that was launched in 2016, but it can also be deployed independently or as a standalone application.

With Quarto Connect, users can record data even when the application is offline in plantation areas where there is no Internet connection. Once it is connected to the Internet, all data will be uploaded to its cloud-based central system.

“LintraMax’s goal is to digitalise agricultural practices,” said LintraMax founder and managing director Khor Kheng Khoon, explaining that after the company launched Quarto in 2016, it saw that there was still an information gap between field operations and monitoring, which led to it building Quarto Connect.

“This is our solution to extend the digitalisation of plantations to include work not just at the main office but in the field as well.”

Though proper recording of data gathered from the field is crucial for business, in many cases, planters still use conventional methods, including paper-based log books. Not only are these not easy to manage but they also make reporting of field data to main office a long process.

“We have also discovered that a lack of workers, poor crop harvesting quality, and crop losses are among the biggest operation challenges faced by many planters. So, digitalisation of these processes helps improve traceability and monitoring of field operations, which can reduce the impacts of these challenges,” Khor explained.

Quarto Connect, as featured in Digital News Asia, is now available for oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia directly from LintraMax and on a subscription basis.

Want to give Quarto Connect a try? Contact us to find out more.