Today we launched the new C.A.F.E. Verifier Reporting System for Starbucks, enabling inspectors to use the system for data entry while offline, in the field, and then upload their data to the central system on return to their office.
You can read more about it in our earlier post.
Logic Branch is working on the C.A.F.E. Practices Verifier Reporting System that GreenRiver.org built for the Starbucks Coffee Company. In brief, C.A.F.E. Practices is Starbucks’ program to incentivize better coffee growing practices for the producers that make up Starbucks supply chain, from family farms to large farms and mills, from all around the world. The Verifier Reporting System is used by independent auditors to report to Starbucks about the agricultural, environmental, and labor conditions at each producer, so that Starbucks can reward those producers with better contracts and higher prices.
The catch is that the Verifier Reporting System is a web-based system, but it has to be used where coffee is grown, including the islands of Indonesia, the mountains of Peru, and remote valleys of Ethiopia. Many of these areas are without Internet connectivity, and even when you can get online the connection is often slow or unreliable. Starbucks needed a way for the verifiers to use the reporting system while offline, and the system had to be robust enough to survive interrupted Internet connections.
Logic Branch took GreenRiver.org’s existing system and, using Google’s Gears technology, rewrote the parts of the system used by verifiers so that they could be used offline. The rewrite was done in such as way as to preserve the existing functionality of the system, so that users would not have to be retrained. Furthermore, we added a robust synchronization framework to keep the data on the verifier’s laptop in sync with the Verifier Reporting System server. This synchronization framework deals gracefully with poor connectivity, transferring data in small packets to save bandwidth, and saving it’s place in the event of interruption so that it can resume where it left off when connectivity is restored.
The new system goes into use in Sumatra next week, and will then be rolled out across their global network of verifiers. So next time you pop into your local Starbucks, check to see if they have any C.A.F.E. Practices Certified coffee available!