# From list to lab, without manual work We use our own app for the fieldwork. Every list, every field and every sample bag is in it, from the first phone call to the courier. Fewer errors, fewer hours and more data per sample for the laboratory. ## A result is only as good as the route that leads to it A sampler usually receives a list in Excel and then does everything by hand: retyping fields, calling farmers without set questions, planning by feel, writing on sample bags in the rain. Every step is a chance for an error that only shows up in the laboratory, if it shows up at all. That is why we built our own app. The list goes in as it is, and from that moment on the app does the manual work: the planning, the route on the field, the labels, the check of every sample bag and the data for the laboratory. ## How it usually goes, how it goes with us The same seven steps from list to laboratory. On the left how it usually goes, on the right what the app takes over. 1. **The list**. Usually: The list arrives by email or WhatsApp. Every farm and every field is entered by hand into the laboratory's order system and into a separate list on paper or on the phone. With us: The list goes into the app as it is. Within a few minutes all farms and fields are in it, with the field boundary, this year's crop, the soil type and the division of large fields from the government's open data. 2. **Calling**. Usually: Without set questions. What the farmer says about the crop, drainage or pipes ends up in a notebook, or nowhere. With us: A call script with the questions from the protocol. If the farmer says there is drainage, those fields are immediately set to two layers. If a field is not taking part, the notification for the client is ready. 3. **Planning**. Usually: By feel, again every evening: which farmer when, what fits into a day, how far the drive is. With us: The planner makes a proposal for each working day based on travel time, working time, appointments, daylight and crops still in the field. Appointments are fixed, the rest moves along. 4. **On the field**. Usually: The sampler decides for himself where the zigzag runs and how many cores he takes. Nobody can see whether a large field has been divided correctly. With us: A walking route for each farm, for each field the zigzag with forty sampling points on the map and the depth for each point. The GPS tracks along. Without reception, the app simply keeps working. 5. **The sample bags**. Usually: Every label is written by hand: code, customer, field and depth. In the rain, with mud on the gloves, at the third sample bag of the twentieth field. With us: The labels come from the app on a small printer in the car, with everything on them. Every empty sample bag is scanned before sampling and every full sample bag at the car. Without those scans, a field cannot be marked as sampled. 6. **Before the courier**. Usually: At the end of the day, comparing sample bags and orders side by side. What went wrong earlier in the day only shows up now, or not at all. With us: The app shows what is still holding up the collection and creates the collection manifest with a number and a barcode, plus a file with all the fields for the laboratory's order system for each sample bag. 7. **After that**. Usually: The client only knows how far a sampler has got once the samples are in. With us: A planner or area manager sees the progress per sampler every day and can follow along with read-only access. Every field has a log: who, what and when. ## This is what it looks like Screens from the app, with made-up farms. - Today: what matters now, with the next field. - The call list in the planner's order. - The planner: a dot is an appointment, a ring is a proposal. - A working day from the planner, with driving times and weather. - A farm with its fields, in route order. - The fields of a farm, with what is already done. - A field with the zigzag and the layers. - The labels per sample bag, ready to print. - Scan every sample bag, the app keeps count. - Taking cores: the GPS follows the route. - At the car: scan the full sample bags once more. - All fields and farms on the map. ## What the app can do From the list to the courier, everything is in one app on your phone. This is what it includes. ### List and farms - Import the list in Excel the way you make it now, in a few minutes - Field boundaries, this year's crop and soil type from the government's open data - Large fields split automatically into equal parts, as the protocol requires - For each field, the difficulty, the expected time and the packaging per soil type - Search and filter farms and see them on the map, with a colour per farm ### Calling and planning - Call script with the protocol questions and the answer processed straight away - Sampling planner: a proposal per working day based on travel time, working hours, daylight, weather and crop - Make and reschedule appointments, with the message to the farmer ready in WhatsApp - Working days and days off per sampler, training days with extra time - Calendar link on your phone and a call list in the planner's order ### In the field - Walking route per farm: on foot where possible, by car only where necessary - Zigzag with forty sampling points per field, with GPS tracking along - Print labels on a small printer in the car - Scan every sample bag twice, before sampling and at the car - One photo per field, not all layers successful or not sampled with a reason - Works without signal, the screen stays on in the field ### After the field and together - Pickup manifest with number and barcode and a file per sample bag for the order system - Notifications on your phone: call-backs, the courier, tomorrow's appointments - Team: invite with a welcome link, progress per region, read-only viewing - Messages with the regional manager and prompts from the app - Fee and units per field, log per field, audit trail for the administrator - Help in the app with phone screenshots, search across everything, your organisation's house style ## Five mistakes that cost a sample A sample is only worth something if the laboratory can link it to the right field and the right layer. With manual work, there is a series of small steps in between. Each step can go wrong. Redoing it is usually not possible: the soil changes, the season is short and an extra trip costs a day. - **Illegible label**: Because of rain, mud or haste. The laboratory cannot link the bag and the sample is lost. - **Wrong layer**: Soil from 0-30 in the bag for 30-60. The result is wrong and nobody notices. - **Code without an order**: One digit typed wrongly. A bag without an order, or an order without a bag. - **Field forgotten**: Or done twice. The farmer gets no result, or the sampler drives out twice. - **Not divided**: A large field that should have been done in parts. The protocol was not followed and this only becomes clear afterwards. ## Every bag scanned twice 1. **Before sampling**: Every empty bag is scanned before the soil is taken. Without printed labels and scanned bags, a field cannot be set to sampled. 2. **At the car**: Every full bag is scanned once more at the car. Without scanned full bags, a round cannot be set to collected. 3. **Before the courier**: The app shows what is still holding up the collection. A bag at the wrong layer, a forgotten bag or a forgotten field is spotted on the farm, not in the laboratory. ## Farmers' data in one place The app works with farmers' data, under the client's name. That is the most important part of this whole story: if you do not protect that data properly, the rest is worthless. That is why security was the first thing to be built and not the last, in line with the requirements that large clients set for suppliers: purchasing terms, a data processing agreement and the controls of ISO 27001. An Excel list is sent around by email or WhatsApp and then sits on laptops and phones. Who has it and for how long cannot be traced afterwards. In the app, every list is stored on one server in the EU. A sampler sees only his own farms, a planner only his own region. The audit trail records who has viewed, carried out or changed what. After the season, the data can be erased, and then it really is gone. ### Access - Passkeys only, with mandatory Face ID, fingerprint or PIN. Passwords do not exist in the app. - Signing in with your organisation's Microsoft account is built in. Your rules then apply, and anyone who leaves is locked out immediately. - A new device or a new passkey is reported immediately to the person themselves and to the administrator. - Locked for an hour after five failed attempts. Accessible only from the Netherlands. ### Data - Everyone sees only their own list. Regional roles see their region, read-only. The server enforces this, not the screen. - As little as possible: no results, no passwords, no bank details. - Everything can be requested as a file and erased within thirty days, following a fixed erasure procedure. - No advertising, no trackers, no analytics services. ### Server - A dedicated server in the EU that runs only this app. Only the encrypted connection is open. - The app runs as its own user without privileges and can only write to its own data folder. - Security updates are installed automatically. Administration is only possible with a key from fixed addresses. Every administrator login is logged. - A second server checks every five minutes whether the app can be reached and reports any outage immediately. ### Monitoring and recovery - An audit trail that cannot be altered afterwards: logins, failed attempts, exports, roles, invitations and administration. It can be supplied as a file to your security department. - An encrypted backup to a second server every six hours, checked every night and kept for thirty days. - An incident plan with notification within 24 hours. Every release is tested in advance and recorded in a version log. - A package for procurement is ready: the measures attached to the data processing agreement, the subprocessors, the Cloud Security Alliance questionnaire and the measures mapped against ISO 27001. ### What can be added, by arrangement - The database on an encrypted volume. The backups are already encrypted. - A penetration test by an external Dutch firm, with the report for you. - Intrusion detection on the server and a real restore test every month, with a report. - The code and the data held in escrow by a third party, so that the app does not depend on one person. - ISO 27001 for the app itself, as soon as you ask for it. ## How much time the tasks take An estimate per field with three layers, so three sample bags and one order. The time in the field itself, taking the cores, is the same in both cases and is not included. - **The order in the order system**: Usually 5 min entering; With the app: 1 min copying from the file. - **Labels**: Usually 4 min writing; With the app: 30 seconds printing. - **Checking sample bags**: Usually 1 min, at the end of the day; With the app: half a minute of scanning, for every bag. - **Planning and sorting out**: Usually 2 min, in the evening; With the app: nothing, the proposal is ready. - **Walking the field**: Usually set out yourself, back to the car after each field; With the app: a good 10 min shorter: walking on to the next field, the car only where needed. Fields per sampler: 130. hours of manual work now, per sampler: 26. hours with the app, per sampler: 4.5. fewer hours per sampler, including walking: 43. Samplers: 100. fewer hours per season for 100 samplers together, that is 542 working days of 8 hours: 4,333. The sampler's own estimate, based on the first days in the field with a list of 130 fields at nine farms. If you work with tens or hundreds of samplers, enter the number: the saving adds up over the whole season. ## More data per sample Today a bag with a code arrives at the laboratory. Everything the sampler sees and does on the field stays with him. The app records it and can send it along with the sample: - **Every core**: The location of every core, with GPS - **Time per layer**: The time per layer and how long the coring took - **Soil and crop**: The soil type from the Soil Map and this year's crop from the crop registration - **Drainage**: And the depth, as the farmer said it over the phone - **Heaviness**: The heaviness of the field and the packaging per soil type - **Who and when**: Who took the sample, when, with a photo of the field - **Coming soon: temperature**: The temperature in the cool box, from the farmyard to the laboratory ## What is not recorded is lost What is recorded now is a bag with a code per sample, on its way to the laboratory. That is what a protocol asks for and no more. A field is sampled once per season. Anything not recorded at that moment is lost. With the app, it does come along. This lets a laboratory or client set a result against the conditions, compare fields and years, and show a farmer with a question exactly how the sample was taken. That cannot be done from a handwritten bag. ## Coming soon: one tap at the farmer's 1. **Arrival**: Every farmer gets a small NFC tag on the farmyard gate. The sampler holds his phone against it and the app opens the farm: the fields, the walking route, the layers, the packaging per soil type. The arrival time is recorded. 2. **Start right away**: Print labels, scan the sample bags and take the cores. There is nothing left to look up or retype. 3. **Departure**: One more tap. The visit is recorded, with times. The farmer can sign it off on his own card. 4. **On the way to the laboratory**: A sticker on every cool box and a temperature logger inside. One tap at the handover to the courier and one at receipt in the laboratory: which sample bags, from which fields, how cool they stayed. ## One tap for every handover A sticker or tag costs a few cents. The chip holds only a code, and the app records what a tap means. These are the taps we want to build: - **Cool box**: A sticker on every cool box: whatever is scanned next is in that box - **Handover**: One tap at the courier: which boxes, time, place, sample bags and fields - **Receipt at the lab**: One tap on arrival and the chain is complete, without phone calls - **Temperature**: A logger in the box shows that the samples stayed cool - **Finding boxes**: The app knows where each box was last tapped - **Arrival and departure**: A tag in the farmyard: actual times and proof of the visit - **Signing off**: The farmer holds his card against the phone and confirms the visit - **Card for the farmer**: With his own page: when we are coming and when the result is ready - **Fixed measuring points**: A tag at the entrance of fields that come back every season - **Lone working**: If there is no activity for too long after arrival, the app asks whether everything is all right and otherwise alerts the area manager ## What the farmer notices A quick call with set questions, so that we do not forget anything: is there still a crop on the field, is there drainage, are there pipes, how do we get onto the farmyard. A proposed day, also via WhatsApp. If it does shift after all, he gets a message. On the farmyard we are finished quickly, because the route and the labels are already prepared. The farm's details are kept in one secure place and not in an Excel file that gets passed around. ## What you notice If you work with samplers, as a laboratory, advisory firm or government body, this is what the app changes for you: - **Security**: Farmers' data in one place in the EU, passkeys, an audit trail and a procurement package ready to go - **Fewer rejections**: Scanning twice and a check before the courier catch the errors on the farmyard - **Fewer hours**: Import in minutes, labels straight from the printer, the fields for the order system ready - **Daily overview**: Per region and per sampler, without phoning, with a log per field - **The protocol is built in**: Large fields, the layers, drainage, crop, the packaging per soil type, the notifications - **The same steps**: A new sampler gets a welcome link and can start work the same day. Tested with 120 accounts and nearly 24,000 fields at once ## Questions about the app ### Who owns the app? The app, the working method and the calculations belong to monsternemer. We built it ourselves for our own fieldwork and use it on our assignments. ### Can the app use our house style? Yes. The logo, the colours and the icon on the phone can be set for each organisation. Signing in with your organisation's Microsoft account is built in. ### Does the app replace our order system? No. Orders to the laboratory continue to run through your own system. The app supplies the data for them, per sample bag, in a file. A direct link is possible if you give us access for it. ### What is needed to work with it? An account with a passkey for each sampler, the list in Excel as you already make it now, a phone with GPS and a small label printer. ### Does the app work without a signal? Yes. Out in the field everything keeps working, and as soon as there is a signal again, everything is sent along. ### Can we see the app first? Gladly. [Request a demonstration](https://monsternemer.nl/en/demo/) and we will show you the app on the phone, using fictitious farms. **Want to see the app in action?** Request a demonstration. We will show you the app on the phone, using made-up farms. Afterwards we will discuss what your organisation needs. [Request a demonstration](https://monsternemer.nl/en/demo/) --- Source: https://monsternemer.nl/en/app/