Case study

Combatting Invasive Pests with Next-Gen Insect Control Technology

A suite of advanced digital solutions for an innovative biotech company to reinforce the rollout of a pioneering vector control platform

AgricultureDesignHealthcarePlatform Development

Project snapshot

Disease-spreading insects and destructive pests are a growing threat to the world’s population, putting human lives at risk, posing challenges to food production, and harming ecosystems. Furthermore, many of these vectors and parasites are developing increasing resistance to insecticides and other traditional control methods.

Existing tools and treatments are not efficient at preventing insect-borne diseases. Growers are forced to increase the use of pesticide sprays, affecting pollinators and pest predators who are essential contributors to crop production. As a result, health organizations and farmers are looking for new solutions to prevent disastrous epidemics and fight invasive pest species.

Our client, a leading biotechnology company, has invented a safe and sustainable method of controlling insect pests to protect public health, crops, and livestock. Their unique products rely on non-toxic and self-limiting gene technology, suppressing the population of disease-transmitting and crop-destroying insects in an environmentally friendly way.

We worked with our client to build a series of innovative software solutions supporting users from multiple industries in deploying the company’s pioneering products.

According to the World Health Organization, the global malaria death toll exceeds 500,000 annually, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report around 100 million cases of often fatal dengue fever – mainly attributed to the rise of disease-transmitting mosquitos.

Meanwhile, over 50% of annual crop yields are destroyed by agricultural pests, which cause extensive harm and have a severe economic impact on growers. In Africa alone, up to 17.7 million tons of corn are lost yearly to fall armyworm, as reported by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Business challenge

After years of research and successful trials, our client sought to evolve their business by offering easy-to-use deployment systems for non-expert users. To roll out these systems to the market, they decided to build a set of digital tools to guide users at every stage of product deployment, use, and maintenance. These tools would help our client achieve higher product value, ensure seamless user experiences, and enhance customer acquisition and retention.

Founded in one of the most reputable UK universities, the company had a strong team of world-class scientists. However, they needed expertise in building advanced software solutions. This prompted them to seek cooperation with a reliable technology and digital consulting company capable of covering the whole project development cycle.

Right from the start, our client was impressed by Intellias advanced technology expertise and profound understanding of their needs. With experience in agricultural and healthcare software development, competency in product discovery, and strong advisory skills, we earned our client’s trust and established a technology partnership.

Combatting Invasive Pests with Next-Gen Insect Control Technology

Technology solution

Our team took full ownership of the software development process. Working closely with key stakeholders — public health and agricultural experts, biologists, and genetic scientists — the Intellias team started with a discovery phase to specify the client’s needs, define business workflows, and offer the best-fitting solutions.

Discovery process

The discovery phase was a launchpad for getting our client’s product to market. We transformed their business idea into a solution vision based on market research, stakeholders’ collective goals, and a user journey map. Our experts came up with a custom software solution tailored to our client’s business goals, the market context, and specific technology needs.

To account for potential budget changes, we conducted a deep cost–benefit analysis and suggested three tech stacks, comparing their performance, time to market, and cost of development. We also estimated the cost of infrastructure operations, CRM and ERP licenses, and map SDKs.

Experience design and MVP

Based on discovery workshop results, we suggested developing a web portal and mobile apps for B2C, B2B, and B2G customer segments. These tools were to work in tandem to cover the customer’s journey from learning about the product and purchasing it to deploying and using it.

Our team designed user flows and a user interface considering the needs of different user groups and the client’s CRM and ERP systems. As the mobile applications require offline maps for proper product deployment support, the Intellias team elaborated mapping prototypes to find the optimal map SDK.

The developed web portal provides detailed information about our client’s product and the technology behind it. On the website, users can calculate the number of products needed to cover an area, manage product activation schedules, invite other users to join an initiative, manage user roles, and more.

The key function of the apps is to support users with product deployment and activation. The apps teach users how to use the product effectively as well as offer geotags, tracking, hints, calendars, reminders, the ability to place orders, and other valuable features.

Users can define a target area on the map and then follow instructions on their smartphone. The app provides a deployment tutorial with exact spots for placing products to ensure coverage of the entire area. When deployment is complete, users get notifications about recharging and installing the next device. After a device expires, the app instructs users on its disposal.

Combatting Invasive Pests with Next-Gen Insect Control Technology

Post-MVP development and scaling

Our client set a clear goal for scaling their product from tens of thousands to millions of users in the coming years. Therefore, we designed a solution architecture that would be cost-effective while being easily scalable and resilient under high loads. Drawing on our strong cloud development expertise, our engineers built a system capable of serving millions of users through auto scaling.

We also implemented effective user authentication, enabling simple and secure integration with a wide range of third-party services and ensuring full compliance with industry-specific data regulations and standards.

Our client’s solution now connects web and mobile apps for users, third-party services, and backend systems to provide product ordering, shipment and tracking, product deployment and management, inventory management, BI and reporting, compliance, customer support, and other key functions.

Grow your agribusiness sustainably through smart technological innovations

Business and global outcome

Being part of a project that enhances global agricultural productivity, food security, and life quality, Intellias has been actively contributing to developing sustainable agricultural and healthcare technologies. With user-friendly, secure, and scalable digital solutions that we have built, our client is now expanding into new markets, already partnering with governments, organizations, and communities on four continents.

Our client’s technology has received biosafety approvals from government regulators and gained wide public acceptance as being safe and eco-friendly. The technology minimizes populations of only targeted insect pests, leaving all beneficial species unharmed. It allows for effectively controlling damaging vectors without using toxic chemicals that are harmful to the environment.

As more and more farmers and public health authorities are opting for our client’s cost-effective, easy-to-use, and efficient products, the new technology will continue to revolutionize the way we fight deadly communicable diseases and protect crops from the world’s most devastating pests.

90%

reduction in pest population

3 mln

users and counting

4

continents covered

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