Case Study : Horticulture and Agricultural Sector
From Spreadsheets to Global Innovation
Some of the most impactful technology solutions in the world don't come from Silicon Valley. They come from a deep understanding of a specific problem, a willingness to build something that doesn't yet exist, and a partnership between people who genuinely care about getting it right.
This is one of those stories.
The Situation
Australia is home to some of the most sophisticated horticultural operations in the world, and one of the country's leading plant production businesses supplies an extensive network of nurseries and wholesale distributors right across the country. At the heart of their operation is a meticulous production process where every single seed is individually tracked through its entire growth lifecycle.
Getting that process right matters enormously. Water management, in particular, is a critical variable. Too much or too little at any stage of a plant's development can compromise the quality of the final product. For a business built on delivering consistent, premium quality plants at scale, precision is not optional. It is everything.
For years, this process was managed manually using spreadsheets. Staff would record water measurements by hand, track data across rows and columns, and rely on human consistency to maintain the accuracy that the production process demanded. It worked after a fashion, but it was slow, prone to error, and entirely dependent on individuals doing the right thing at the right time, every single time.
As production volumes grew, the limitations of a manual system became increasingly difficult to ignore.
The Turning Point
As a long-standing managed services partner, Paragon IT had built a deep understanding of the business and its operations over many years. When we identified that the water management process was a genuine bottleneck that digitalisation could solve, we brought the conversation forward proactively.
The instinct was straightforward. There had to be a purpose-built application that could handle water management by weight, track data in real time, and give the production team the visibility they needed without adding to their administrative load.
So we went looking. We searched globally. And we found nothing.
No application existed anywhere in the world that addressed water by weight management for horticultural production at this level of precision. It was a gap in the market that nobody had yet filled.
Rather than settling for a workaround or forcing an ill-fitting solution onto a process that deserved better, we made a different decision. We would build it ourselves.
The Solution
In close consultation with the client's production team, Paragon IT designed and developed a purpose-built water management web application called Hydrowiz.
The brief was clear from the outset. The solution had to be agile, intuitive, and accessible whether someone was standing on the production floor with a mobile device or reviewing data from a desktop in the office. Hydrowiz delivered on both fronts, launching as a fully web-based platform with a companion mobile application, purpose-engineered for the way production teams actually work.
The application gave staff the ability to record and monitor water data in real time, replacing manual spreadsheet entries with accurate, consistent digital records. Every seed, every stage, every measurement — captured precisely and available instantly to anyone who needed it.
What started as a solution for one production facility quickly proved its value far beyond its original scope.
The Outcome
The results spoke for themselves. According to the production manager, the accuracy of water management directly improved the quality of the final product, delivering better consistency and a stronger end result than the manual process had ever achieved.
But the story didn't stop there.
Hydrowiz became a recognised success within the broader corporate group, gaining attention not just locally but at a global level. The application was subsequently introduced to the company's South Korean operations, marking the beginning of an international rollout that is now planned across multiple operations worldwide.
Paragon IT has since developed Hydrowiz Version 2, featuring significantly improved interfaces and a refined user experience, specifically designed with global deployment in mind.
For the production team on the ground, the impact has been just as meaningful. The mobile application means staff can access the information they need on the go, without being tied to a desk or relying on paper records. The productivity gains have been substantial, freeing up time and mental energy for the skilled work that actually requires human judgement.
What began as a local problem with no off-the-shelf solution is now a globally recognised product, built by an Australian MSP for an industry that needed it.
Do You Have a Process That Technology Hasn't Solved Yet?
Sometimes the right solution doesn't exist yet. That's not a dead end. That's an opportunity.
Paragon IT works with businesses across Australia to identify operational challenges and build the technology that addresses them, whether that means sourcing the right platform, or building something entirely new.
If your team is working around a problem that technology should be solving, we'd love to hear about it.