September 2023 New Features and Product Enhancements

More exciting enhancements are in the Hectre pipeline as we continue to deliver innovative solutions for the world’s fruit growers, packers and marketers.

First, let’s take a look at what’s new with Spectre (for Hectre Orchard Management App enhancements and last month’s releases, please scroll further down).

Hectre’s Computer Vision AI – Spectre

Innovation Highlights:

Spectre for Android

RELEASING 20 September 2023

We’re excited to announce that Hectre’s Spectre for Android will be fully released on 20 September 2023, bringing even greater access to early fruit size and color data to even more growers and packers.

If you’re a grower, packer or fruit marketer, and you don’t have Hectre’s award winning Spectre Hand-Held yet and want to access valuable fruit size data at the earliest time to ensure you optimize your pick, store the right fruit in the right place, reduce your packing downtime, and get a better price for your fruit.… then request your demo now to find out how Spectre works and pricing information.

• If you’re already a Spectre Hand-Held customer, you will now be able to take photos with your Android device and/or your iPad or iPhone and gain valuable size data, within seconds, and with no touch on the fruit. On release, just download the Hectre app on the Google Play Store, login with your existing account and start taking photos. If you have any questions, or need a hand setting up, contact your Hectre Customer Success rep to get Spectre for Android going.
• As you can see from the growing list of growers and packers signing on, Hectre’s Spectre AI has already been empowering growers and packers across the industry, providing valuable data and insights on the size distribution of their fruit. With Spectre coming to Android, even more growers and packers can access these benefits.

So how does this multi award-winning tech work? It’s unbelievably simple:

Spectre Color Automation

Initial Release: Mid-Late September

Expected Wider Release Date: October 2023

Hectre’s Spectre for Color customers will be glad to hear that our team has been investing a lot of effort into development and testing, to ensure that our color automation innovation delivers the accuracy, speed and ease of use that Hectre is known for.

Live testing with select customers is being carried out this month to gain final feedback, with a wider release set for October.

Take a look at some of the new color enhancements below that are coming your way:

• Spectre for Color customers will be able to categorize fruit varieties into color families such as grouping apples into a red, pink or golden color family depending on their shade of color.
• A further enhancement: Spectre will automatically detect what the lighting condition is and apply this for color assessment, saving time and reducing manual error.
• If Spectre detects that a lighting condition has not already been set up, you’ll be automatically notified and can hop directly into the Hectre Web Dashboard to create that missing color parameter, within minutes. This means that you won’t have to set brand new color parameters from the start, and you’ll be able to set any additional ones quickly so that all fruit varieties under all lighting conditions will have accurate color information. Hectre Customer Success stars will also be on stand-by to assist if needed.

Here’s a video from Hectre’s Group Product Manager, Aaron with more detail on these automation enhancements

Hectre’s Orchard Management Software

Innovation Highlights:

Hectre Spray Module

Expected Release Date: By 31 December 2023

Gaining More Industry Knowledge As We Continue Building Hectre Spray

Last month, our team attended a spray workshop in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. It was a valuable opportunity to further deepen their understanding of the current and future challenges growers are facing regarding chemical use, and the frustrations caused by manual spray recording processes and certification.

With these valuable insights in hand, our main focus is to create a user-friendly and seamless experience for planning and recording sprays. Additionally, we’re ensuring that the Hectre Spray module simplifies the process of submitting spray data for verification and certification.

• Hectre’s new Spray module will make generating (and replicating) spray plans, recording what applications have been applied and collating all of your spray records for audit purposes much simpler.
• Hectre’s Spray Module will be released by the end of 2023. The initial release will be made available to NZ Hectre Orchard Management Software customers adding another valuable component to Hectre’s comprehensive suite of modules.
  

Hectre Payroll Enhancements

• Our Payroll Enhancement project continues as we bring even greater robustness for all timesheet and payroll needs.
• Our dedicated Hectre Payroll Project team of Keegan, Leo and Adan (check out that massive cat!), are focused on delivering an even stronger platform that we know your office administrators will appreciate.

Other Recent Releases

Hectre QC API

• You’re now able to directly connect the Hectre API to the current analytics tools that you use day-to-day. 
• This enables all the QC information you’ve collected through the Hectre app to be easily accessed and displayed for more detailed analysis.

▶ If you would like to access the Hectre QC API, click here to view instructions.

Hectre Staff API Integration

• The Hectre Staff API enables you to synchronize all changes relating to pickers – wage rate, employment status, personal details – from your external payroll system straight into Hectre.
• If you’re looking to reduce double-entry and ensure your pickers’ details are kept up to date, enquire now about using the Hectre Staff API.

Spectre For Cherries Accuracy Enhancement

Our teams were committed to delivering even greater cherry sizing accuracy to our customers for this US cherry season! This involved continually evaluating and refining our Spectre for Cherries models, honing the accuracy tighter and tighter.

We released the enhanced Spectre for Cherries model at the end of June and received fantastic feedback. Enjoy!

Add Photos to Staff Profiles in the App

• If you want to have photos of your staff on their Hectre profiles to assist with identification, this is now super easy to do. 
• Simply tap the profile icon of your team member and you will be given the choice to either upload a photo from your device, or take a photo of them right then using the camera option.

Enhanced Location Navigation

• It’s now even easier to review your harvest numbers by location on your mobile device for both Buckets and Bins. This brings even greater efficiency for Hectre Orchard Management Software customers, particularly those working with high volumes.
• With this latest release, we have added search functionality plus the ability to add sub-blocks. This means you can drill down through layers, from orchard, to block, to sub block, to gain strong insights on your picking volumes.

That’s a wrap… for now! More fab features and enhancements coming your way soon!