Klabin

Klabin is Brazil’s largest paper producer and exporter. Its forestry operation requires hundreds of people (forestry engineers, operators, field preparers, transport crews, supervisors) to collect and record data in areas with intermittent or no internet connectivity.

The challenge

Before digitization, most field work was recorded on paper forms. That meant delayed information flow, transcription errors, audit headaches, and no standardization across crews. To feed Klabin’s SAP with reliable forestry data, records needed to leave the field quickly, consistently, and traceably, even when the field was kilometers from the nearest cellular signal.

Klabin needed a suite of specialized apps: one per operation type (soil preparation, planting, management, transport, safety, event logging) with the specifics of each process, all running offline-first.

What we delivered

Working alongside Klabin’s internal team, we built and evolved a suite of native Android apps covering multiple forestry activities. Some apps were built from scratch; others were taken over from earlier versions for evolution and maintenance.

Three architectural concerns repeated across all of them:

1. Offline-first operation: each app kept a local SQLite database and synced with the backend when signal returned. The sync model varied with the data: some records were intrinsically conflict-free (timestamped events, append-only logs); others required specific resolution strategies.
2. SAP Mobile Platform integration: communication with Klabin’s SAP ecosystem was mediated by SAP Mobile Platform (SMP), using official libraries and custom extensions as each app required.
3. Physical context capture: GPS for plot positioning, photos as field evidence, geo-referenced records.

Team and technology

• Allocation: up to three simultaneous developers at project peaks, with early leadership by Overdrive and primary management kept internal to Klabin.
• Stack: native Android (Java), SQLite, SAP Mobile Platform (SMP) with official and custom libraries, GPS, media capture.
• Architecture: offline-first with periodic sync.

Result

During the engagement, the suite covered Klabin’s forestry operation in the state of Paraná almost entirely, used by over one thousand field users. The apps replaced paper forms with standardized digital entry, synced to the corporate SAP and fully auditable. The suite stayed in operation until 2026, when Klabin consolidated its mobile forestry operation onto a successor platform.

Relationship context

The partnership began before Overdrive was even founded, with Claudio contracted through third parties on the earliest iterations. When Overdrive was founded in 2019, the relationship was formalized directly and ran through 2021, when the operation moved in-house at Klabin. The delivered suite stayed in production for roughly five years after the active engagement ended.