For years, Pipple has been a key partner for Rabobank’s Wholesale & Rural Innovation department when it comes to data-related challenges. With sharp questions, forward thinking, and broad expertise, Pipple helps bring innovations to life. Pipple’s data engineers played a pivotal role in developing Rabo Trace: an application created with the ambition to make global supply chains more sustainable.
With a constantly shifting portfolio of around twelve major and minor innovation projects, there’s always something happening in the Wholesale & Rural innovation team. Capacity needs are hard to predict, says Rick Erich, who leads the development team behind Rabo Trace.
A Flexible Innovation Team
“Our department focuses on exploring, developing, and where possible scaling innovations based on clear needs,” Erich explains. “Some projects take years, others are stopped within weeks. To match our capacity to that uncertainty, our team mostly consists of a flexible layer of product owners, business analysts, and developers.”
Pipple Provides Data & AI Professionals
Whenever data plays a role in an innovation project, Pipple has long been the go-to partner. Erich: “Once we clearly understand the challenges our bankers face, we usually bring someone from Pipple into the team right away to help develop solutions. We almost always need data or data exchange between internal and external sources. This aligns well with our cooperative bank philosophy: collaboration is at the heart of everything we do.”
Sharpening Business Requirements
Pipple brings not only data expertise early in the process but also challenges the business, Erich notes. “When bankers describe what features or data they think they need, it’s always the Pipple team members who dig deeper: What exactly are you trying to achieve with this requirement?”
A Forward-Thinking Approach
He also values their forward-thinking mindset. “It’s often said people only build their dream home after a few tries. The same goes for businesses building new applications: ‘If only we’d known, we would’ve…’ We rarely face that. That’s because the Pipple people in our team think many steps ahead—something they’re especially good at thanks to our long-standing collaboration and their deep understanding of our clients, products, and data flows.”
Rabo Trace: A Flagship Innovation
Another reason Wholesale & Rural considers Pipple its data partner is the way their professionals collaborate smoothly with other developers both inside and outside the innovation team. They also contribute beyond what you’d expect. Erich: “Their data engineers do more than you’d reasonably assume.” He cites Rabo Trace as an example—a major project for W&R Innovation due to its complexity and promising strategic impact. “When we briefly lacked a data analyst, two of Pipple’s data engineers stepped in to fill the gap on their own initiative—and did so effectively. That speaks to the kind of people they are.”
Linking Value Chain Finance to Sustainability
Rabo Trace fulfills a major ambition of Wholesale & Rural: connecting the bank’s Value Chain Finance programs to its sustainability goals. Erich explains: “We offer tailored products that help companies finance working capital—like invoice pre-financing. The supplier gets paid immediately, while our client retains the funds for a little longer.”
A Globally Impactful Application
“Rabo Trace adds another dimension. By financially rewarding sustainable behavior within supply chains, we aim to drive sustainable progress. We agree on KPIs with clients. For instance, a client may receive a more favorable interest rate if supplier A reduces water or electricity use, and supplier B achieves a certain ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) score.”
Highly Complex
Even with a minimal set of KPIs, implementation is highly complex. “Value Chain Finance mainly serves large clients—some have programs involving up to a thousand suppliers. To verify they all meet agreed sustainability targets, we need to gather, validate, and monitor a huge volume of data points. It’s labor-intensive, prone to error, and involves significant financial risk. On top of that, Rabo Trace must work globally.”
Proud Pipple Team Members
After three years of development, Rabo Trace is ready for full-scale rollout. Erich: “In the next ten, maybe twenty years, bankers across the globe will use this system daily. Our colleagues from Pipple are clearly proud to have contributed. Their expertise—and their enthusiasm, which matches our own—has truly amplified the impact we’re making.”
