Off the shelf software works well to some point.
After scaling up, clients want to customize the solution.
We followed that path together with Rhino.
A dedicated SCADA solution
The solution consists of two parts: dedicated hardware (e.g. sensors) and software that properly visualizes the current condition of the property.
THE PROBLEM
The clients of Rhino are mainly large companies that manage halls, warehouses, offices, and other buildings. Due to the large scale of these properties, many parameters affect the costs of their operation and the level of security.
For over a decade, Rhino has been offering its customers the service of remote monitoring of resource consumption and real-time measurement of specific parameters, e.g. room temperature. Data with adequate accuracy, read on an ongoing basis, allow to optimize the management of buildings in terms of financial savings, but also to monitor the safety level of people and goods located there.
The solution consists of two parts:
dedicated hardware (e.g. sensors)
software that properly visualizes the current condition of the property
The latter was the subject of a project carried out by Antologic. Previously used solutions did not fully meet customer requirements and were difficult to scale. The user interface did not allow personalization and data presentation was not clear.
Antologic decided to change that: together with Rhino, we decided to build a completely new SCADA service, which will be built with development in mind and easy changes that will allow even better adaptation to the needs of different customers.
SOLUTION
Our team of architect, developers, quality assurance engineer, UI designer, and scrum master set to work in May 2020. Talks with the client about literally every functionality took several weeks so that we could be sure what it involves in detail and how it will be used by users. The agile approach based on scrum allowed us to control what was being created week by week, and the constant participation of the client in the work allowed immediate changes in assumptions, if necessary.
We have built a centralized, quick, and easy-to-use SaaS system that collects sensor readings and appropriately presents them (in the form of reports, tables, or charts).
Collecting readings from multiple sources in small time intervals generates a large amount of data, posing huge challenges in terms of performance. The speed of readings and data integrity was a great success for the development team.
Thanks to the use of non-trivial solutions (e.g. partitioned database, Protocol Buffers usage) it was possible to address all problems resulting from the specificity of the solution.
After about 8 months, the production was launched.
RESULT
Rhino customers use a system that suits their needs, and if their needs change, our team can easily keep up with that. A light and efficient web service supporting thousands of devices at the same time helps Rhino in making even better use of its expertise and years of experience in helping customers.
Thanks to the functionality of alarms operating 24 hours a day, each customer will find out within a few minutes that one of his meters exceeded the assumed values - e.g. one degree of difference in cold stores can cause huge losses.
Transparent reports allow you to compare results even from the entire year, so you can forecast costs for the future and better manage the budget.
We handle almost a million readings from several thousand meters daily. There may be many more of them in the future and we are prepared for it in terms of application performance.
CONCLUSION
Rhino is a model example of how we like to work at Antologic. You focus on business and what you do best, and we write the right software for it. In the end, everyone wins.
We handle almost a million readings from several thousand meters daily. There may be many more of them in the future.
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