Taking a Legacy Application to the Clouds

Situation
An energy services company developed a proprietary energy benchmarking application to better help its clients track their utility costs and fuel consumption. The application was built on the Microsoft Access platform for use on a single desktop computer. For many years, this desktop solution was sufficient for the company’s own energy benchmarking needs and for use by small-to medium-sized customers.

While the software boasted features far more sophisticated than its competitors, its desktop-only configuration was becoming a liability. Larger organizations with numerous sites and multi-layered operational structures required a web-based, hosted solution for multi-user 24/7 access.

The company’s CEO engaged Glenn Butler and CTO Services to evaluate the options for migrating his software to the web while maintaining as much of the data model and business rules as possible from the legacy application.

Solution
Glenn first met with the developer and designer of the legacy software application to understand the design, tools used, and layout of the software. He then evaluated multiple options available for translating a desktop application to a hosted solution. The evaluation criteria were:

  • Most cost effective option to moving it to a web platform.
  • Leverage the existing code.
  • Provide a low maintenance cloud hosted solution that the company could afford.
  • Assure that the solution could scale from 100 to 10K, to 100K+ users over time.

Matching the client’s needs with the available technology, Glenn offered both a Microsoft based solution and an open source solution with detailed cost for development and hosting. After consideration, the client selected the following open source components for bringing the legacy application to the Web:

PythonAmason Web ServicesDjango

Results
Glenn Butler presented his recommended technology solution to the client, with multiple cost models and implementation strategies. The Energy Services company has agreed to implement CTO Services’ solution and is arranging for funding to finance the software redevelopment process.

Mobile-To-Mobile Breakthrough for Vending

Situation
Crane Merchandising Systems (CMS) is the vending industry's undisputed leader in automatic merchandising equipment and technology. CMS has pioneered the most advanced vending machines and, through its acquisition of Streamware Corporation, owns the leading vending software solution.

In recent years, CMS needed to reinforce its technology leadership. Customers were clamoring for "cashless" machines that would accept credit/debit cards and vend operators wanted "smart" machines whose inventory could be tracked real time via telemetry. As the industry took its first tentative steps into Mobile-To-Mobile (M2M) solutions, CMS was determined to maintain its technology edge.

Glenn Butler, then CMS's Chief Technology Officer, led the M2M development initiative, designing an end-to-end remote monitoring solution integrating Crane's vending machines, route optimizing software, and cashless transactions. Glenn was also responsible for product commercializing, pricing, financial modeling, and negotiating with each cellular carrier to determine appropriate plans.

Solution
Glenn and his team designed an innovative, cost-effective M2M solution including:

  • Cellular or ethernet options. A single wide-area connection can be made using a cellular or Ethernet gateway, which can be installed in the machine or in a Telco closet.
  • ZigBee mesh radio technology, which allows a bank of machines to wirelessly share the same cellular or wireless land connection. The ZigBee solution optimizes communication and conserves bandwidth, making it less costly and more reliable than other standards.
  • Embedded Linux, a great, expandable platform for telemetry. In the future, Linux will be the platform for vending machine controllers.
  • No black box: Unlike other remote solutions, CMS's design was designed as a modular retrofit solution that could also be fully leveraged in future vending machine controllers.

Results
Crane's remote monitoring solution benefited all parties in the vending value chain:

  • Vending operators gained 24/7 real-time access to their machines' sales data, inventory, machine health, cash, and a host of web-based reports
  • Operators' customers (schools, businesses, airports etc.) benefited from reduced machine downtime, fresh and replenished inventory, more traffic, and more sales via credit/debit cards
  • Vending machine customers found the product they wanted in the machine exactly when they wanted it and could pay for their snack in the way best suited for them: coin, dollars, debit/credit.