Further Digital Solutions

Prior to contacting us, P&G was using printed spreadsheets to track over 7000 fixed assets at their Gyöngyös facility. Fixed assets managers downloaded the list of assets from SAP, performed then inventory process and finally reuploaded all the information to SAP.

Closely collaborating with their fixed assets team, we developed a mobile application which considerably reduced the time needed for inventorying, by 67%, to a single year.

🔥  Key problems and solutions

Connecting with 3rd party software

PROBLEM

P&G already had multiple software in place, such as SAP or a Microsoft Azure. We had to make sure we connect seamlessly to this environment.

SOLUTION

We have worked with Microsoft Azure before in the past, so we had that knowledge in place already, we just needed to work together with the P&G IT department to set up the connection. As for SAP we studied the official API documentation and consulted with the P&G team to ensure the process is fully automated.

Determining precise asset location

PROBLEM

For each object, we had to be able to determine their correct location. GPS works great for larger areas, but was not precise enough for smaller rooms.

SOLUTION Initially we launched the application with GPS-only location determination. We found that it worked better than expected, determining object location with a 90% accuracy. For smaller spaces, we tapped into beacon technology. The application was set up to be able to read location from small IoT devices called beacons, strategically placed in the correct rooms. With this solution we could achieve 100% accuracy.

DAI-TECH was founded in 2010 around the common purpose of doing something different and better than what the market had to offer. Under the nJoy brand, they develop consumer oriented IT products meant to be sold as standalone items on the shelves of retail chains. Currently, nJoy is present in 10 countries in Central Europe and the Balkans.

They employed us to deliver an ERP system, called The Hive, created from the ground up to fit their particular needs.

🔥  How we addressed nJoy's main business needs

We worked together with the nJoy management, IT and design teams to understand their workflow and translate this business logic into an easy to use and scalable system. This system would act as a collaboration hub between nJoy, it's suppliers, service centers and distributors.

Product management was unreliable

PROBLEM

Before The Hive was built, nJoy relied on multiple software and spreadsheets to manage their products. This process was unnecessarily time-consuming and error-prone.

SOLUTION

We created a tailor-made product lifecycle management tool, which allows nJoy to manage the most important steps in the lifespan of their products, from development and manufacturing, to distribution and logistics.

Automatic control points, approval mechanisms and clear overviews regarding progress and responsibilities make tracking the status of a product a breeze.

Communication with suppliers involved multiple channels

PROBLEM

Prior to the development of The Hive, all communication with the suppliers was done by email or communication tools like Skype. This soon led to the creation of data silos and a lot of valuable information and feedback was lost.

SOLUTION

Our solution was to integrate supplier communications into the software. Now, suppliers can actively collaborate, access information or comment on products. Since everything is structured in a single software, no more information is ever lost!

Before developing this application for OVSZ, donation centers had to submit lab results to the central database on paper.

OVSZ stored all these results, but never provided a standard protocol for it to be accessed, so donation centers had no knowledge if a donor has already been marked as ineligible to give blood by another donation center.

🔥  Key problems and solutions

There was no standard way to access donor information

PROBLEM

Donation centers had no way to check if a donor has been previously marked as ineligible to give blood.

SOLUTION

Working together with the database architects at OVSZ, we defined a contract which describes the way information is transmitted and processed.

We implemented a data transport method which automatically submits donor information to the central database, whenever a donation center uploads lab result to the application.

Uploading donor information was tedious and unreliable

PROBLEM

Donation centers previously had to submit lab results by paper, which was then manually centralised. This process was both tiresome and error-prone because of the human factor.

SOLUTION

Defining the standard protocol of how a submission should look like, allowed us to automatically update donor information whenever a donation center finished the lab results.

Steiger is a family business at its core, being involved in steel structure production, industrial construction and machining since 1994. In 2015 they hired us to develop a system that would automate their workflows and improve the reliability of their processes.

🔥 How we identified and resolved the problems

We had on-site interviews and discussions with Steiger's technical manager and some of the production workers to find out more about the process and about how each employee contributes to the end-result. During our discussions 3 main problems surfaced. This helped us focus on the features that mattered the most.

Creating offers was time-consuming and error-prone

PROBLEM

Offers were put together manually with the help of multiple Excel spreadsheets, which contained over 50 criteria and complex computations.

SOLUTION

In the end, we managed to come up with a solution that eliminated unnecessary variables and data duplication while correctly estimating labour costs and material needs based on available workload and stock levels.

Stock levels were unavailable

PROBLEM

We observed that there was no system to track leftover materials and most of it was eventually scrapped. This was a huge source of waste, which required and urgent solution.

SOLUTION

We set up a supply chain and inventory system which allows Steiger to qualify and review suppliers, make purchases, and keep track of their current stock levels.

Manufacturing times were not measured

PROBLEM

We found out that workers were not actively clocking time. Because they were wearing industry-grade protective gloves, working with the tablet PCs installed to track time was cumbersome. So they stopped using them, and management started missing out on essential production data.

SOLUTION

We developed a QR code based system which allows workers to quickly track the manufacturing stage a product is in and the materials they're using. Daily timesheets are automatically generated.

Harborsz's main field of activity is the organisation of freight transfers by ferry, bridges or tunnels. Prior to developing the current system, the daily activities required switching between multiple applications and emails.

As a result of this new integrated business management software, Harborsz were able to fully automate their processes, reduce human error and oversee all aspects of their operation.

🔥 Key problems and solutions

Booking tolls and ferry tickets was a manual process

PROBLEM

Every time a shipment required crossing a toll road or transport by ferry, bookings had to be made manually, either by accessing a 3rd party system or by email.

SOLUTION

After several preliminary meetings with the providers, we successfully integrated all the 3rd party systems through APIs, allowing for the automatic booking of toll and tickets by simply selecting the route.

Customers had to directly contact Harborsz for booking

PROBLEM

Previously, if customers wished to make a booking, they had to access the Harborsz website and make a booking request there. This didn't allow them to automate their own processes.

SOLUTION

Collecting feedback from the customers, the demand for an automatable booking process quickly became apparent. By further interviewing them, we gathered a lot of valuable input on what their use cases are, and developed an API to our system that would handle all their business needs.

💡  key takeaway

3RD PARTY INTEGRATIONS CAN BE HARD

Each of the 3rd party suppliers had different gateway mechanisms to access their data. Some had well documented APIs, some had only FTP access to a repository. Some were SOAP-based APIs, some were REST.

One of our biggest challenges was developing an interface that would be flexible enough to communicate with all the different gateways and also be extensible, so that new APIs and connections could be added in later.

Centralized.me is the world's first automated digital manager for emerging musicians and managers, providing them with guidance, control over their careers and connection to the music industry… so they can spend more time creating!

Centralized.me provides video content, guides, workflow checklists, email and agreement templates and budgets to help artists navigate their way through the music industry.

🔥 Key challenges:

The platform had to be scalable

PROBLEM

Being a start-up project we were hoping lots of people to start using the platform at some point in time. And based on the marketing plan, we were expecting them to start using it in huge waves.

SOLUTION

Before writing even a single line of code, we had to take extra care in choosing the right software architecture. After careful planning we chose a system and a cloud-provider which will allow us to quickly scale up to hundreds of thousands of users. We needed to gather insights

PROBLEM

A lot of effort went into improving the second release, based on the customer feedback we got regarding the MVP. We realised we need to put in place the necessary tools to gather even more relevant analytics.

SOLUTION

Apart from the usual suspects like Google Analytics and Hotjar, we also worked closely together with the marketing team to set up a whole suite of tracking codes, A/B tests and feedback tools which help us continuously improve the product with relevant features.

💡 The key takeaway

START-UP PROJECTS AND CORPORATE PROJECT ARE VERY DIFFERENT

Although we have worked on start-up projects before and after centralized.me, few have been as fast paced. Compared to our usual corporate projects, where many decisions are slow and often fall victim to bureaucracy, this project required a completely different mindset.

We had to adjust some of our project management workflows to allow for the flexibility and quick decision making demanded by a start-up project.