×

Happy to Help!

This website doesn't store cookies. Enjoy the experience, without worrying about your data!

Great, thanks!

Monthly Archives: October 2017

  • October 24, 2017
  • 0

Magento 2 Website Development Project for Welspun Hospitality Solutions, USA

Tags :

Category : B2B & Sports , Digital Commerce

 

Customer

Welspun is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of bed and bath linen, and the hospitality sector in the USA constitutes a significant portion of its client base.

Welspun USA aspired to widen its reach to include clients from the hospitality sector who sought to purchase linen online.

 

Business challenge

  • To develop an ecommerce website on Magento 2.x Community Edition and facilitate easy purchase of bed and bath linen in small as well as bulk quantities for the hospitality industry.
  • This ecommerce website was required to showcase several pages for its many categories with rich content, yet needed to be user-friendly.

 

Embitel solution

WElspun personalization
Product display page
Welspun shop the look
Several pages within each category

 

  • Development of a Magento 2.x Community Edition website from scratch with user-friendly layout and navigation
  • Writing of quality code to build a robust website that supports the large quantity of required pages and content showcasing products for the various customer profiles and needs (e.g. hotels, healthcare, salons, service apartments, etc.)
  • Integration with SAP ERP
  • Real-time inventory check at the time of order placement to avoid out-of-stock issues during online shopping
  • Integration with Taxcloud software to get relevant tax information for each order
  • Simplified checkout flow

 

Embitel impact

  • A comprehensive ecommerce website has allowed the brand to become accessible to mid-size and small organizations with a requirement for linen
  • The robust development has enabled the client to have a glitch-free website with a large number of pages and vast content

 

  • October 24, 2017
  • 0

Magento 2 Website Migration Project for Spaces[dot]in, a Brand from Home Textiles Leader Welspun India

Tags :

Category : Digital Commerce , Fashion & Accessories

 

Customer

Welspun India is one of the largest global home textile companies, and is a trusted brand in India. Over the decades Welspun has established its business presence across 34 countries as an exporter and supplier of bed and bath linen.

Welspun also holds renowned and respected bed and bath linen brands under its ambit such as Christy’s, Spaces, Welhome and Kingsley Home.

Welspun’s willingness to innovate and embrace new technologies has helped it maintain its position as a leader in this category.

Keeping in line with this philosophy, Welspun India sought to upgrade their online retail website in India to a platform with better performance and efficiency. They also wanted to deliver an enjoyable shopping experience to customers along with their unique customer-centric offerings of personalization.

 

Business challenge

  • To migrate website from Magento Community Edition 1.x to Magento Community Edition 2.x
  • Integration of brand-specific website design to maintain brand identity while delivering a modern look and feel
  • Custom development of features for customer delight—personalization of products, ‘Shop the look’ feature

 

Embitel solution

  • End-to-end support for website migration to Magento 2.x Community Edition
  • Extension of Magento and plugins to match customer requirement as per Magento 2.x standards and to deliver a bug-free website
  • Creation of a pixel-perfect website design to match the brand image and deliver a premium UX
  • Part of the creation of premium website design included having a configurable product image to showcase the selected product variant all through the checkout process
  • Integration of personalization plugin to allow customers to purchase personalized products online
  • Enhancement of the personalization plugin in order to meet customer requirements, such as:
    • display the cost of personalization
    • factor in discounts on products to be personalized
    • switch product image to reflect personalization through the checkout process
  • Development of ‘Shop the look’ feature—a feature that displays a set of products in a model setting, and allows customers to recreate the same look in their homes by purchasing the exact products
  • Real-time inventory check during order placement
  • Integration with SAP ERP
  • Integration with Fedex and Delhivery shipping partners to facilitate shipping & tracking

 

WElspun personalization
Personalization of products
Welspun shop the look
Shop the Look feature on the Spaces website

Embitel impact

  • End-to-end website development to suit the client’s requirements of a polished website with speedy time to market
  • Seamless integration with SAP ERP for easy back- and front-end operations
  • A convenient and smooth shopping experience for customers with various shopping options such as personalization and ‘Shop the look’

 

  • October 24, 2017
  • 0

What is an IoT Gateway Device and Why is it so Important for the Success of IoT Projects?

Tags :

Category : Embedded Blog

IHS forecast suggests that the growth in number of IoT devices will be exponential, with an installed base of 15.4 billion devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025.

Now to support such network(s) of IoT devices that are expected to become more complex, IoT Gateway is one of the most critical components of the entire Internet of Things (IoT) network.

In this blog post, we will discuss why IoT Gateway device is that important, but first-up let’s understand what is an IoT Gateway!
 
What is IoT Gatway
Image Source: Intel

What is an IoT Gateway Device?

IoT Gateway, as a hardware device or a virtual software code, acts as a communication bridge between IoT Sensor Network and Cloud Server.

IoT gateway device has a layered architecture. Following are some of the important software and hardware layers to help you get better understanding regarding the IoT Gateway Development process:

1.) Hardware Platform: This defines the processing power & memory specifications of the IoT Gateway. This is the gateway powerhouse and a hardware platform is selected based on the complexity of IoT application(s) that need to be deployed

2) Operating System: The decision of opting for a particular OS depends on the legacy systems. It is a best practice to continue to use the OS compatible with the existing systems in order to save costs and hassle-free integration

3.) Analytics Engine: This layer ensures raw data is converted to actionable insights

4.) Integrated Application development platform and Device Drivers: This layer supports development and/or  addition of new devices, applications or systems to the IoT network

Why IoT Gateway is important?

The importance of an IoT Gateway device can be gauged by the number of critical tasks/actions that are performed by this device.

Here is just a glimpse of some of the important tasks:

  • Facilitate compatibility across the IoT network. IoT Gateway ensures this by supporting a number of communication protocols like Zigbee, 6lowpan, Bluetooth, WiFi, LoRA, Zwave
  • All the devices that need to be monitored or controlled have relevant sensors installed on them (temperature, humidity, proximity or other sensors).


    These sensors are IP based; IoT Gateway manages the connectivity of these sensors (and in turn real world physical devices) to the cloud server.

    • To be precise, IoT Gateway makes the devices available online through sensors and cloud

  • In additional to bringing the IoT network to life, IoT Gateway also performs many operational tasks – manage device configuration, perform device authentication for secure network access and support edge-analytics

Evolution of IoT Gateway and Edge Analytics

1st Generation IoT Gateway:
These IoT Gateway devices were designed to facilitate communication protocol compatibility and device management functions. However, they did not support data analytics at the ‘edge’. With 1st generation IoT Gateway, all the analytics is performed at the cloud server.

2nd Generation IoT Gateway:
This product line of “smart” IoT gateways support ‘edge analytics’ , hence ensuring reduction in data transfer costs and extension of  the benefits of data analytics at local networks

3rd Generation (Current):
This new generation of IoT gateway devices improves the overall system responsiveness and also supports new operating models. Since IoT gateway devices continuously receive huge amount of data from the sensors, at times it may overload the main system. To avoid this the new generation IoT gateway analyzes the data received from various sensors and prioritizes and passes critical information to the main system and send alerts if required.

The new generation IoT gateways are intelligent and capable of filtering out the high priority information from the data received. They are also capable of taking action on the data received. For example, if the gateway senses that the temperature is too high, the gateway can send instructions to turn on the air conditioner.

In our next blog post we will discuss about “How an IoT gateway works”. Subscribe to our blog to get alerts about happenings around IoT.

Learn more about our IoT development Services for home automation and Industrial Automation.

  • October 13, 2017
  • 0

Partnering With an Indian IT Services Company: Insights from a German Business Manager

Tags :

Category : ecommerce-insights


Businesses in Germany are often on the lookout for software development partners who can accompany them on the journey to success.  In this endeavor, they expect the famous German-standard high-quality development and project management from the IT services company.

Such IT services companies are plenty in India, and the hurdles of time and distance are easily overcome with seamless connectivity between the two countries.

But how can German businesses ascertain which partner will be able to provide the kind solid and dependable collaboration they seek?
 
Ulrich_ii

Ulrich Schmauz, the business head for the European region at embitel GmbH, has 16 years of experience in facilitating successful collaborations between top German brands and Indian software development companies.

In this post, Ulrich shares dos and don’ts to help select a technology partner for your ecommerce website implementation or automotive technology development for a successful collaboration.

 
 

  1. Expertise in cutting-edge technology: Contemporary for German consumers


    2. German technology is known for its precision and robustness. German companies seek adequately experienced development teams to work on innovative products based on cutting-edge technologies in areas of automotive, IoT and ecommerce.

    In India, talent is widely available but it is vital to ensure your partner can meet your high quality standards.

    Choose to work with IT vendors who have well-defined and robust project management best practices in place and R&D is part of their organization’s DNA.
     

  2. International experience


    3. Working style, culture and ethic varies with geography. Due to such differences, where there is no right or wrong, it is helpful to partner with a technology development company with prior international experience.

    Start with the CEO of the organization when checking for experience in working abroad. Then work your way towards those who will be responsible for delivery of your project, and then to those who will actually be working on it.

    While it may not be possible to vet individual profiles, or even find too many developers with international work experience, at the very least those in a leadership role should have had the experience of working out of their home country and understand the nuances of working with an international audience.
     

  3. Compatibility with the account manager


    4. As a client, most of your interaction with your technology development partner will be with your account manager and the nature of your relationship with her/him will have a direct impact on the outcome of your project.

    In my experience, I have often come across managers who, when asked for the outcome of past projects, are afraid to reveal that they have struggles or failures.

    An honest relationship is beneficial not only for your business, but for the technology vendor too as it means a less stressful project experience.

    When you are evaluating a technology vendor for a project, asking the vendor about the past success and failure rate is a good way to measure honesty. Zero failure is highly unlikely and such claims usually warrant further investigation.
     

  4. References & case studies


    5. All IT services companies will promise immense capability and exemplary execution. There is only one sure way of ascertaining how likely the technology vendor is to fulfill your requirements successfully—case studies showcasing past experience.

    Consider these carefully to not only assess capability in development and implementation, but also to understand how the team responds to challenges.

    If the vendor passes this test, you may go a step further, if possible, and seek verification from other reference contacts/companies too.
     

  5. Sufficient proactiveness


    6. A good IT vendor will take the pains to understand the client’s requirements, the context and then work towards delivering a solution accordingly.

    This means not just working as per the client’s request, but also applying oneself to explore and suggest better solutions or alternatives.

    This is a fine line to balance as it is necessary to fulfil the client’s need while adhering to timeline and budget, and yet recognize when there may be a better way of achieving the same goal. It is easy to cross the line and turn too pushy in an effort to demonstrate this proactiveness.

    A good and experienced vendor will make the client’s requirements priority and understand when to toe the line and when to push it.

 
Besides these, keep the basic parameters such as budgetary requirements, certifications and qualifications in mind.

Once you choose the right partner, the benefits of collaborating with an Indian IT services company are many and you are likely to have a fruitful and long-standing relationship.

About Embitel Technologies: Embitel has presence in India, Germany, the USA, UK and UAE. Embitel has partnered with tier-1 suppliers to work on various technologies such as CAN FD software stack integration and flash bootloader development
 

  • October 11, 2017
  • 0

6 IoT Gateway Development Best Practices for Your Industrial Automation Project

Tags :

Category : Embedded Blog

Whether it is a large-scale enterprise class Industrial Automation project or a less complex Home Automation application, IoT Gateway device is the backbone of all IoT implementations.

Why, you ask? Here is just a glimpse of certain tasks that are meticulously performed by an IoT Gateway:

  • Make the IoT devices and sensors (part of the network) available online by connecting them to the Cloud Server
  • Ensure compatibility across the IoT network devices by supporting multitude of connectivity protocols like Zigbee, 6lowpan, Bluetooth, WiFi, LoRA, Zwave
  • Manage device configuration, perform device authentication for secure network access and support edge-analytics
  • Send/receive data and commands from the cloud server

And since IoT Gateway (software and hardware development) is such a crucial aspect of an enterprise-grade IoT implementation project, we decided to learn from our IoT software developers about the best practices.

industrial iot gateway
Image Source: Intel

 
Following are some of the IoT Gateway development insights we are sharing with an IoT enthusiast like you!

  1. IoT Gateway Clustering : the art of continuity

    2. IoT Gateway Clustering is a technique (best practice) to minimize IoT network downtime and improve the operational continuity of the system. Clustering in an IoT project also ensures that the information received from IoT devices and/or legacy nodes is transmitted to the cloud server without any data loss.

    The loss of data can occur due to load issues, faults in IoT Gateway device or connectivity issues.  To mitigate this, in IoT gateway clustering, multiple Gateway devices are interconnected with each other. This means that between a source node (IoT sensor) and destination node (cloud server), best practice is to install cluster of IoT Gateway devices

    This mesh network of IoT Gateway devices fetches data from your legacy IT systems and/or IoT sensor devices.  If certain Gateway node goes down, the redundancy of this mesh network topology ensures reliability and the continuity communication with cloud for commands and storage of data.

    When a failure occurs, an IoT gateway transfers applications and device connections to the geographic neighbor Gateway, which supports the desired connectivity protocol

  2. Leverage Horizontal and Vertical Scaling for a fool-proof IoT network ramp-up

    3. Design an IoT Framework that supports future scalability of the enterprise IoT solution.  Following two methods are popularly used to add additional IoT Gateway devices to support redundancy or scalability

    Horizontal scaling: In this method a gateway can be easily added to the existing network by connecting it with the common communication bus. In this case no major modification or network overhauling is required.

    Vertical Scaling: This method comes into play when some functional changes are required to be implemented. Functional change may vary from the software upgrade, need for change in hardware, memory increment or device or OS configurations or updates .

    In order to ensure that your IoT Gateway solution supports vertical scaling, best practice is to design a micro-service application based architecture

  3. Load-Life Balance for IoT Gateway

    4. Excess data load is one of the major causes of IoT Gateway failure and lower life span (figuratively). Hence to mitigate this, best practice is to implement load balancing techniques. Your IoT development team or IoT vendor should design a cluster manager, to manage the data distribution in your network.

    Cluster Manager  is used to define the threshold occupancy of each gateway in the IoT Network. When the load on an IoT gateway device goes beyond the defined threshold, cluster manager transfers the excess load to a nearby gateway.

    By implementing the Cluster Manager, the data is distributed to different gateways in the cluster for faster response and balanced load distribution.

  4. Secure IoT gateway to keep the IoT Hackers away!

    5. An IoT network or a gateway can be attacked in various ways such as physical attack, network attack, software attack.

    Your IoT security team should be ready and have the right tools to protect your network from all the above mentioned attacks.  Each device used in a network should be authorized and the platform should have edge gateways, associated keys and expiration time to authenticate each device.

    Also, the hardware security can be achieved in an IoT Gateway Solution by the introduction or adoption of TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and TEE (Trusted Execution Environment).

  5. Configuration & Power Management

    6. IoT Gateway should be easy to configure and deploy. Most IoT applications require remote access of the IoT Gateway. Hence, your IoT Gateway design should support remote configuration and management. Also IoT Gateway design should have low power footprints

  6. System Recovery and crash handling

    7. IoT developers should pay special attention to system recovery and crash handling functionality. IoT gateways should have a proper recovery functionality and should document all the crash reasons.

Hope you found this blog post useful. You can get in touch with expert IoT development team to understand how IoT can help resolve your business pain-points.

Learn more about our IoT Gateway Device development Services for home automation and Industrial Automation.

Archives

Contact Us

© 2018 Embitel. All Rights Reserved