Credit: Shutterstock photoIn just the last 20 years, the software development industry has grown from neonatal to full-fledged adult. But that doesn’t mean innovation has slowed down. In fact, the software industry has continued to serve as the launching pad for innovation in most, if not all, of the today’s biggest industries.
One of the companies leading that innovation is Intellectsoft, which has taken a modular approach to software development.
“Not everyone’s going to be able to go the Elon Musk route,” says Intellectsoft VP of Sales, Shawn Sieck.
Sieck, who spoke with Benzinga about how the company has used its experience as a custom software, mobile and enterprise application company to achieve technology innovation that has caught the attention of at least one Fortune 100 corporation.
Benzinga: Can you talk about how Intellectsoft evolved from Web development to what it is today?
Shawn Sieck: We saw the industry take a quick and fast change in 2008 and wanted to ride that momentum of where applications started going. In 2013-14 we saw another migration in which apps were rolled into customer engagement. Many of the really fun projects we’re working on today takes the complete web mobile backend content experience.
We’re all about developing solutions, whether for consumer facing or enterprise facing products that incorporate many of these aspects.
One big area for Intellectsoft is mass transit. What innovations have you achieved in that space?
One of our clients, Eurostar, runs mass transit systems in the UK and EU. We have created a half dozen independent projects for them. These were designed to help modernize their customer engagement and user satisfaction as well as the employee interface.
This includes everything from seat assignment, ticket sales, even identifying customers with special needs so staff can assist them. By using geolocation, beacon and Wi-Fi enablement, we’re able to take advantage of today’s technology to improve the experience for both the customer and employees.
What has Intellectsoft done outside of Europe?
For the U.S. market there have been a couple of projects tied directly to the transportation logistics space.
For example, we have done a lot of work in e-commerce. Our goal has been to be able to take advantage of how to do geolocation and tracking to track customer movement and put it into transportation logistics to improve that experience.
We have another one that is in the transportation side where we are working on an opportunity to use crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing? How would that work?
When, for example, you have a long line at an airport. Our technology would allow the airport to recognize when there are density and crowd control issues and have to open up additional gates.
The same technology could be expanded to taxi density when you are waiting at the airport. By utilizing predictive mode, we could control the number of taxis available based on arriving flights and other information.
What work have you done with Jaguar and Land Rover?
Jaguar and Land Rover had a communication challenge. They had 16 offices in 16 countries where board members needed to be able to communicate in 16 different languages.
For that we created a user-friendly UI to allow speech to text in all of those different languages. We didn’t create the translation technology, but rather the UI that allowed everything to work together on a consistent basis.
What can you tell us about the project you’re working on for a Fortune 100 company?
First, I can’t mention the company by name but it’s a project involving car connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low energy. This project involves a "smart" restraining system including an accelerometer, barometer and temperature and smoke sensors.
You can tell, from this system, when the car stops suddenly, when it’s in motion or when there are other issues or problems. This would be helpful for external monitoring and also as a way to build applications and solutions that would allow for multiple uses in the car or even in the trucking industry.
How far along is this technology?
It’s currently pre public release but it is also something that is extremely powerful and diverse in terms of possible future application.
Since the automotive industry has made it clear it will not allow big data companies to have access to electronics and computing systems for fear that it would open up the gates for too much influence and adjustment, they are manufacturing a product that is theirs that they have to take great pride in and concern over.
What other areas are in development that you can talk about?
I can think of two that really apply to the space. One we’re working on is a major tracking and logistics component for a company that does a tremendous number of trade shows. They came to us and said, “We need to reinvent the way we move items, containers, trucks, pallets and boxes.”
Their existing tracking system was very old school. We said, “Let’s take advantage of today’s technology using RFID, beacons and Wi-Fi enablement.
By putting sensors on specific case containers the company can tell when it goes onto and off the ship truck. They can tell where it is located in a particular building. It’s a big tracking component that has really driven down the cost of the iBeacon component, which makes it really feasible to build track.net.
Another one that is exciting is a medevac system. Our application allows a helicopter or airplane, law-enforcement agencies, emergency responders and hospitals to all have a harmonious interface. When someone is stuck on a snowy road and deploys the system from their smartphone, all elements know when the patient is going to be picked up and how long until it’s actually going to be at the particular hospital treatment center.
You’ve mentioned a modular component to all this. What do you mean exactly?
From our chair we see a lot of the changes that need to be made. You’re going to have to do retrofitting. Not everyone’s going to be able to go the Elon Musk route and have that type of capital to invest.
Because of this, we see a lot of it being modular. Like being able to replace certain computing components of cars and transportation systems. Constantly updating through software pushes. That’s one of the biggest challenges.
A product that an automotive manufacturer works on today probably won’t be released for 4 to 6 years. This is where the modular components are going to be able to go and we’re seeing a lot of that going over into mobile devices. One thing that stays with a person forever is their smartphone.
Being able to have that connectivity, cars talking to each other back and forth. We really see that there’s going to be a modular component that will serve as a constant bridge between technologies. We think we will be busy.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
