Synap IoT has, via Dynamics 365 products, a solution that can store, analyze, and communicate IoT data from IoT devices to their customers.
Podcast
MicroPartner has, in collaboration with Arrow, made a podcast about Synap IoT, an exciting company that works with IoT devices.
Synap IoT uses IoT devices to monitor refrigeration units in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Through various Microsoft products, Synap IoT now has an end-to-end solution that allows them to store, analyze, and communicate data to their customers visually.
Read the case story further down or listen to the podcast here:
Facts
About Arrow
Arrow is a company with 20,100 employees worldwide. Arrow provides IT solutions to a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, information systems, transportation, medicine, industrial, and consumer electronics.
Arrow provides specialized services and expertise for the entire product life cycle. Arrow connects customers with the right technology, at the right time and at the right price.
Arrow provides exceptional value to customers and suppliers – the best technology companies in the world – and connects them with industry-leading services.
Briefly about the solution
Synap IoT uses the Azure Iot suite as the cornerstone of the IoT part, while the operational part is Dynamics 365 Connected Field Service.
Power Apps Portal from the Power Platform is used to communicate with the end user.
The solution also involves Sharepoint, where the temperature reports are stored. In addition, Synap IoT uses Business Central to invoice customers.
What is IoT?
IoT stands for ‘The Internet of Things’. IoT is a network of physical devices with sensors, software, and other technologies that aim at connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.
Customer profile
About Synap IoT
Synap IoT uses IoT devices to monitor refrigeration units in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Synap IoT delivers data from their IoT devices and third-party sensors directly to customers via an intuitive platform, stable infrastructure, and an intuitive dashboard. Synap IoT also develops IoT equipment ‘a-la-carte’ and can provide data, hardware, and infrastructure per request.
Synap IoT was founded by Peter Jordan.
Read more about Synap IoT here: https://www.synapiot.com/
What does Synap IoT do?
‘Synap IoT works with IoT devices that can be connected via customers’ wireless networks, cable networks, or Narrowband IoT (4G networks), which means that our devices can work anywhere in the world.
Our devices monitor cooling modules in the rooms where, for example, food or medical samples are stored. We ensure that things are stored properly, and that we are alerted if the temperature starts to rise or fall too much. Temperature fluctuations can jeopardize food safety, destroy tissue samples, and research results.
Synap IoT offers an end-to-end solution, i.e., a complete solution for our customers. Synap IoT makes the physical IoT device, that we connect to the Microsoft environment.
Microsoft is what we call ‘the Lego brick box’ and has all the bricks we needed to build the solution, in collaboration with MicroPartner. The Azure IoT suite is the cornerstone of the IoT part, while the operational part is Dynamics 365 Connected Field Service. We also use a Power Apps Portal to communicate with the end user.‘
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
What do Synap IoT devices measure?
Synap IoT’s devices measure three different things:
How do your IoT devices work?
‘Our IoT device can be connected to the network in many ways. When you turn on the device at the customer’s, it automatically connects to the Internet via the protocol or connection option available.
It then starts to deliver data to the Microsoft IoT hub, which is located in Azure. Then, we start analyzing data, and inform our customers if their system is running as it should or should not.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Predictive Maintenance
‘One of the things we use data collected from our IoT device for is Predictive Maintenance. We monitor refrigeration systems and give notice before a refrigeration system breaks down to secure the food or secure research data.
To perform Predictive Maintenance, we measure on several parameters:
Predictive Maintenance – Notice before the cooling system breaks down
We can send a message, for example, to the customer’s service provider or technician, and give them a message approx. 14 days before the cooling system breaks down.
Let us use an example of a refrigerated counter with meat in a supermarket. Instead of showing up in the morning and discover that your counter has broken during the night, and your food is spoiled and needs to be thrown away, you will be notified about it up front. That way, you can call in a repairman, who can repair the refrigerated counter before it breaks.
Avoid losing research
In the pharmaceutical industry, Predictive Maintenance is even more important. The content of a cryogenic freezer is worth a lot of money, but it may also be years of research that are lost, if a freezer breaks down and you do not discover it in time.
There are several different ways to perform Predictive Maintenance. The important thing is to find out what to measure, what to predict, and what kind of information the customer wants.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
A need to visualize data
‘We can deliver data in Azure, where we can also store and analyze it. Our problem arose when we had to create a platform that our customers could log on to and view data. We are back-end developers, we are not front-end developers, so we researched several different IoT platforms on the web. All those you could purchase with a subscription, had data stored in proprietary systems.
Our goal is that data is available, so that we can take data in an open format and pour it into ERP systems, CRM systems, production systems, monitoring systems etc. As a result, data must be in Azure, as I see it.
Microsoft background
I have worked at Microsoft and, as such, I thought: There must be something at Microsoft that we can pull off the shelf and use to show our data.
There must be some Lego bricks, that I can use.
I know they have spent many billions of dollars to make it easier to use IoT solutions.
The collaboration with MicroPartner
I called Microsoft and said I needed to talk to someone, who might have some building blocks, that I can use to present a data.
Subsequently, various partners contacted me, including MicroPartner. I asked Matthijn (Sales Director at MicroPartner) if there was a solution in Microsoft’s Lego block box, where we could take data and visualize it to our customers. Making data visible is one of the big problems with IoT.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Connected Field Service and Power App Portals
Matthijn suggested Dynamics 365 Connected Field Service, which lets us control each device and connect them to a customer (a customer may have multiple devices).
In addition, he suggested Power Apps Portals, where customers can log in and see the devices, they have connected in Dynamics 365 Connected Field Service.
Via Power Apps Portals, the customers can send messages from the portal directly to their devices, they can adjust their own threshold values on alarms, etc. They can set alarms, if a device has been too hot or too cold, and they can see the graphs for data, that we pick up.
SharePoint and Business Central
Our solution also involves SharePoint, where we store the temperature report, which is filled out.
In addition, we use Business Central to invoice our customers. If a device breaks, we must be able to replace it with a new device. The new device has a different ID, but still needs to link historical data from the old devices to the new devices.
When working with Dynamics 365, it all comes together.
Prototype of 2 weeks
We made a solution in 2 weeks. We made a prototype where we could prove, that we could collect data, manage an IoT device from Connected Field Service, and display data on Customer Portals with the necessary security.
And then, we started to build the final solution.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Knowledge of license structure and building blocks
‘We have been working with Dynamics 365 since version 1, and many things are actually included in the solution, if you are familiar with the licensing structure. For example, if you take an Enterprise license, as long as you have one user, you get a portal included in the price.
Suddenly, it makes it a lot of fun to play with making a prototype, because it all plays out. If you then combine it with Business Central, Power BI, SharePoint documents, then you actually have all the building blocks that are needed to build a platform in a very short time.’
Matthijn Hoogenboom, Sales Director, MicroPartner
IoT on temperature monitoring
Automatic notifications to the customer
‘In Connected Field Service, we can set up our customers’ service department as a contact person.
If the system detects an alarm, a message is automatically sent to the customer.
The customer is informed that something is wrong with the device in question, which is listed here, the temperature is this, and it occurred here.’
Connected Field Service is a bit like a Swiss Army knife
Connected Field Service is both an ‘IoT handler’ and a place where you can control the service technicians. You can control what they should do, when they should do it, and in what order they should do it.
An app from Microsoft is included, which you can download to your phone. That way, you can send notifications to your service technicians on the go and tell them where to go next.
Connected Field Service also helps with route planning, so that the service technician drives as shortly as possible. Connected Field Service is a bit like a Swiss Army knife that you can use for many different things.
Self-service
Each customer has different alarm values, that they want to monitor. Instead of calling us every time they want to change a value, they can log on via the portal and determine the temperatures. This is where the genius part comes in, that data is stored in the same data base in Dynamics 365 and Power Apps Portals.
If the customers log on to Power Apps Portals and fix the alarm values on one device, we do not need to move data from one system to another. It works on the same data basis.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Same database
When we send an invoice to a customer, again, it is the same database, we look in to.
We have two databases in our system: data store where we keep all temperature monitoring, i.e., where all the values are collected.
In addition, we have a database where we keep everything about devices, customers, and system setup.
FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant
Knowing that we have our data in Dynamics 365 and can log everything our customers do, because they log in and are authorized, actually made the system FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant (a standard used in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure accountability and traceability).
It opened up a whole new world for us, because there are not many of those systems today.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Book a free demo
What is important when making IoT solutions?
‘If you are going to make IoT solutions today, the most important thing is that you make a solution that is a full solution to a problem. Many companies have created an IoT device, that can pick up data and deliver it elsewhere.
Our devices have many sensors, which provides many opportunities to use them. We have chosen to focus on the refrigeration industry, but our devices can be used for so much more.
My advice is, buy an ‘off the shelf IoT device’ that delivers on the various media, and get started with Azure and Dynamics 365, instead of inventing your own underlying system.
I know company that has spent 9 years and 900 people and then, after 9 years, switched to Azure!’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
The technology is evolving extremely fast
‘Synap IoT and MicroPartner have seen examples of companies, that have spent years building their own platform (instead of using Azure), which turns out to be just an online database.
The technology is evolving so extremely fast now, that companies cannot keep up. However, Microsoft can, and they spend huge numbers of resources on it.’
Matthijn Hoogenboom, Sales Director, MicroPartner
A lot of technique and different competence ranges
‘We can explain IoT solutions very simply, but there is an enormous amount of technology underneath to make it stable. In Synap IoT, we do not have 500 people employed, so we did everything we could, until we reached the point, where we had to call someone, who could help us with the rest.
IoT is a slightly special area, because there is an enormous amount of technology in it, and there are many different competence spans. You must be able to make a stable print, and you must know the firmware programming of a microprocessor.
Once you have solved the Gordian knot, you need to deliver it to an online provider. That provider should be global, unless you are making a solution, that will only work in a small geographic area. Subsequently, you need to be able to control your devices, even if you have many customers.
The idea with IoT devices is that we can sell billions of them, because they must solve a lot of problems. Finally, you also need to be able to show your customers the data you are collecting.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Security
‘We are lucky that we collect temperature data. Consequently, in principle, we could make our temperature data open and accessible. No one can find head or tail in where data is coming from. But because we have chosen to work with the Microsoft platform, we know we have security in place.
We also know that our data can be laid out as geo-redundant data for pharmaceutical companies. Because we are in an open platform in Azure, we can transfer our data, which we collect for customers, to customers’ own databases, if they wish.
We have chosen a solution where we can sell globally, because we are on the Azure platform. I can send a sensor off to New Jersey and measure the temperature of a warehouse over there, while I am sitting in Amsterdam and can see the results.
All because we are in a great global cloud.
Not limited by national borders
Before we started talking to MicroPartner, we looked at solutions from different US IoT platforms that collect data.
Here, we were limited by the fact that our data was physically located on a server in Michigan, which meant that if you wanted to see data in, for instance, Singapore, there was a long loading time. I was against that from the beginning.
My goal was that we should create a solution that solved a global problem, could be used globally, and was not limited by national borders.
Collaboration with Arrow
We want our product to be a European product and as such, our devices are produced in Germany. For the components, we have chosen to work with Arrow because they are so large in Europe.
Instead of trying to source components from several different suppliers, it was easier for us to go to a supplier, who can supply all the components for the print. For that, we have a German partner in Munich who specializes in making IoT devices.
They have established a collaboration with Arrow, so they are the ones we use to supply all the components.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Next step
‘Our next step is integrations to other systems from our Azure platform. I expect MicroPartner to solve this for us.
Temperature measurements in warehouses for raw materials and finished goods
If we have a customer who produces food, who has a raw material warehouse and a finished goods warehouse, they are interested in measuring if the goods in their raw material warehouse have been stored properly.
They are interested in measuring on LOT numbers in their warehouse, and when goods are finished in production and relocated to the finished goods warehouse.
We need to find a way in which, we can take the temperature measurement, we have registered for a period and staple it to the period during which the customer’s finished product has been in the warehouse.
Temperature compliant
Right now, we view this as being more complicated than making the device itself, as we somehow must tie items together in the customer’s ERP system, where they have their raw material inventory.
The customer knows when they have finished producing an item. They know when it leaves their warehouse with a carrier.
In a way, we must take the temperature measurements, that have been taken during that time and connect them, so that our customer can prove to their customers, that we have been compliant with temperature (storage) during the time it has been with us.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
From cow to refrigerator
‘Our goal in Synap IoT is to perform temperature measurements from cow to refrigerator. So that consumers know, that when they go down to the supermarket and buy a liter of milk, we also have a data certificate that the milk has been stored correctly, from the time the cow was milked, until I am standing with a milk carton in my hand.
We can monitor the supermarket and the trucks as our device runs Narrowband IoT, allowing it to deliver data, even when the trucks drive on the roads.
If we can also get the dairy to install temperature measurements, as well as the farmer, when he has received the milk directly from the cow, then we can present a report from cow to refrigerated counter.
Avoid sour milk with IoT
Currently, only one area is missing and that is the unloading ramp at the supermarket. When the truck arrives and places the goods on the loading ramp until it is brought into the fridge. This is also where our food is being spoiled.
If a pallet stands out on a loading ramp for two hours and the temperature in the milk starts to rise from the 6 degrees it should be at, the milk starts to rot.
This is the reason why, we have all tried going to the supermarket and buying a liter of milk, which according to the canton is durable for the next 6 days, but when we open it, it is bad.
That is because somewhere in the chain, that liter of milk we bought, has been stored at the wrong temperature.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
What is the next Lego block?
‘There are a huge number of things that we can solve with IoT. I came up with a solution in the first week I was in Corona-Lock Down and could not visit my customers in the north.
I created the same device with new firmware on it, which now can measure whether a train track set starts leaning to one side or the other over a long period of time.
IoT device can measure if train tracks start to tilt
Let us take a set of rails, which is perhaps 2 km long, and where the subsoil is a little soft, for example due to the groundwater being high, or that there is a motorway construction close by, which can destabilize the subsoil.
If the train tracks start to tilt, that the sleepers start to tilt to one side or the other, then the whole train trunk starts to tilt.
Predictive Maintenance for train tracks
Instead of having the train company DSB or Deutsche Bahn continuously measure over a year with a laser measurement whether the rails are straight, I can mount my device on the train shaft, for example at 100-meter intervals.
Then, I can measure if the threshold starts to move 0.1 mm. If it does, consistently over a long period of time, I can, via Connected Field Service, send a message to the company / customer that on this piece of rail, on this device, your rails have started to move.
Then they can go out and do, what they must do, to fix the rails.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
Same solution used in new ways
‘We can use the same solution in new ways. It is all set up now. The only thing that needs to change, is the way data is presented to the customer. In the case of a skewed train track, we must visually show it to the customer.
We cannot use the same graphical layout as the freezer layout, but our entire set up in Azure and in the Microsoft-environment is the same.
It is the same place from which we control our devices.’
Peter Jordan, Founder & CEO, Synap IoT
FIELD SERVICE
Business Central
Power Apps Portals
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