The Challenge

Our client, a machinery manufacturer with 50-200 employees, was struggling with a failed cloud platform built by previous contractors. Their Director of Technology had lost trust in the application that was supposed to enable remote management of 1000+ smart agricultural devices across the country.

Key pain points included:

Manual deployment processes taking weeks

Fragile .NET API causing constant issues

No visibility into code or deployment processes

Inability to pursue new business opportunities due to technical debt

Buggy application with no version control

Our Solution

We rebuilt their entire platform from the ground up, focusing on empowerment and scalability while establishing modern development practices.

1. Analytics Dashboard MVP

Started with a simple read-only analytics tool allowing office staff to view machine data and daily operations, rebuilding trust through incremental delivery.

2. Full-Stack Platform Rebuild

Transitioned from maintaining the problematic .NET API to building a complete Python/Django solution, enabling bidirectional communication with field machines.

3. IoT Architecture Modernization

Implemented AWS IoT Core for secure device provisioning and management, handling edge cases like connectivity issues, backups, and authorization without shared credentials.

4. DevOps Transformation

Established GitLab CI/CD pipelines, automated deployments, and proper version control, giving the Director of Technology full visibility and control over the codebase.

Implementation Timeline

Phase 1: MVP (Months 1-2)

Delivered analytics dashboard MVP while assessing the existing architecture and building stakeholder confidence.

Phase 2: API Rebuild Decision (Month 3)

Strategic pivot to rebuild the entire API in Python after demonstrating the limitations of the existing .NET system.

Phase 4: Team Enablement (Months 9-12)

Transitioned to advisory role while helping build internal team and establishing sustainable development practices.

Results & Impact

The transformation went beyond technical improvements to fundamentally change how the company approaches technology:

The Director of Technology can contribute code alongside the team, reviews pull requests, and can pursue time-sensitive opportunities without external dependencies. The modern architecture enables new modules like automated warehouse integration and third-party ERP connections.