Full Stack Development

Park Industries builds high-precision machines for stone and metal fabricators. With over 15,700 machines sold, the company has become North America’s largest manufacturer of stoneworking machinery, with the metal industry not far behind. Part of Park’s success has been driven by investing in state-of-the-art technology in its machines as well as expanding its breadth of digital solutions.

Park Industries wanted to develop a digital solution that allows its customer to make the most of their fabricating machines. The solution, called Park IQ^TM, would provide real-time visibility into the workings of these machines so users could operate more efficiently and productively.

“We wanted to leverage data from the machines and present it to the customer in a way that allows them to make decisions based on what’s happening within their business or on a specific machine,” said David Lloyd, Director of Information Technology at Park Industries. “It’s something our customers have asked for, and it’s the first product on the market with its comprehensive capabilities.”

Creating the solution would mean capturing vast amounts of data from individual machines throughout the country; pushing that information up into a customer-segregated, cloud-based data lake; segmenting and analyzing the data per machine and user; and then displaying it on an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard instantaneously.

David wanted a development team who could work side-by- side with his internal resources and bring expertise on full stack development, UI/UX design, data analytics, DevOps, and IoT (internet of things). He had worked with Capmation in the past and knew a project with these parameters fit perfectly in the company’s wheelhouse.

Though Park Industries had a general idea of what it wanted the end product to be, it relied on Capmation’s expertise to help better define its vision and help determine the best ways to bring it to life.

“There were a lot of decisions that Capmation helped us make, from user interface design and validation to what technology and architecture we should use,” said David.

One of the first steps of the project was creating the dashboard interface. David’s team leaned heavily on Capmation’s UI/UX designer to transform their customers’ ideas and feedback into user-friendly dashboard navigation and design.

While the dashboard design was being created, the team developed IoT services to be run on most of Park Industries’ fabricating machines, which David said was the most critical and complicated portion of the project.

“The data on the machines needed to be collected and analyzed very quickly. Capmation was able to push data into the cloud sub-seconds after collecting it. This allows customers to leverage the information to make impactful business decisions,” he said.

Throughout the project, Park Industries’ internal team collaborated continuously with Capmation’s team.

Besides a daily stand-up meeting each morning, the teams worked in collaboration throughout the day.

“You really wouldn’t know the difference between Capmation’s team and our team with their involvement in all of the meetings. We follow a process called agile and they participated in all of the ceremonies and meetings,” he added.

The time frame from prototyping to market-ready release exceeded expectations.

“We developed this solution faster than expected. Capmation’s team played a really big part of that with their understanding of technology and their ability to very quickly understand our desired end state. Because they were able to ramp up quickly, it allowed us to get to market much faster,” said David.

Market validation at the beta stage has been extremely positive, and David attributes much of the project’s success to the strong partnership with Capmation.

“Their commitment and their ability to bring the talent that they did was a big part of it. They went above and beyond to help us get this product to market as quickly as we did. And, on top of that, they’re just great people to work with,” he concluded.

• Industry leading software enhances product line offerings and increases customer loyalty
• Development expertise transforms product complexities into real-world successes
• Tried and true practices drive early product releases and brings positive market validation