TeraCode: Simplifying IoT Adoption

Follow TeraCode on :

Michael Sack, President & CEO

Founded in 2005 to develop custom development services in Argentina for companies in the US and Europe, TeraCode has transitioned over the years to become a premier partner for connecting devices, designing IoT architectures, and building custom apps. When the company started its operations, outsourcing as a service was well-established in the IT industry. Over the next five years, the company grew its business significantly, and in 2010, recognizing an emerging market need, TeraCode started an IoT practice area to help clients meet the new challenges presented by connected devices and products..
In 2012, TeraCode partnered with Axeda, an early leader in what was then known as the “Machine-to-Machine or M2M” industry who developed one of the first platforms for managing machine data. TeraCode was instrumental in helping with the adoption an application development platform that ran on top of Axeda. After the acquisition of Axeda in 2014 by PTC (Nasdaq: PTC), TeraCode re-purposed AppThing to run on AWS and Azure. . PTC liked the reporting functionality and asked TeraCode to create a bespoke reporting solution that could run on top of ThingWorx. Today, TeraCode, by broadening the scope of that application (AppTHING), helps clients in successfully implementing IoT strategies and solutions to influence business operations. CIOApplications interviewed Michael Sack, the president and CEO of TeraCode to discuss the company’s success in developing better architected IoT applications by understanding their clients’ desired outcome.

How does TeraCode assess their client needs and deliver IoT solutions accordingly?

When companies start to think about implementing IoT, they are beginning a complex journey and typically need help. Many of the companies we work with have already made a foray into IoT before coming to us. For TeraCode, an engagement usually begins with helping a client develop their IoT strategy. The first question that we ask the clients is “why are you doing IoT.” We need to understand how IoT is going to help them align their business within a changing landscape, how it can fundamentally enhance their customers’ experience, and how it will create new opportunities for revenue generation.

Once we understand what IoT can really help them achieve, we are in a position to help them architect the right IoT solution. There are many critical decisions to make such as how a device will be connected, what kind of connectivity, where the data will be stored and how users will interact with the data and devices. The technology choices alone can be overwhelming. Starting with a solid strategy really helps ensure we achieve their desired outcomes. From there we can design a pilot project and help them get devices connected and communicating with a cloud platform, implementing security, and developing applications with reporting capabilities.

What are the challenges that companies face today in the IoT space?

For the majority of companies, it is about understanding what IoT really means for their business and making the right technology decisions. Many times we find that devices and machines need sensors and wireless radios. There are thousands of these to choose from. Then you have to determine what kind of connectivity—can I use Wi-Fi? Or do I need a cellular solution? Once data is flowing you have to decide where it goes –are you using AWS or Azure? Or perhaps you want something like ThingWorx? And finally, you need apps you can put into the hands of your staff as well as your customers—and for many clients this is very new territory.

One of the key things we have learned across more than 40 different projects is that ‘less is more’. We are really good at helping clients stay focused on the most critical value propositions so they can be successful

Think about the challenges of giving an app to your customers for the first time when you have no experience in this area. It can create a lot of problems you’ve never had to deal with before—even something as simple as “password reset” administration can be hard for companies to tackle. Finally, we have to help our clients see a path to a positive ROI on IoT or it’s not going to be a win.

Please elaborate on TeraCode’s ready-to-use platform that allows clients to deploy tracking, telemetry and asset management applications.

When we were working with Axeda, we realized that there was an opportunity to create a low code toolset that allowed clients to quickly and easily deploy customized IoT applications on top of the Axeda platform. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time you connected a machine, our application tool gives you a tremendous head start. Today we call this solution AppTHING and you can use it with your AWS, Azure, ThingWorx, M2X or Mindsphere IoT platform to create your own responsive IoT applications in a matter of minutes. AppTHING everything you need to launch IoT applications with built-in tools for managing devices, creating and managing users, customization of the UI, filters and rules used to trigger alerts (including geo-fencing), and a full reporting solution. We are working with a client that is working on connecting as many as twenty different products. Each product could require them to resolve the whole IoT lifecycle from connection to application. AppTHING makes it much easier for them to manage - project leaders can focus on getting their products connected to Azure. Once that is done, they can use AppTHING to create their applications and reports almost instantly. If you don’t need a full application but still need reports for your users, ReportTHING is a ready-to-use reporting solution for ThingWorx, AWS and Azure that provides high-quality, easily customized, and exportable reports. The advanced features of ReportTHING allow clients to schedule reports and automatically email them to stakeholders. A responsive UI gives clients the ability to create custom dashboards and reports, controlling data access down to the individual user level.

What steers TeraCode ahead of the competition?

The fact that we have a very large development centre in Argentina helps us to be more cost-effective, but what differentiates us is our subject matter expertise. We have a really strong track record of building and deploying customized IoT solutions. One of the key things we have learned across more than 40 different projects is that ‘less is more’. We are really good at helping clients stay focused on the most critical value propositions so they can be successful. It is all about helping the clients achieve their desired outcome in a cost-efficient manner.

What does the future hold for TeraCode? Could you put some light on your roadmap to the future in terms of innovations, expansions and technological advancements?

Currently, we recognize that there’s a huge opportunity in the IoT space to develop tools that allow customers to quickly deploy customized applications that incorporate machine learning and AI capabilities. We are focused on offering our clients meaningful analytics, be it tools to do the analysis or automating the process itself. Today, we are working on some exciting AI projects such predicting failures of surgical devices with 99.5% accuracy to helping the government in India analyse data on their rivers to predict the availability of clean water. We also see huge opportunities for companies to monitor the products they make and change to a “Product as a Service” or “PaaS” business model which results in significant revenue potential. All of this depends on being able to leverage AI and machine data to deliver benefits to our clients, and that’s where we are headed.