Case Studies
Background
Beverly Hills Chairs is an e-commerce business that specializes in selling refurbished Herman Miller office chairs and parts. Beverly Hills Chairs sought to increase revenues by pursuing eBay as a new sales channel. Without a track record on eBay sellers -- positive user feedback -- and faced the challenge of establishing credibility within the market place quickly.
Outcome
Within one month of running the algorithm, Beverly Hills Chairs obtained thousands of positive reviews and became the second most successful seller on eBay among companies selling refurbished Herman Miller chairs and parts.
Solution
Recognizing that eBay does not differentiate between buyer and seller reviews when displaying a sellers net feedback score, we developed custom software to creatively yield thousands of five-star reviews from eBay sellers, in turn establishing instant credibility as an eBay seller. We constructed and ran a novel and complex algorithm to identify every item listed on eBay under a certain strike price, automatically purchase each item, leave positive feedback for the seller and request positive feedback in return. The system was implemented to run automatically, scanning and purchasing items listed for one cent (and then for several cents) with free shipping.
Applications
In addition to developing custom algorithms to optimize e-commerce businesses, similar techniques can be employed to find buying oppurtunities in financial markets, where firms need to identify outliers in a quick and automated fashion. Similarly, when developing ERP systems, scripting can assist analysts and decision-makers in compiling and analyzing custom datasets to identify and improve upon key areas such as weak operational process.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Business Process Automation
- Big Data Analysis
- Data Scrubbing
- Big Data Infrastructure
- Cloud Computing
- Backend Web Development
- Python, Bash, Linux
Background
BuyersTime is an online search engine used to purchase electronics components. Building a reliable data aggregation and search platform is an extremely challenging task, and despite investing heavily on internal and external engineering resources, BuyersTime struggled with numerous problems hampering its yet-to-be-completed e-commerce site, the most significant of which related to search. The Veloz Group was hired to solve the major search-related problems.
Outcome
Within the first month of the project, the display time for search data dropped from 5-10 seconds to only milliseconds. Duplicate and malformed search results were eliminated, and an additional data source was added to enhance the ability to find electronics components. The new front-end made it easier for users to quickly find what they are looking for, and administrative dashboard was enhanced allowing employees to improve efficiency by being able to prioritize vendors and more effectively import data. The Veloz Group was retained to replace BuyersTimes previously in-housed technology department.
Solution
After a thorough review, we identified the key technical problems plaguing BuyersTime and developed a plan to fix them, delineating data oriented and display oriented tasks. With suboptimal architecture on the data side, we redesigned the back-end algorithms and software used to perform data aggregation, data scrubbing and search. On the front-end, we took an incremental approach to improving the interface by working to enhance the system in areas that were working, while overhauling components of the legacy system.
Applications
Aggregating, scrubbing and displaying large amounts of data from multiple sources is common not only to search engines, but to private equity firms, hedge funds and many other businesses that rely on data-driven business decisions. Additionally, when designing and implementing ERP systems, CRMs and custom dashboards, similar technical expertise to that utilized when improving BuyersTimes search process will be employed in optimizing existing software.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Large Scale Web Applications
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data Infrastructure
- Data Aggregation
- Data Scrubbing
- Custom Dashboards
- Laravel, Zend, PHP,HTML, CSS, MySQL,Memcache, Javascript,Nginx, Linux
Background
Custom Tobacco offers customers a one-of-a-kind online platform to design personalized cigars, customized to the exact style, size, taste and presentation to each individuals choosing. At its outset, Custom Tobacco hoped to disrupt an industry known for its archaic approach to business by building a website rich in technology unlike any other within the online cigar market. No other cigar websites included real-time design tools and the only other companies that offered design functionality comparable to what Custom Tobacco was envisioning (Nike, CafePress, Custom Ink, etc.) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on R&D.
Outcome
CustomTobacco.com has been extremely popular among its users, attracting an audience that largely consists of people who are not cigar smokers but are drawn to the overall online experience.
Solution
Studying leading customization platforms and tools, we developed a unique, end-to-end software solution that allow users to design cigar bands online in real-time in a custom-built Photoshop-like environment. Users are also able to customize the size, blend and packaging, and can see a graphical image of what their cigar will look like upon arrival. We also developed a back-end toolkit that included a dashboard for operations managers to track orders and manage inventory and pricing.
Applications
CustomTobacco.com demonstrates our ability to help companies build highly-complex websites and customized e-commerce applications and demonstrates our ability to develop state-of-the-art ERPs, web portals and other complex web applications. The technical requirements of storing, dynamically modifying, and visualizing Custom Tobaccos product elements in real-time are similar to those faced by clients in need of highly-interactive systems and dashboards for accounting and reporting, operations management, customer tracking and a host of other applications dealing with large amounts of data that changes in real-time.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Custom Dashboards
- Front-End Web Development
- Back End Web Development
- E-Commerce
- Large Scale Web Applications
- Big Data Infrastructure
- Cloud Computing
- OpenCart, PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, SVG,MySQL, NoSQL, Apache, Linux
Background
In its early days, The Veloz Group faced the challenge of juggling multiple new startup businesses, a large number of projects associated with each company and different people assigned to work on tasks across the respective ventures. In search of project management software that could help company leaders manage projects and people within the organization, The Veloz Group could not find an off-the-shelf tool that offered a simple, clear and concise workflow for managing projects without requiring the company to pay substantial per-user licensing fees.
Outcome
Upon migrating projects to FlySpray, The Veloz Group observed markedly enhanced productivity, as people and projects were managed more effectively and efficiently. FlySpray is now used by prominent organizations across a variety of industries, including Activision, Helicon Books, DocuWiki, Arch Linux and Project Spark.
Solution
We identified FlySpray, open-source task-tracking software, as a starting point, recognizing that while it was buggy to the point of being unusable after years of developer neglect, it possessed the capacity to become the tool needed. We took over development of FlySpray and worked to inspire the FlySpray community to help revitalize the project, fixing bugs, adding new features and, ultimately, making the software usable and reliable. Among other innovations, the dashboard was reworked from a confusing, counterintuitive framework to a simple, concise and streamlined portal easily used by engineers and projects managers alike.
Applications
The ability to efficiently track the performance of projects and people is critical to virtually every business. Financial institutions need custom dashboards to track the high-level performance of each of their portfolio companies with the ability to drill down into the level of detail needed to assess what is causing good performance and what is causing bad performance for a given portfolio company. Small to medium sized businesses need ERP systems with the complexity to see the high-level performance of different departments in addition to the performance of specific employees and the statuses of specific projects in order to identify areas in need of improvement.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Custom Dashboards
- Front-End Web Development Back End Web Development
- PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, Apache, Linux
- Custom ERP Systems
Background
The Veloz Group needed an e-commerce platform to use across Custom Tobacco, Beverly Hills Chairs, Ergonomics Direct and its other e-commerce projects in development. While many e-commerce platforms existed, they were either extremely expensive or did not sufficiently meet our business needs, lacking features such as integration with both First Data and Paypal for credit card processing, dynamic search and effective analytics tracking.
Outcome
The highly-customized version of OpenCart developed by The Veloz Group has served as an effective front-end and back-end platform for our e-commerce businesses and has provided us with a strong framework for new e-commerce development.
Solution
We identified an open-source e-commerce platform called OpenCart that provided core e-commerce functionality and enabled our development team to build add-on features that we deemed to be important to our operations. We added custom integrations for credit card processing through First Data and Paypal through OpenCart; an enhanced administrative dashboard that enables employees to fill orders by monitoring real-time data; and numerous other features, including dynamic search and analytics integration.
Applications
Few solutions work as needed off the shelf; whether it is an e-commerce platform, a CRM, an ERP or some other system, the ability to act nimbly in implementing custom functionality is crucial to a successful deployment. Incorporating custom dashboards and reporting tools into an existing software platform and enhancing integration with credit card processing systems and search engines can help organizations optimize their internal business processes.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Custom Dashboards
- E-Commerce
- Large Scale Web Platforms
- Credit Card Processing
- Cloud Computing
- Cyber Security
- Front-End & Back-End Web Development
- PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, SVG, MySQL, NoSQL, Apache, Linux
Background
Eszylfie Taylor, a leading insurance broker turned entrepreneur, sought to disrupt the insurance brokerage industry by offering a one-of-a-kind online portal for agents, known as The Taylor Method. Hemanshu Mandalia, a management consultant and former PIMCO executive hired to develop and launch The Taylor Method, realized that their incumbent software development firm lacked both the technical sophistication and project management skill to successfully complete a project as complex as The Taylor Method. Mandalia engaged The Veloz Group to fix the problems caused by the previous vendor and to see the The Taylor Method through to completion.
Outcome
The Taylor Method is live and actively acquires new customers each week. The Veloz Group is actively developing Phase II of The Taylor Method.
Solution
We identified the legacy technical problems and quickly solved issues related to CRM integration, subscription service, credit card payment processing and video streaming. We subsequently developed several new features, including a data collection tool to standardize and streamline the reporting and processing of prospects, to complete Phase I of The Taylor Method.
Applications
The integration and extension of multiple software applications into a single coherent system is common to most businesses. Integrating an insurance CRM into The Taylor Method has many parallels to integrating the different ERP systems of multiple portfolio companies into a single sponsor-level custom dashboard for a private equity firm. The need for integrated credit card processing and the automation of recurring billing is a challenge faced by accounting and supply chain management departments alike. The need to better collect and analyze industry-specific data to increase sales to customers is a need faced by most sales departments regardless of industry.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Cloud Computing
- Large Scale Web Apps
- Custom Dashboards
- Video Transcoding
- Video Streaming
- E-Commerce
- Wordpress, PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Apache, MySQL, Linux
Background
There are few, if any, places in the world in which the disconnect between perception and reality is as dramatic as in Israel. Given that the percentage of Americans who have actually stepped foot in Israel is extraordinarily small, views are overwhelmingly shaped by the narrative portrayed in the media, highlighted by notoriously unfavorable visual imagery. The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation is dedicated is to strengthening the state of Israel and supports a number of initiatives geared toward rallying support for Israel and combating efforts to delegitimize Israel.
Outcome
Branded as Virtually Israel, the two Virtual Reality experiences were introduced at the National Israeli-American Conference in Washington D.C. to an audience of roughly fifteen hundred pro-Israel influencers, from community and campus leaders to current and former Israeli ambassadors, and was received with overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement. Countless representatives from organizations in attendance approached The Milstein Foundation about bringing Virtually Israel to their groups. The tremendous success and reception of Virtually Israel led the foundation to expand upon the initial scope of the project and commission the production of additional Virtual Reality modules.
Solution
The Veloz Group approached The Milstein Foundation and proposed utilizing cutting-edge technology to advance the foundations mission. We explained that we could develop immersive Virtual Reality experiences as a way to bring Israel to the many people who never have and may never visit the holy land, enabling people from across the globe to experience Israel without leaving their own communities. The Milstein Foundation ultimately engaged its strategic partners and greenlit the project. We created two Virtual Reality experiences, showcasing Israels two most prominent cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Applications
One of the hottest and fastest growing areas of technologies, Virtual Reality offers widespread application opportunities across a wide variety of industries. Much in that we created Virtual Reality experiences to advance the mission of The Milstein Foundation, we can utilize Virtual Reality to develop highly-interactive and immersive experiences for other non-profit organizations and for for-profit companies, governmental agencies and athletes and entertainers. Through Virtual Reality, experiences can be created to promote products, places and brands, and messages can be communicated in a uniquely compelling and effective way.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Virtual Reality
- Oculus VR
- Samsung Gear VR
- Google Cardboard
- Youtube 360 Video
- Facebook 360
Background
Live Earth is an organization started by former Vice President Al Gore to help raise awareness about climate change. To bring awareness to the organization, Live Earth commissioned the development of a high-end website with high ambitions. As the launch date for the site approached, Live Earths incumbent engineering team encountered a variety of technical issues they could not resolve success of the project.
Outcome
The initial version of the Live Earth site was completed by The Veloz Group on time and below budget. Ecstatic about the functionality and work performance, The Veloz Group was retained as the de facto engineering team and completed additional versions of the site. Using the widget and website developed by Veloz, Live Earth has obtained large amounts of support for their cause and has been able to track partner campaign performance to optimize marketing resources.
Solution
The Veloz Group was retained with less than two weeks until launch to complete a site that still lacked many of the key required features. In this short period of time, Veloz completed mobile functionality and a 3rd-party widget that were largely broken; developed analytics-tracking to allow Live Earth to view the performance of their partners; added a location-based news platform to allow users to receive the most up to the date news based on their location; implemented language translations using Geolocation so users would automatically see the desired language and content based the part of the world they were located in; and built an online petitioning system to help Live Earth mobilize support.
Applications
Highly interactive websites making use of video backgrounds are vital for any organization trying to make an impression on their visitors. Likewise, mobile technologies are crucial for any modern business regardless of industry. Geotargeting allows companies to optimize content for a given user based on their location, whether the goal is to obtain signatures for a petition, sell a product or increase brand awareness. The creation of third-party APIs and widgets allows organizations to provide partners with easy integration to drive users and/or conversions. Analytics systems, like those developed for Live Earth, help organizations better understand optimize marketing efforts.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Geotargeting
- API & Widget Development
- Data Analytics Platforms
- Mobile Web Development
- Front-End Web Development
- Back-End Web Development
- Cloud Computing
- Laravel, PHP, HTML, Sass, CSS, Javascript, Gulp, Nginx, Linux
Background
Parking lots are a case study in inefficiency. In many lots, entering cars are forced to wait for an attendant or a machine to approve their entry and provide a ticket. Cars must then roam the lot to find open spots and often find that none are available, further increasing the lag between entering the lot and parking. Reserved parking is flawed in that drivers follow an honor system that requires manual monitoring and enforcement. Exiting the lot is often extremely arduous, as one must pay their fee and gain clearance from an attendant or a machine that opens and closes the gate as each car leaves. While parking lots have become somewhat more efficient over time, they can still be improved tremendously.
Outcome
The automated parking lot prevents the need for parking attendants and parking enforcement, while making parking more efficient by informing users of open spots and effectively enforcing reserved spots. Automated credit card payment can be added to further streamline the process, allowing guests to pay by using a credit card they keep on file for their vehicle and utilizing computer vision to read license plates to remove the need for keycards. The validation process can also be handled digitally, allowing for enhanced efficiency in the tracking of validation time and costs for tenants, while reducing exposure to fraud and labor-costs associated with manually handling validations.
Solution
Using RFID and vehicle sensors, we developed a prototype for a fully-automated parking lot. Upon entry, a keycard is detected from within the drivers vehicle to assess entry and time-stamp the user. Visitors that do not have a keycard are granted a temporary card. Vehicle sensors in each parking spot identify availability, and as drivers enter the lot, they are assigned and directed to a spot which is then reserved for them. Reserved spots are secured using an enforcement gate that opens only for the appropriate vehicle and guides unauthorized vehicles to their appropriate spot. As drivers exit the parking lot, the exit gate opens automatically to allow monthly guests to leave without manually using their keycards, automatically calculating the payment based on time-stamps and validation.
Applications
Feature and vehicle detection can be used to automate parking enforcement for municipalities seeking to identify parking violations and automatically ticket vehicles. Similar techniques can be applied to logistics companies, warehouses and manufacturers to automatically track inventory and trigger reordering, while aiding in mitigating theft and product loss by identifying items incorrectly leaving the facilities and placed in incorrect locations. Additionally, infrequently used items can be stored more efficiently and densely, as the need for a precise organizational system is less pronounced when items can be pilled in and automatically discovered through RFID.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Embedded Hardware & Software
- Internet of Things
- Business Process Automation
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data Analysis
- RFID
- Sensor-driven actuation of control systems
Background
Railroad crossings pose an inherent risk of potential collisions between trains and vehicles set to cross the railroad tracks. Each year, numerous incidents of vehicle-rail collisions at train crossings transpire, with accidents leading to injuries and often fatalities. The primary cause of these collisions is some form of human error that transpires in communicating that a train is approaching. Similarly, railroad crossings pose inefficiencies in requiring vehicles to yield for an imprecise amount of time while waiting for the train to approach or pass, and in requiring manual effort on the part of the conductor.
Outcome
The smart railway crossing system provides a fully automated approach to enhancing railway safety. Additional safety features can be added, such as detecting the distance of approaching trains to warn crossing vehicles of how much time is left before the next train crosses. Similarly, warning lights can be placed at a distance prior to the crossing to allow nearing cars to know they should slow down because an oncoming train may begin to cross at the time they near the crossing. Further, additional sensors can be utilized to calculate the speed and length of the oncoming train to provide vehicles with an estimated wait time, while also providing safety audits to ensure trains maintain safe speeds, weights, and sizes. Surveillance cameras can also be added to capture illegal and unsafe railway crossings, such that drivers can be automatically ticketing for crossing when a train is approaching. Lastly, a feedback loop can be used to detect traffic and optimize train schedules to prevent slowdowns caused by trains passing through busy intersections during rush-hour.
Solution
Utilizing sensors and an embedded logic-gate to coordinate crossing, we developed a prototype for an unmanned system. Sensors on either side of the crossing detect a nearing train and communicate the activity to a control hub. When the control hub detects an approaching train, it activates controls at the crossing to close the gate to ring a bell, flash warning lights and close the guard rail to prevent vehicles from crossing the track. When it senses that the train has passed and there are no additional rail-cars approaching, it opens the gate and allows vehicles to cross.
Applications
The use of motion detection to control intersections can be applied to traffic intersections, highways and airport runways to optimize traffic and pedestrian flow while also increasing safety. The same system can also be applied to manufacturing environments to prevent accidents caused by miscommunication and to enhance throughput by creating optimal scheduling based on utilization patterns. Shipping ports, loading docks and package flow systems for logistics companies can use similar techniques to optimally schedule traffic and movement patterns of packages, forklifts, cranes and humans to enhance safety and efficiency.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Embedded Hardware & Software
- Internet of Things
- Business Process Automation
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data Analysis
- Motion and vehicle sensing
- Sensor-based actuation of control gates, warning signals, and right-of-way indicators
Background
Every year, the agriculture industry utilizes significant manpower and substantial machinery to harvest crops. In some parts of the world, harvesting is done through a brute-force method in which all plants are cut, separated, and processed, which leads to inefficiencies in yields due to premature harvesting of some plants, damage to others during the harvesting process, and the reduction of future crop growth resulting from brute-force cutting. In other parts of the world, crops are harvested by hand, a laborious, expensive and inefficient process. As population growth continues to increase the need for agriculture and urbanization decreases the labor pool and land available for farming, the need for better harvesting methods is dramatic.
Outcome
The harvesting robot is currently able to detect and pick certain crops. It is smart enough to find and pick only the desired crop and avoid items that look similar. The roaming process and integration with the rest of the harvesting process is still being developed. Simultaneously, the system is being enhanced to be able to harvest multiple types of crops, whereas the initial version is only capable of detecting and harvesting one specific type of crop.
Solution
We are developing the prototype of end-to-end robot to automatically and efficiently harvest agriculture. Using Computer Vision, the robot detects the produce and activates a robotic arm to gently pick the crop and place it into a collection bin. The robotic arm uses only the appropriate amount of force to prevent damaging the target plant.
Applications
Litter removal, duct cleaning and sorting of recyclable items are currently extremely inefficient labor-intensive processes. Mining, oil exploration, manufacturing and logistics environments contain equally arduous tasks that can benefit from robotic item detection and picking that was developed for the robotic harvester.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Embedded Hardware & Software
- Internet of Things
- Business Process Automation
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data Analysis
- Computer Vision to find suitable items
- Sensing of environmental factors to determine picking dynamics
- Automated robotic arm to pick items
Background
Water is becoming an increasing scarce resource, requiring both industrial farmers and home gardeners to reconsider and opti-mize their water usage. Similarly, as labor costs rise due to urbanization and the development of third-world countries, the agriculture industry must find new ways to improve crop efficiency. As the population continues to grow, farming efficiently will become increasingly important for both industrial and home agriculturists alike.
Outcome
Using a moisture-based watering schedule, water usage is dramatically reduced and plants grow more efficiently. The feedback and monitoring component helps farmers better plan land usage and crop production. Further, the automation of moisture sensing and watering saves labor, allowing farmers to hire less workers and better use their resources. For home gardeners, the smart irrigation system reduces the time investment required to maintain a garden, while decreasing the water costs associated with growing organic fruits and vegetables.
Solution
By planting moisture-sensors, the smart irrigation system constantly monitors moisture levels to sense exactly when watering of the garden is needed. When water is needed, it automatically triggers a submersible water pump to start watering the plants. When moisture levels return to optimal, the smart irrigation system stops watering to avoid over-watering of plants and wasting water. Simultaneously, a feedback and monitoring loop is established to better predict water requirements and detect inefficiencies that may indicate to the farmer that it is not an ideal time to grow crops (for example during an abnormally hot summer) or that the soil is not optimal for water consumption and may require soil amendment or composting to optimize plant growth.
Applications
The system can be enhanced to evaluate other metrics related to agriculture, such as temperature, humidity levels, and soil composition. Further, the system can be adapted for applications in plumbing, heating and cooling, as well as the automotive and aeronautic industries, where the sensing of environmental variables to control the flow of water, oil, coolant, or other liquids can help increase the efficiency of water, power and other precious resources. Lastly, the notion of sensing the environment and actuating remote devices based on data stored, monitored and processed on the cloud can be applied to many other areas where a smart feedback loop can increase the efficiency of control devices deployed in the field.
Technologies and Focus Areas
- Embedded Hardware & Software
- Internet of Things
- Business Process Automation
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data Analysis
- Sensing of environmental factors
- Sensor-based actuation of servo-motors