A multinational telecom company optimizes its line of personal devices using Apex's talent management capabilities.
SITUATION
Our client developed Internet of Things devices to help customers keep track of people and items important to them. The products offered include a tracking device for vehicles, a simple smartwatch for children, a tag for belongings, and a tracking device for pets. The goal of this engagement was to make the applications associated with these products more interactive and user-friendly to compete with similar products on the market. To do that, our client needed to enhance the connectivity of these devices, as well as their battery life, while also making them more compact. They also needed help maintaining the platforms for these devices and updating the applications that tracked them. Apex was already providing significant value at a great price to the client, so they decided to partner with Apex to manage the service and deliver the value they were looking for to enhance these products while maintaining their products already on the market.
Apex's EEs were necessary for taking over the work the OEM had been doing. In the end, they completed the hardware on time and it worked beyond expectations. - Client Technical Product Manager
Apex quickly identified that our client did not have a broad architecture design as they had never made devices before, so we partnered with them to add the niche talent needed to support their goals and mission related to application and firmware development, as well as hardware configuration. We provided a team of 30 with a range of job titles including principal embedded architect, embedded firmware engineer, scrum master, supply chain program manager, electrical engineer, SDET, senior software engineer, and DevOps engineer. We built the teams and provided talent coaching to each of our consultants in a co-managing model. With the right consultants in place, we were able to help our client navigate portfolio and project management challenges and organize the work to deliver and show value while leveraging the Scrum methodology. We were able to enable our customer to reduce costs and risks, enhance innovation, and improve the overall performance of their products by streamlining the infrastructure and accelerating delivery.
RESULT
The initial design for one of the products had multiple software instances that consumed the battery energy faster than planned, providing only three hours of functionality. Apex's hardware engineering team designed and developed a solution for the battery life which improved the function from 12-14 hours, representing a roughly 400% enhancement. Our electrical engineers took on the design from the original equipment manufacturer and minimized the layout, reducing it in size by 50% and improving its commercial appeal and viability. As a result of this size reduction, our client also benefitted from a bill of materials cost reduction. Our software engineers also debugged tracker issues with the accessory interface, light sensing, temperature sensing, and power management.
