Sestra Systems Enhances Customer Value with Cloud Application Modernization Services

• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security
• Networks & Connectivity - MQTT

• Equipment & Machinery
• Food & Beverage

• Maintenance
• Product Research & Development

• Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
• Remote Asset Management

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• Data Science Services

Sestra Systems, a company that developed TapWise, a dispensing-as-a-service solution, faced a significant challenge in providing seamless service to customers in disconnected environments. The company's solution turns beverage taps into IoT-connected devices, improving customer service, preventing loss through spillage, and ensuring compliance with ABC regulations. The taps also collect a vast quantity of data and store it in the cloud, providing customers with visibility of who poured which drinks, when, and why. However, with a diverse customer base ranging from small hotels to large stadiums, distributors, and even cruise ships, Sestra Systems needed to ensure TapWise was highly available, even with limited access to the cloud. As the company scaled, it also needed to maintain connected control for an increasing number of diverse environments.

Sestra Systems is a technology company that identified a gap in the food and drink industry for standardizing how businesses dispense drinks. It developed TapWise, a dispensing-as-a-service solution that turns beverage taps into IoT-connected devices. This solution improves customer service, prevents loss through spillage, and ensures compliance with ABC regulations. The company's customers range from small hotels to large stadiums, distributors, and even cruise ships. Sestra Systems is committed to innovation and uses data collected from its IoT-connected devices to provide customers with valuable insights into their beverage dispensing processes.

To address these challenges, Sestra Systems leveraged Hitachi Vantara’s Cloud Application Modernization Services. The company uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) in conjunction with cloud services from Hitachi Vantara to connect devices to the network so customers can sync and aggregate data when they go online. When there’s limited connectivity, the smart taps are in an enclosed, nonconnected environment, so customers can still leverage data on performance to boost operational efficiencies. The IoT solution Hitachi Vantara developed for Sestra Systems captures telemetry data, such as CPU usage, available memory, and diagnostic log per hour, and services these commands. It then sets IoT-specific rules in the cloud to move the data from any cloud service provider’s MQTT (MQ Telemetry Transport) broker to various endpoints. The highly scalable AWS Kinesis Data Streams, a real-time data streaming service, enables it to scale from hundreds up to billions of devices, and the serverless framework provides high value at a low cost.

• By partnering with Hitachi Vantara, Sestra Systems has developed a smarter, end-to-end platform that puts its customers firmly in control of beverage distribution. The partnership has been key for breaking into new markets with limited or no connectivity. The project has also helped Sestra Systems to evolve from offering a dispensing-as-a-service solution into becoming a complete solution provider. This transition has unlocked more value for the customer by enabling the company to help them install the system and products, train staff, and uncover the insights that will help them expand their beverage programs. The wealth of centralized data is allowing the company to perform deeper analytics, to help it shape the business and continue to exceed customer expectations.

• Maximizes revenue with better loss prevention
• Increases flexibility of TapWise solution for both on- and offline environments
• Enables company growth into new markets