Renson focuses on datacentric innovations to create healthy spaces, with a new Azure-based API strategy.
Microsoft technology is the keystone to Renson smart clean-air solutions. As an innovator in the industry, Renson incorporated open APIs based on Microsoft Azure technology, into their strategy to keep their vision future facing.
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API Management Solutions and Consultancy
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API Management Solutions and Consultancy
Building and managing APIs is often considered as challenging. Yet the secret lies in implementing a flexible API management platform and getting people on board. With a proven track-record in setting up successful API programs, Codit guides you through.
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Renson is an innovator and manufacturer of clean-air residential and business solutions. They wanted to find a way to unlock data collated from their smart devices, in order to gain insights, offer customers state-of-the-art solutions and remain open to new innovations in the industry.
The Challenge
Renson is a Belgian based ventilation manufacturer that has been around since 1909. Renson, with its production centralized in Belgium, employ 12,200 people and are active in 86 countries worldwide. Their goal is to create healthy living and working spaces with their smart solutions.
As innovators in the industry, Renson always wants to keep up with the latest technological trends and bring these benefits to their customers. Their long-term goal is to have their smart devices co-ordinate with each other in an enclosed eco-system, so that the end-user is consistently comfortable, without so much as lifting a finger. To reach this goal, the team of Renson realised their backend needed a revamp. Renson approached a select number of companies, of which Codit proved to be the best fit regarding the expertise and technology required.
Renson is in the midst of a huge digital transformation for both their products and their processes.
Renson pièce de resistance is the Health Box – which is installed alongside their ventilation system. The Health Box has been evolving over the years, rising to the challenges that new technologies lay before it. The first version of the Health Box was purely mechanical – it extracted dirty air from buildings and that was it. Sensors were added for the next version of the Health Box.
Version 3 of the Health Box took the product to the next level through internet connectivity. Data is now sent to the cloud where advanced data analytics are performed.
“The goal is to deliver added services to our customers,” said Koen van Loo, CIO at Renson , “We do this on a device level such as with our apps, which can show humidity or temperature, and allows the user to make adjustments.”
Renson needed to make the data available not only to internal users and stakeholders, but also, in a governed way, externally. With data ingestion already in place, Renson’s opportunity was to open their APIs towards internal and external developers. They released a Request for a Proposal (RFP) to 5 contenders and Codit’s proposal was the best fit. “It was primarily because of the technical solutions and expertise that were mentioned in the RFP,” said Koen.
It was our first project with Codit, and they proved to have the knowledge and the skills necessary to complete the project to a high standard. In the future we will certainly work with Codit again. ”
The Approach
Renson wanted to release the data captured in the cloud from the smart devices, to internal and external stakeholders. They already knew that to do this in a controlled way, they would need APIs. However, they needed a generic API management system to govern the APIs and above all it had to be compatible with Microsoft Azure. That’s where the Codit team stepped up.
The Codit team mapped out a plan of action and set to work. It was decided from the get-go that the API management system was to be hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud, as stipulated by Renson as they are already working within the cloud.
For Codit, there were two distinct parts to the project: the application gateway and the Azure API management portal.
The application gateway is a cloud-based gateway that allows traffic to go through to the internal database of Renson Ventilation. The Azure API management portal allows developers, internally and externally, to access pertinent data in a controlled manner.
The Codit team took two APIs, put them on the Azure API management portal, and exposed one internally and the other externally.
The Codit team also put into place Azure Keyhole for security, and Azure automated lifecycle so releases are completely automated.
Within a month – the foundations were set, and this project was ready to move forward.
The Results
The new API management system ensures that all stakeholders have controlled access to the data they need, and that superior controlled climate experiences are delivered to the end-user. Not only that, Renson is planning for the future with their open APIs. “The API management system has a generic interface so it can be used with mobile apps, but also with research institutions or commercial partners to create a digital eco-system.” said Koen van Loo, CIO Renson.
The resulting solution reinforces Renson’s position as a technology leader in the ventilation sector.
“This is a future forward solution, so we don’t close out any possibilities for future partnerships. It has always been our mission to have no speed limit on innovation. We always want to be ahead of our competition which is why we’re investing in digital landscape,” said Koen van Loo.
A word from the client
“Codit provided us an estimation of budget and time and they stuck to it. This is rare in the industry, and it is a pleasant feeling when there’s no issues on the budget side of things. Technically the products work exactly how we want them to work, and the team were flexible to our wishes.”
Koen Van Loo CIO @ Renson
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