Oden Technologies is using the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the factories of today. The giant network of “things” (including people) connected to each other via the Internet has the potential to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and improve safety across all walks of life. Oden is leading IoT innovation in manufacturing by combining wireless connectivity, big data, and cloud computing.

The use of data to improve manufacturing is practically as old as manufacturing itself. But the computerization of manufacturing has resulted in broad and rapid changes to the way data is collected and processed, as well as the sheer volume of data available.

Oden’s goal is to help manufacturers tap into this data to quickly identify process trends and even warning signs of machine breakdown. Such visibility can reveal opportunities to improve manufacturing and maintenance processes that reduce waste and increase profit margins.

Oden designs and develops data collection devices that can plug into almost any kind of machine and can wirelessly transmit data with minimal complexity and setup time.

Once devices are installed, the Oden technology platform processes data to give manufacturers cutting-edge analytics that are easy to comprehend. Analysis produced by the platform provides factory engineers with data points such as detailed root-cause analysis down to the second, factory-wide performance in real-time, and trend analysis.

Improving cloud delivery

Oden’s previous cloud platform performed satisfactorily, but the company evaluated alternatives in search of potential reductions in cost and complexity and increases in performance.

When evaluating Google Cloud Platform, Oden discovered it would require fewer virtual machine (VM) instances for equivalent performance, which would cut costs. Furthermore, Oden could gain more sophisticated data analytics and machine learning capabilities compared with its existing cloud provider.

Today, Oden runs its entire platform on Google Cloud Platform including Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, Google Cloud Bigtable, Google Stackdriver, and Google Kubernetes Engine.

“In order to serve our customers, we need a cloud platform that can scale reliably while keeping costs low, perform under heavy loads, and consistently deliver sophisticated features such as machine learning,” says Willem Sundblad, CEO and Founder at Oden Technologies. “Google Cloud Platform is way ahead in all of these areas compared to our previous cloud provider.”

Capturing tens of millions of metrics a day

Using Google Cloud Platform, Oden can help an average factory capture and store approximately 10 million metrics on a single manufacturing line every day.

Metrics can include extremely granular detail, such as the amount of electricity going to machines, the amount of raw material consumed, and the volume of material produced. Sensors can also capture and transmit environmental information such as temperature, humidity, and dew point so that manufacturers can identify weather-related and seasonal impacts on production.

The updated Oden Cloud Platform uses Kubernetes Engine—powered by the open source Kubernetes system—to run application program interfaces (APIs) that capture data from Oden’s wireless devices on the factory floor.

Google Cloud Pub/Sub then sends the data in real time to Google Cloud Bigtable, where data is processed using Oden’s proprietary analytics tools. Google Stackdriver supports Google Cloud Platform monitoring, logging, and diagnostics, which help Oden deliver its cloud platform with confidence.

Oden Technologies builds dashboards powered by Kubernetes Engine, which pull analyzed data from Google Cloud Bigtable. The dashboards provide customers with real-time visibility into their manufacturing lines. Oden Factory Cloud dashboards allow customers to delve deeper into their data to fine-tune production processes or discover the root causes of production issues.

With the previous cloud provider, Oden required 80 VM instances to run the dashboards. With Google Cloud Platform that number has been cut to 45, which dramatically reduces costs and complexity.

“We migrated from our previous cloud provider to Google Cloud Platform in just one month,” says Willem. “Further, our storage and data analytics costs have decreased by 30%. Cost savings like these allow us to protect customers from rising expenses, keeping us focused on bringing the best products possible to market.”

Faster data access; more efficient factories

With Google Cloud Platform, Oden can now deliver a complete factory analytics picture to manufacturers. In environments where thousands of variables affect the bottom line, businesses can now automatically and perpetually record machine and performance measurement. Oden Factory Cloud gives customers access to comprehensive data insights and can eliminate reliance on onsite infrastructure investments to run their own analytics.

Because manufacturers have access to live data and can analyze production data quickly, they can troubleshoot and resolve problems in minutes rather than months. Such information helps improve product quality, minimize unplanned downtime, cut costs, and improve profitability.

“With the help of Google Cloud Platform, we are helping our customers to be data-driven, which wasn’t possible before,” adds Willem. “They now understand that data is their most important asset. That allows them to be more innovative and continually improve their production processes.”

For far too long, managing employee expenses has been a time-consuming process that requires manual data entry and reconciliation to bridge the gap between business bank accounts and ERP systems. In the absence of an integrated workflow, finance teams use multiple systems to manage credit card and cash payments, and finding receipts. In most cases, they also lack real-time visibility into company spending.

The complexity grows exponentially as businesses expand, especially into new regions. Extra administration required to manage new bank accounts, card issuers, and local accounting systems impedes decision making and negatively impacts revenues and growth. Businesses of all sizes struggle with this, but it can be especially challenging for medium to large enterprises.

Payhawk set out to help businesses overcome these challenges when we founded the company in 2018. We combine VISA company cards, reimbursable expenses, and accounts payable into a single product. Our customers can automate manual processes, maximize efficiency, and accelerate business expansion.

Setting up our first cloud cluster in less than a week

To support growth and attract investment we were keen to launch our solution on a scalable, future-proof IT architecture that didn’t require extensive technical support. This is where Google Cloud made a big impression, especially the user interface and documentation which massively reduces the resources required to set up clusters and put them into production.

I’m a CTO, not a DevOps specialist, but in less than a week I was able to set up a secure, reliable operating infrastructure. This enabled us to fast-track our application development and we were able to issue our first card in just eight months. Our Google Cloud partner, Cloud Office also gave us valuable assistance, guiding us through the deployment process and advising on Google Cloud’s extensive range of solutions.

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) played a critical role, accelerating the deployment and management of our cloud native applications. We use Cloud SQL as our database while other important tools include Cloud Memorystore, Vision AI, Cloud Storage and Artifact Registry for our wider data storage and application needs. With Firebase we’ve been able to build a notification system for mobile devices.

Another incentive is that most other cloud solutions require add-on services to build and keep your product live. With Google Cloud, all the services that Payhawk needs including logging, metrics, monitoring of resources, and utilization of CPU memory come as standard.

For instance, I was really impressed by Google Cloud’s operations suite, which includes Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring. If there are any anomalies in our cloud architecture, we can track and resolve them with minimal disruption to our operations. This also removes the need to invest in an additional observability solution.

Reliability that builds customer trust

Google Cloud also supports Payhawk’s mission to put customers at the center of our organization. Thanks to Google Cloud error reporting and tracking and Google Cloud single sign on, Payhawk’s engineering team can anticipate customer issues and correct them in less than one hour. Trust is everything, and Google Cloud gives us the tools to boost customer satisfaction and build long-term relationships.

As a young business, managing costs is also a priority. The Google for Startups Cloud Program, which includes credits for Google software and tools, enabled us to push the business forward without having to worry about financing our infrastructure, especially in the first year. This gave us breathing room to work through funding, application development, and the onboarding of our first customers.

In addition, Google Cloud gives us confidence that we can grow the business fast. In most months we have seen more than 10% growth — in some cases it’s been 20%. In the first half of 2022, the business doubled in size, but Google Cloud gave us the flexibility to scale our infrastructure, adding storage, memory, and processing power as we onboarded new customers. The pricing model is also generous so that we can grow our revenues while keeping control of operational expenditure.

Since launch we have acquired a valuable mix of customers from startups to large businesses that want to reduce the costs of their expenses programs and increase employee satisfaction. They include ATU, a German automobile servicing company, which has successfully digitized its entire procurement process, and Discordia, a Bulgarian logistics business with 10,000 trucks, which has issued Payhawk cards to all its drivers.

Looking to the future, it’s no exaggeration to say that Google Cloud is a foundation of our business and has given investors confidence in our operations. From a first seeding round of €3 million, early this year we closed a Series B extension of $100 million. This gives us a valuation of $1bn and makes Payhawk the first ever Bulgarian unicorn.

We now operate in 32 countries in Europe and the US, and plan to double our team by the end of the year. It feels like we’ve come a long way since we first started using Google Cloud, and I’m thrilled that we have Google Cloud as a global technology partner supporting our mission to transform expense management and financial operations worldwide.

If you want to learn more about how Google Cloud can help your startup, visit our page here to get more information about our program, and sign up for our communications to get a look at our community activities, digital events, special offers, and more.

EyecareLive transforms the healthcare ecosystem with Enhanced Support, a support service from the Google Cloud Customer Care portfolio.

Telemedicine is now mainstream. It exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2022 survey by Jones Lang Lasalle (registration required) found that 38% of U.S. patients were using some form of telemedicine. This number is expected to grow as consumers are demanding more convenient and immediate access to care, and doctors are seeking efficiencies, cost savings, and to forge closer relationships with patients.

But because the eye-care field is so heavily regulated, optometrists and ophthalmologists face more technical hurdles to perform telemedicine than their peers in other medical practices.

To join the telemedicine revolution, a generic technology solution wouldn’t do. Eye-care professionals need a more carefully architected and rigorously secure platform – one that ensures a very high degree of compliance and privacy.

EyecareLive provides exactly that. Their comprehensive cloud-based solution was built specifically for eye-care telemedicine practices. They not only facilitate telemedicine visits with patients via video, but help providers stay in compliance with complex industry regulations.

What’s more, EyecareLive is the only platform in the industry that conducts vision screening using Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-registered tests to check a patient’s vision before connecting them to a doctor through a video call. The doctor can thus triage any issues immediately and quickly determine the right next steps for proper care. In addition, their platform digitally connects optometrists and ophthalmologists to the entire eye-care ecosystem, including other doctors for referrals, insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, pharmacies, and, of course, patients.

On top of all of this, the automated back office for their eye-care practices processes electronic health records (EHRs), clinical workflow, billing, coding, and more into one platform. EyecareLive streamlines operations and frees up doctors to focus on delivering the highest possible eye healthcare and on building stronger relationships with patients.

“Considering the number of plug-and-play services that Google has built into the Google Cloud Healthcare solutions, Google is basically supporting the entire healthcare industry from an infrastructure provider point of view.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

Seeking greater agility, EyecareLive migrated to Google Cloud

EyecareLive is truly cloud first. They had operated entirely in the AWS cloud since opening their doors in 2017. Several years in, they decided to look for an additional cloud provider with broader support for digital health platforms. They specifically wanted to migrate to one they could rely on to deliver plug-and-play services, which would accelerate innovation of their platform. Rather than re-architecting for a new cloud, EyecareLive wanted a cloud platform that would offer compatible services they could use to meet their needs for reliability and availability.

“If we want to deploy a new conversational bot or build AI models that assist doctors to diagnose based on a retina image, Google Cloud provides these services which are reliable and tested by Google Cloud Healthcare solutions in many cases.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

Versatility was another requirement. The EyecareLive platform must fulfill the demands of a variety of organizations — doctors, pharmaceutical companies, clinics, and others. EyecareLive also has an international deployment strategy that goes far beyond offering a domestic telehealth solution. Therefore EyecareLive needed a cloud functionality that extended into the broader global eye-care ecosystem.

EyecareLive chose Google Cloud. The most compelling reason was the deep industry expertise found in Google Cloud for healthcare and life sciences. This distinguished Google Cloud from all other possible cloud providers considered by EyecareLive. “We like Google Cloud because of the differentiations such as Google Cloud Healthcare solutions, computer vision, and AI models that can be used out of the box,” says Raj Ramchandani, CEO of EyecareLive. “We found these features more robust for our use cases on Google Cloud than any other.”

“Google is heavily into its Healthcare Cloud. That’s what differentiates it. We love that part because we can tap into innovative healthcare cloud functionality quickly.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

Key to production deployment (and beyond): Google Cloud Enhanced Support

As a cloud-born company, EyecareLive had an exceedingly tech-savvy team. But the migration was a complex one that involved migrating third-party software and networking products that were tightly integrated into EyecareLive’s own code. The team knew it needed expert help with the migration. What’s more, doctors, patients, and other users required 24/7 access to the platform, and any interruptions to availability or infrastructure hiccups during the migration would disrupt their online experiences. However, the EyecareLive team was already stretched by continuing to grow and innovate the business, so they asked Google Cloud for help.

EyecareLive purchased Enhanced Support, a support service offered by the Google Cloud Customer Care portfolio. Specifically designed for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). Enhanced Support gave EyecareLive unlimited, fast access to expert support from a team of experienced Google Cloud engineers during the intricate, multifaceted migration.

“It was my top priority to engage Google Cloud Customer Care to help us keep the platform always available for our doctors and users,” says Ramchandani. “The level of detail to the answers, the clarifications of having the Enhanced Support experts tell us to do it a certain way has been enormously helpful.”

For example, one of the valuable features delivered by Enhanced Support is Third-Party Technology Support, which gives EyecareLive access to experts with specialized knowledge of third-party technologies, such as networking, MongoDB, and infrastructure. This meant all components in EyecareLive’s infrastructure could be seamlessly migrated to Google Cloud, and afterward EyecareLive could lean on Enhanced Support experts to continue to troubleshoot and mitigate issues as necessary.

“The response times to the questions and issues we had when going live was fantastic. It was the best experience with a tech vendor we’ve had in a long time.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

With Enhanced Support at their side, EyecareLive was able to get up and running quickly in preparation for their international expansion by using Google Cloud’s prebuilt AI models, load balancers, and networking technologies that were designed to be easily deployed across multiple regions throughout the globe. “We know exactly how to implement data locality to scale our deployment into different regions and into different countries, because we’ve learned that from the Google Cloud support team.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

EyecareLive then proceeded to rapidly scale their business, knowing that Google Cloud would ensure they could meet compliance standards in whatever country or region they expanded into.

“Since we’ve moved to Google Cloud and chose Enhanced Support, we’ve had 100% availability. That’s zero downtime, which is incredible.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

Enhanced Support also provided the capabilities for EyecareLive to:

• Resolve issues and minimize any unplanned downtime to maintain a high-quality, secure experience for doctors and patients during and after migration
• Acquire fast responses to questions from technical support experts
• Learn from guidance from the Enhanced Support team beyond immediate technical issues

EyecareLive builds momentum toward their vision for eye-care telemedicine

By working closely with the Google Cloud Enhanced Support team, EyecareLive was able to successfully migrate their platform.

“If you ask any of my engineers which cloud provider they prefer, they’d all respond ‘Google Cloud,’” says Ramchandani. “The documentation is there, the sample code is there, everything that we need to get started is available.”

EyecareLive was then able to go on to grow and scale their business in the cloud in the following ways:

• Successfully managed a complex migration with minimal disruption and maximum availability, ensuring a consistent, secure, and compliant-ready experience for doctors and patients
• Gained the trust of both doctors and patients – they know that EyecareLive protects their sensitive medical data
• Kept EyecareLive agile and focused on innovating forward rather than building new features from scratch by supporting the team as they took advantage of Google’s tailored, plug-and-play technologies
• Analyzed performance over time to plan for future growth by partnering with Enhanced Support for the long term

“We know we can rely on Google Cloud from a security point of view. We love the fact that Google Cloud Healthcare solution is HIPAA compliant. Those are the things that make us trust Google to do the right thing.” — Raj Ramchandani, CEO, EyecareLive

With Enhanced Support, EyecareLive sees a bright future in the cloud

With the help of Enhanced Support, EyecareLive brings digital transformation to the eye-care in the healthcare industry by integrating the entire ecosystem of eye-care partners onto one platform making EyecareLive a leader in their industry.

Learn more about Google Cloud Customer Care services and sign up today.