Russian monitoring system RedPine - from the problem to the birth of a new product
10 years ago, the company Hited, which, among other things, offers diesel generators for rent, took up the efficiency of its rental fleet, which is more than 250 diesel generator sets operating in different parts of the country. For the effective operation of such a fleet, a monitoring, accounting and dispatching system is needed, otherwise everything can get out of control. We must see the location, statistics and mode of the equipment, remotely turn it on and off. And at first it seemed that it was not very difficult.
But in practice it turned out that the solutions available on the market cannot provide all the necessary functions in real conditions. Therefore, it was decided to create our own monitoring system that meets all our requirements, and the result was a product that can be refined and offered to other companies to solve various problems.
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We called it Red Pine , and now it is a family of products, covering not only power supply, but also other engineering systems.
So, at first there was a task that consisted of a number of requirements. And we quickly realized that it would hardly be possible to solve it with the help of third-party products, because these third-party solutions often presented their counterclaims to us, and as a result they could offer us only a certain compromise between our desires and their limitations. This did not suit us at all, since these restrictions became real problems.
Unfortunately, in the case of using third-party products, these problems were intractable, and therefore they could not provide solutions to our problem. The market simply didn’t have what we needed; therefore, having weighed it all again, we decided to create our own monitoring, accounting and dispatching system, in which there would be no identified problems.
This is where the creation of Red Pine began . Based on an industrial computer on Linux, since it gave the best balance between opportunity and cost. Whenever possible, we try to use “iron” of Russian production, because it gives us flexibility, convenience and speed of interaction with suppliers, and the price is quite adequate. And already on the basis of this hardware, we create the required configurations (application part).
There is a phrase wiped up to the holes about something that does not kill us, makes us stronger. So in our case, overcoming the main problems led to the creation of a strong solution - the DGU monitoring system for our own rental fleet was ready and later became the prototype of a whole series of products that we decided to offer to other companies. The first thing we did was - we refined the monitoring system to a boxed one, which can be offered on the small energy market and called it Red Pine DGU.
Naturally, on the basis of the Red Pine logic, it is possible and necessary to create not only box versions, but also individual systems for specific client tasks, because the system can be adapted as much as possible to specific tasks. This, of course, is more expensive than the boxed version, but the resulting effect is significantly stronger.
Once we have experienced the limitations of functionality in third-party solutions, and we know that this often makes no sense. After all, monitoring and scheduling are not the ultimate goal - they are tools that allow you to increase the economic efficiency of facilities. And if the tools do not fit, then there will be no tangible effect.
At the very beginning of the way, we identified problems that should not be in the monitoring system being created, therefore, to declare some success without solving these problems is slyness and self-deception. Moreover, these problems had to be not only solved, but turned into advantages of the product, into its strengths.
Creating a monitoring and dispatching system, in which the main problems were solved, is not the final stage. We continue to add new functionality, improve the capabilities of the current functionality, develop interfaces and modules. The product develops in two directions - box solutions for standard tasks (for example, RedPine DGU, RedPine UPS, RedPine Technical Accounting) and design solutions created individually for specific projects (we call this direction Big RedPine) ).
Further narration requires immersion in specific details, so we will continue in the next articles, where there will already be examples of completed projects, a description of all functions, and demo versions, and even cartoons. We are really proud to be creating and are optimistic about the future of Red Pine products. We hope that we were able to interest you. We will be happy to see the comments, questions, and maybe even suggestions for future articles - we are here gathered just for the dialogue, so let's talk.
But in practice it turned out that the solutions available on the market cannot provide all the necessary functions in real conditions. Therefore, it was decided to create our own monitoring system that meets all our requirements, and the result was a product that can be refined and offered to other companies to solve various problems.
')
We called it Red Pine , and now it is a family of products, covering not only power supply, but also other engineering systems.
It all started with a task, continued with problems, and ended with the creation of a product
So, at first there was a task that consisted of a number of requirements. And we quickly realized that it would hardly be possible to solve it with the help of third-party products, because these third-party solutions often presented their counterclaims to us, and as a result they could offer us only a certain compromise between our desires and their limitations. This did not suit us at all, since these restrictions became real problems.
5 main problems:
Unfortunately, in the case of using third-party products, these problems were intractable, and therefore they could not provide solutions to our problem. The market simply didn’t have what we needed; therefore, having weighed it all again, we decided to create our own monitoring, accounting and dispatching system, in which there would be no identified problems.
This is where the creation of Red Pine began . Based on an industrial computer on Linux, since it gave the best balance between opportunity and cost. Whenever possible, we try to use “iron” of Russian production, because it gives us flexibility, convenience and speed of interaction with suppliers, and the price is quite adequate. And already on the basis of this hardware, we create the required configurations (application part).
Red Pine DGU - monitoring and dispatching system
There is a phrase wiped up to the holes about something that does not kill us, makes us stronger. So in our case, overcoming the main problems led to the creation of a strong solution - the DGU monitoring system for our own rental fleet was ready and later became the prototype of a whole series of products that we decided to offer to other companies. The first thing we did was - we refined the monitoring system to a boxed one, which can be offered on the small energy market and called it Red Pine DGU.
The composition of the boxed solution:
Naturally, on the basis of the Red Pine logic, it is possible and necessary to create not only box versions, but also individual systems for specific client tasks, because the system can be adapted as much as possible to specific tasks. This, of course, is more expensive than the boxed version, but the resulting effect is significantly stronger.
Once we have experienced the limitations of functionality in third-party solutions, and we know that this often makes no sense. After all, monitoring and scheduling are not the ultimate goal - they are tools that allow you to increase the economic efficiency of facilities. And if the tools do not fit, then there will be no tangible effect.
General view of the monitoring and dispatching system Red Pine
Solving 5 main problems
At the very beginning of the way, we identified problems that should not be in the monitoring system being created, therefore, to declare some success without solving these problems is slyness and self-deception. Moreover, these problems had to be not only solved, but turned into advantages of the product, into its strengths.
5 main problems - 5 advantages:
Creating a monitoring and dispatching system, in which the main problems were solved, is not the final stage. We continue to add new functionality, improve the capabilities of the current functionality, develop interfaces and modules. The product develops in two directions - box solutions for standard tasks (for example, RedPine DGU, RedPine UPS, RedPine Technical Accounting) and design solutions created individually for specific projects (we call this direction Big RedPine) ).
Further narration requires immersion in specific details, so we will continue in the next articles, where there will already be examples of completed projects, a description of all functions, and demo versions, and even cartoons. We are really proud to be creating and are optimistic about the future of Red Pine products. We hope that we were able to interest you. We will be happy to see the comments, questions, and maybe even suggestions for future articles - we are here gathered just for the dialogue, so let's talk.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/403697/
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