Berlinger works with NetRom to measure temperature remotely and in realtime

Berlinger is an extraordinary Swiss family business, founded in 1865. The company’s roots are in fabric manufacturing. Through a rather coincidental request from a customer looking for a chemical temperature indicator for use in the transport of raw materials, the company gradually entered the chemical field. In later stages, the temperature controller was converted to electronics; today it involves real-time tracking of physical conditions and location of pharmaceutical products.

Bernd Heisterkamp is Head of R&D at Berlinger & Co. AG. He explains that the company serves three customer groups. First, companies in clinical research, then in the field of pharmaceuticals and life sciences and finally health organizations such as WHO or UNICEF. “It is not always clear who all belong to our end-customers: physicians, purchasers, transporters, financiers of aid campaigns. But almost always the focus is on monitoring site equipment such as refrigerators, cool boxes and other storage as well as shipments – sometimes around the world.

Medications often have a certain temperature tolerance with critical lower and upper limits, and in many cases, it is essential to have the temperature curve by hand in order to understand if any deviations took place. It also helps our customers make the right decisions: can we still apply this drug safely, even if it is exposed to certain fluctuations? In some cases, medical substances must be stored at extremely low temperatures, for example -180 degrees Celsius.”

A second business line of Berlinger is Berlinger Special AG; this division is focused on developing and producing safe containers for doping samples. These products are designed to reduce the risk of tampering with doping tests, Heisterkamp said. “They are widely used at professional sporting events such as the Olympics.”

For the temperature loggers business line, Berlinger wanted to take the next step with real-time IoT-based services. Heisterkamp explains: “Previously, you had to connect a data logger to a system via a USB cable, then retrieve the data and read it in a graph, whether in a cloud environment or not. Nowadays, depending on the circumstances, you have a real-time data connection. In an airplane, for example, the monitoring system can turn itself off. When the system comes back online, it can transmit data again, as well as provide alerts.” Because the loggers often need to be able to operate for long periods of time and 4G or 5G connections consume too much energy, other forms of connectivity are used, such as CAT M1.

The modernization effort required enhancements to both our backend and frontend systems, focusing on improving scalability and the user interface. Our software development team in the Netherlands required swift and dependable support to accomplish this task efficiently. So we looked for a collaboration with an external partner who could provide us with the necessary flexibility to adjust the size of our development team according to the project’s requirements, enabling us to scale up for the development phase and scale down upon its completion.

So Berlinger went looking for a software development company that had experience in the medical business. Heisterkamp: “We talked to several organisations. The main reason for not going off-shore is the time-difference and the difficulty to set up personal meetings. Another factor was that offshoring would hamper hardware logistics, such as shipping devices, an essential element in the development program. In some countries customs might delay product shipments significantly.”

“We started with mixed teams where NetRom engineers were participating remotely. That did not turn out to be efficient, since the team-spirit is difficult to develop for split teams. After six month we formed a NetRom and Berlinger team, giving the Netrom team more freedom and accountability. Since the team engineers where co-located, they developed much more enthusiasm for the project. It is essential that the team has full responsibility for the work package. That is good for commitment and quality; so at NetRom, the various specialists on the team are literally in one room.”

Berlinger believes a good click with the team is an absolute prerequisite for success. This has been in play from the very beginning, Heisterkamp explains: “I think it is important not to underestimate the startup. An intensive exchange is essential for a good and efficient start. We have had several physical exchanges back and forth. Romania, from my personal experience, is still a touch more hierarchical than the Netherlands or Switzerland. It is extra important to build a good personal relationship with the Romanian teammates, in which there is room for mutual trust. That means that feedback can start flowing both ways, which of course is essential for a scrum team. With that, you can build a dedicated team that has a lot of domain knowledge. Software development also has a lot to do with creativity and exchange – having coffee with colleagues and getting ideas.”

The strong trust in the NetRom team even led to an additional project. Next to the software development, NetRom was also asked to assess the legacy software architecture and propose improvements. This helped to focus on the essential topics and save costs as a result.

“It is important to realize that at critical moments in projects – when time or budget are in jeopardy – you have to stand your ground rather than start doubting everything and everyone,” says Heisterkamp. “A team like this is already under pressure. It is really not going to perform any better if you add to that pressure with consultant-like PowerPoint presentations that show it needs to be better and faster.”

The result of this investment is that the team in Romania has changed over time, says Heisterkamp: “They make suggestions, contribute their own ideas, engage in discussions and challenge the choices made by us. That is exactly what you need to get a good solution in the end.”

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