Seamless Communications: Telit Modules Helps Prompt Softech Streamline Dairy Operations

Case Study | TelecomDrive.com: Telit Modules Helps Prompt Softech Streamline Dairy Operations

Prompt Softech is a division of Prompt Group which began its journey in 2011 and is focused towards providing IT solutions for the Diary Industry. The company provides reliable solutions for dairy management which improves productivity, reduces overall cost of operation and thus guarantees greater availability of milk and dairy products. The solutions help dairy clients achieve transparency and uniformity in the communication from dairy's head office to the members of dairy farms across the country.

It’s core product BMC Smart Box which is designed and developed by Prompt Softech is gives you greater control over milk quality and economics. This has been the core of all the solutions developed by Prompt Softech.

Prompt’s Challenge:

Connectivity of the dairies with the dairy head office is very important. The head office provides regular milk rates, information, online money transfer to farmers banks and regular important information on weather, quantity of milk collected at each dairy, changing milk production patterns, information on cattle feed and medicines etc.

For this to be successful connectivity, performance and speed are the key parameters. Any breakdown in these parameters leads to a total breakdown in communication which impacts cost of milk production, lack of information which in turn impacts overall sales.

”We used Telit’s GE910 2G module, UL865 3G module. Now, we are planning to use LE910 4G module. We use all the modules specifically for data transfer as we get better performance for speed on Telit. The modules were used for Embedded products like BMC Smart Box which is used to monitor Bulk Milk Coolers, Prompt E-Panel a digital signage system designed specifically for the dairy industry, Data Processor Unit (DPU) a hardware device used for milk collection in Village Dairy Cooperative Societies (VDCS) and for Prompt AMCS (Automatic Milk Collection System) which is a common application for Village Diary Cooperative Societies and Milk Unions. Many of our customers mentioned that due to Telit’s reliable and fast services, they could store their data easily and quickly over cloud, thereby saving time. Overall Telit provides excellent support like solutions for technical issues, design reviews and logistics”, says Bhautik Kothadia, Project Manager, Prompt Group.

Earlier we were using modules that had connectivity and speed issues. However, after shifting on to Telit, we did not come across such problems. Prompt used Data Dongles to connect PCs to their cloud network for connectivity but in villages, connectivity is a major problem, hence external antenna is required for proper connectivity. For every new module, the company had a separate data dongle which resulted in driver related problems. Moreover, with the data dongle Prompt could not connect external antenna or booster for better connectivity. All these impacted Prompts client’s businesses due to unreliable connectivity and speed.

The Solution:

To overcome the above problems Prompt designed a modem with Telit module in which they could connect the external antenna and no need to change the USB driver of PC.

The company used Telit’s GE910 2G and U865 3G modules to build this modem. All modules were used for data transfer. With Telit modules they not only got much better performance and speed but it also provided better support like solutions to solve technical issues and schematic and layout review.  Now, the company is planning to use LE910 4G module to develop it further.

The picture below shows the Telit module for PC based modem. Prompt uses PC’s SMPS supply for modem and mounts it into PC’s cabinet.

Most of the modules were used for embedded products like BMC Smart Box, Prompt E Panel, Data Processing Unit (DPU) for milk collection and Prompts AMCS(Automatic Milk Collection System)-PC based system for Village Co-operative Dairy Societies.

The benefits for each product by using Telit modules are listed below:

BMC Smart box- BMC Smart box is our embedded product which is used to monitor Bulk Milk Cooler (BMC). Here, the companies monitor parameters like milk quantity in tank, temperature of milk, Agitator on/off status, Compressor on/off status, Power grid on/off status, and Generator on/off status. By using Telit modules Prompt’s clients were not only able to do it efficiently but with more speed and reliability.

Prompt E-Panel- It’s a digital signage system designed specifically for the dairy industry. It is being used by Milk Societies to display the messages such as milk rates, important circular and/or announcements from the Milk Unions’ office to the members/farmers of the Milk Societies. The messages are sent over GSM network. The LED digital display has multiple language options and thus the message is communicated to all the dairy farms without any ambiguity. Usage of Telit modules has not only improved the speed but also reliability and connectivity which is very crucial to the farmers on a day to day basis.

DPU (Data Processor Unit)- DPU is a hardware device used during/for milk collection in Village Dairy Cooperative Societies (VDCS). DPU captures data from electronic weighing machine, EMT/Milk Analyzer. It also accepts milk producer’s details manually, allows processing milk billing and writes processed data on Micro SD card or prints it in a specific report format. It has a built-in Printer that allows printing of slips and reports. Continuous connectivity is very crucial here and Telit modules with an external antenna have been a game changer in the efficient functioning of DPU.

Prompt AMCS (Automatic Milk Collection System) - PC based Application Prompt AMCS is a common application for Village Dairy Cooperative Societies.  The most successful example is the implementation by Amul in India.  Its AMCS (Automatic Milk Collection System) is an initiative by GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) in association with the Prompt group.  It provides an end to end solution to the Village dairy co-operative societies that embark on digital transformation as the way of doing business.

This implementation by Amul is the biggest IT integration in the history of the dairy industry. It has created a common digital platform for farmers and milk unions where every step is transparent and each party knows how much milk is collected. It also provides information on seasonal fluctuations, problems and solution if any, milk rates, weather patterns impacting cattle feed, data collection at each co-operative unit and online payment to farmers. It is a step towards building a cashless and an organized society.

Its application and implementation by Amul, has revolutionised the way business is done between Amul and the dairy farmer co-operatives. Prompt has successfully implemented the AMCS solution which has been made possible by using Telit modules which guaranteed reliability, connectivity and speed for such a massive transaction between hundreds of people.

For more information, please visit www.promptsoftec.com