This time we would like to share a use case of our client from Alpla. Alpla is headquartered in Austria and specializes in innovative packaging systems, blow-molded bottles and caps, and injection-molded parts for a wide range of industries. It is considered to be the international leading company for plastic packaging, and it is the largest producer of packaging in Europe, with over 170 production plants in 40+ countries worldwide.
Company industry: Plastic packaging systems
Alex Taylor: What challenges made you search for this kind of software?
Stefan Mueller: We need to replace software that’s over 15 years old. The software communicates with older devices that are all connected via COM ports. (We are using several measurement devise across the company. Most of them are super old. The devices perform different tasks like measurement tasks, scanning barcodes and sending information to their party systems).
The current solution is installed client-side and communicates with different tools that are connected via COM port. The new solution is purely web-based and independent of the client. Now this application will be replaced with a server-side solution. Therefore we need a solution that allows us to connect the old devices with the new web-based solution. For this, we use the Electronic Team, Inc. Serial to Ethernet Connector.Alex Taylor: How did you get to know about our software?
Stefan Mueller: We found out about the Electronic Team, Inc. Serial to Ethernet Connector via Google.
Alex Taylor: Did you try any similar product(s) before coming across ours?
Stefan Mueller: We have tried several solutions, both open-source, and other paid solutions.
Alex Taylor: Why did you choose our product over competitors? What made it stand out for you?
Stefan Mueller: The functionality of all tested solutions was very similar. Also in terms of speed, there were no big differences. The main reason for choosing Electronic Team, Inc. was the interface of the software. It seems much friendlier and more modern than those of the competition.
Alex Taylor: How did you benefit from using our solution?
Stefan Mueller: We don’t have to directly replace the older devices that are connected to clients via COM ports and can continue to use them with the new software.
Alex Taylor: Are you happy with our software at this point? Why or why not?
Stefan Mueller: We are still in the pilot phase. So far everything works as we expected and presented it. By combining the Electronic Team, Inc. software with our new solution, we have already been able to improve performance.
Alex Taylor: Do you feel our prices are: high – about right – low?
Stefan Mueller: Prices are relatively high compared to the competition.
Alex Taylor: Has our customer support system met your needs?
Stefan Mueller: So far we have not needed any support for the software itself. It is simple and intuitive.
We are incredibly thankful to Stefan Mueller, a Solution Architect at Alpla, for taking part in our survey and sharing his thoughts and experience from using our software.
