- AWS
- Engineer Autoscaling
HandyTrac Key Control
Modern rebuild of a 20-year-old key control system prepares an industry leader for innovation and growth.
The Challenge
HandyTrac, an Atlanta-based key control provider, relied on a Key Control System built on a network of first-generation keypads that communicated with an in-house server via dialup communications. With no framework or refactoring for cloud-based best practices, serial extensions made the system more complex and less stable, raising sustainability concerns and slowing innovation.
All company IP rested with one electrical engineer who had personally maintained the monolithic code for two decades as the company updated hardware and networking technology. HandyTrac business leaders decided to rebuild the Key Control System using modern frameworks and best practices to decrease their dependence on any one employee and position the system to evolve more efficiently moving forward.
Our Solution
The 7Factor team first conducted a discovery to gain an in-depth understanding of the system, identify pain points, and structure a solution that would best meet HandyTrac’s current and future needs. We then rebuilt HandyTrac’s app and web portal from scratch, migrating to an API-based system built on AWS.
The front end was built on Vue.js and the back end was written in Java with an Aurora MySQL database managed by RDS. Using Concourse for continuous integration and delivery and Terraform to provision AWS infrastructure as code, the rebuild accelerated both the deployment of updates and resource provisioning. 7Factor also updated existing communication functions into an online portal that displays all key control-related transactions using best practices of modern UI design.
15.1K
Active properties
10x
Acceleration in data processing
50%
Reduction in customer onboarding effort
60%
Decrease in customer onboarding paperwork
What Sets Us Apart
Before the 7Factor team wrote a single line of code, we spent long hours with HandyTrac, examining their existing systems and asking lots of questions. And as we asked more questions, we got a more complete and accurate understanding of how the legacy system actually worked … and better ideas of how they could rebuild it. By taking this time up front to prioritize a quality solution, we were able to execute all the more quickly once we had a plan in place.
Throughout the rebuild process, HandyTrac and 7Factor engineers worked closely together—and HandyTrac was impressed by what they saw. “They knock out things one after the other, any time there’s been any kind of issue,” said HandyTrac Developer Chris Garies. “Some of the old systems, like the original Ethernet-based ones, are ancient. They’re running a chip from the 80s, so they need this very specific formatting or they’re just going to reject everything. And they just blew right through that and it stood up real quick.”
With a modern, standards-based architecture in place, HandyTrac is now better positioned to innovate and enhance its systems. They continue to turn to 7Factor to further improve their systems.
