How 'entry experts' Royal Boon Edam are unlocking new opportunities in the cloud

Royal Boon Edam, a manufacturing company that supplies revolving doors, high security doors, and speed gates across the world, uses Microsoft Azure to drive an Internet of Things (IoT) strategy to transform its global customer service. With the power of Microsoft Azure, the company has created a data insights platform to deliver new customer experiences and innovative solutions.

Customer

Royal Boon EdamWebsite: www.boonedam.comCountry: The NetherlandsIndustry: ManufacturingCompany size: Large (1,000 – 9,999 employees)

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Voice of the Customer

Customer profile

Royal Boon Edam provides secure, custom entrances for customers around the world.

Software and services

Microsoft AzureMicrosoft Azure SQL DatabaseAzure Active DirectoryAzure Blob Storage

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From the tallest building in the world to hospitals and museums, chances are you’ve walked through one of Royal Boon Edam’s products without knowing it, possibly several times a day. The company provides welcome and secure entrances to places ranging from busy hospitals, high-end hotels and highly security-sensitive data centres, to museums and stadiums around the world. Its entrances are in some of the world’s most inspiring buildings—from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Royal Boon Edam, working with Microsoft partner, Valid, is using Microsoft Azure to drive an Internet of Things (IoT) strategy that’s changing how it serves its global customers. “Our goal is to have all of our products connected,” says Martin Moes, Manager of Integrated Products at Royal Boon Edam. “There’s a big opportunity to scale and integrate with other systems, and with Azure we have more connectivity possibilities than ever before.”

Royal Boon Edam produces architectural Tourniket revolving doors, security entrance lanes, swing gates and automatic sliding doors. A third-generation Dutch family company known as the ‘Entry Experts’, it has grown from creating a single wooden revolving door in 1873 to installing custom access solutions worldwide.

Using multiple Microsoft Azure services, the company has focused on using cloud-based technology to innovate through data, delivering more information on efficient traffic flow, energy conservation, security and user experience to its customers.

More connectivity, transaction processing improvements

Connectivity is critical to a company that works in partnership with architects, contractors, installation companies, facility and security managers, security experts and building managers to create custom entry solutions. “We create an ecosystem to provide the outcome the customer wants, such as integrating a solution with existing building control systems,” says Moes.

Delivering custom IoT solutions requires connectivity and raw data processing power, and Royal Boon Edam needed the ability to process enormous amounts of transactional and sensor data in seconds. In addressing this requirement, the company harnessed Microsoft Azure, boosting processing speed from four transactions per second to 500 transactions per second, a huge improvement metric.

The gateway to innovation: how entry experts Royal Boon Edam are unlocking new opportunities in the cloud

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Using the data and connectivity power of Azure to deliver an Internet of Things (IoT) strategy that’s changing how Royal Boon Edam does business and serves its global customers.

Security was another crucial factor in the company’s decision to use Azure, because it is so critical to Royal Boon Edam’s customers around the world. Using services such as Azure Active Directory and SQL Azure database, the company can now provide scalable, flexible, custom security solutions to customers who require it. For example, organisations running data centres in countries experiencing instability may require special controls to lock down data and facilities. These advanced security settings will soon be able to be applied and monitored remotely, keeping personnel safe and data secure.

A sensor-based platform powered by the cloud

Royal Boon Edam is using Microsoft Azure as the foundation for a proprietary platform. The solution uses data from a variety of access or entry sensors to provide customers with detailed data about movements, peak times, transactions and more.

The platform allows the company to provide better customer service, and create new business models, too, with customers including real estate and building management companies. Using sensor data from entrances at a shopping mall, for example, Royal Boon Edam can show these customers which entrance is the busiest, with the highest footfall. Its customers can then use that data to develop new strategies, such as adapting rents based on traffic and location.

Royal Boon Edam has enabled solutions for customers in several European countries. Gas stations in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France are using the platform capabilities to deliver customer offers based on location, time of day, or season.

Using Azure to predict maintenance, reduce costs

Another way Royal Boon Edam is using the cloud and big data capabilities of Azure is to enable remote maintenance of its entrances. Most of Royal Boon Edam’s entry points require regular, preventative maintenance, perhaps once or twice a year. Often, an employee will perform the maintenance on site. Using data from Azure, the company is creating a remote maintenance model for its access solutions to save time and reduce costs.

In the future, this diagnostic data could provide a number of benefits, from empowering engineers with better information on site, to senior engineers guiding less experienced technicians remotely from the company’s headquarters.

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“Our goal is to have all of our products connected. There’s a big opportunity to scale and integrate with other systems, and with Azure we have more connectivity possibilities than ever before.”

Martin Moes, Manager of Integrated Products, Royal Boon Edam

The gateway to innovation: how entry experts Royal Boon Edam are unlocking new opportunities in the cloud

Royal Boon Edam: opening and securing gateways to the world with Microsoft Azure

Soon, Royal Boon Edam will use Azure to move to a predictive-based maintenance model, where sensor-based data and other inputs will notify the company and its customers exactly when a specific entry or access point requires maintenance. This allows Royal Boon Edam to be more efficient with its resources—some entry points may not require maintenance, others will require more attention.

The company is excited about developing more capabilities via Microsoft Azure. It plans to apply the technology by retrofitting doors, deploying their custom solutions to existing entry and access points to create an even more connected and scalable network.

This case study is for informational purposes only.MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published November 2018.

Digital transformation to:

• Empower employees • Engage customers • Optimise operations • Transform product • Transform business

Partner: ValidPartner website: www.valid.nl

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The gateway to innovation: how entry experts Royal Boon Edam are unlocking new opportunities in the cloud

MORE POWER AND CONNECTIVITY

1. Royal Boon Edam increased its processing speed from four transactions per second to 500 transactions per second using Azure.

2. Royal Boon Edam is using Microsoft Azure as the foundation for its proprietary IoT platform.

3. Royal Boon Edam is using the cloud and big data capabilities of Azure to enable remote maintenance of its entrances.