Cross-Platform Vending Management Application Modernization
Highlights
- End-to-end vending machine management
- Sales and cash flow reporting
- Dynamic route planning
- Real-time machines monitoring and alerts
- Automated finance invoice generation
- Data integration and standardization with EVA-DTS support
- Integration with existing vending and enterprise systems
Client
The client is a UK-based technology company that delivers smart monitoring and data solutions for hospitality and vending operations. Their products enable operators to control beverage and vending systems.
Challenge
The cross-platform vending system was built on legacy code, had limited functionality and scalability. The client struggled to consolidate data from different vending machine types that used various reporting mechanisms, data formats, and time standards (including UTC and local timestamps). The company also relied on paper-based workflows and manual data entry, which slowed down maintenance operations and complicated reporting. To address these issues, the client approached SoftTeco. The goal was to modernize the existing IoT solution by replacing its outdated architecture with a scalable system that would unify telemetry and manual inputs, standardize data processing, improve real-time data accessibility, and add new functionalities.
Solution
SoftTeco modernized a cross-platform application to monitor and manage vending machines throughout their lifecycle, including tracking sales, operational maintenance, and repairs. The system enables operators to remotely configure machine settings, monitor real-time performance data, and receive instant alerts on technical issues. The IoT-enabled system provides a unified view of inventory levels, stock movements, and machine status, allowing operators to replenish products in machines on time across all locations. The new invoice financial feature extracts data, performs automated invoice calculations, generates PDF invoices, and securely stores them in the database.
Managers can conduct service scheduling, route planning, and on-site updates via a mobile app directly in the field. The app also supports offline operation and data synchronization. Additionally, the solution provides centralized operational support for internal users via a web portal for managing vending machine operations. The IoT-based system ensures precise data management and presents information in a structured, user-friendly format for later analysis. Along with that, it integrates with existing vending and enterprise software solutions, to make it adoptable within the existing ecosystem.
Tech Stack
How it works
Our collaboration started in 2020 and lasted until 2025 with a cross-functional team of twenty specialists including project managers, business analysts, solution architects, developers, QA engineers, designers, and DevOps specialists. Our team started by analyzing and improving the existing system architecture. We gradually replaced the outdated LLBLGen ORM framework with a more lightweight and efficient data access approach based on Dapper and MS SQL Server stored procedures. This method improved IoT-based system performance and increased maintainability without breaking the existing structure.
The system included a WCF service for communication between the backend system and vending machines. As a legacy component, we maintained it by handling bug fixes, improving stability, as well as updating communication protocols and data exchange formats. Our team introduced several new features that would improve operational visibility and financial control for vending operators. Now, the platform provides:
- Interactive dashboards and reporting tools
- Detailed sales and cash flow reporting
- Finance invoice generation
- Real-time machine performance monitoring
- Seamless integration with other companies products
Along with this, we added telemetry data ingestion services based on the European Vending Association Data Transfer Standard (EVA-DTS). By doing so, we standardized data collection and transferred information from vending machines to the management platform. We also built a mobile app in Xamarin for managing vending machines on-site. It supports service scheduling, route execution, real-time operational updates, and synchronizes with the backend of the IoT system. Finally, we performed a thorough software testing together with the client-side QA specialists in two stages: QA and user acceptance testing (UAT), using separate environments. Our QA experts validated system functionalities and data flows, as well as conducted interaction between system modules, database logic, and external integrations.
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Results
SoftTeco successfully modernized a cross-platform machine vending application by adding new features, rewriting outdated legacy code, and improving functionality. The IoT-based solution helps the client improve real-time visibility across all connected machines, automate data collection with EVA-DTS standardization, eliminate manual reporting errors, improve system operational efficiency, and robust data analytics.
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