| | JULY 20148CIOReview

Company:Cantina

Description:An independent digital design and development agency

Key Person:Alec Francesconi, President

Website:www.cantina.co

CantinaCantinarecognized by magazine as

An annual listing of 50 companies that are in the forefront of providing IoT solutions and impacting the marketplace

Editor-in-ChiefPradeep Shankar

| | November 201528CIOReview

Involved in any discussion on Internet of Things (IoT) are words like digital disruption, innovation, and ‘smart’ devic-es. Today, IoT is in the limelight and increasingly there are

many companies trying to make a dent in this disruptive market. However, many companies lack the necessary expertise to bring their innovative and ambitious ideas to life. “It is imperative for these companies to understand the business impact of IoT and their related technology decisions,” informs Alec Francesconi, President, Cantina. A comprehensive understanding of the tech-nological skills and design approach is required to develop in-novative solutions, and Cantina brings just that. The Boston, MA – based digital design and development firm has been enabling organizations to bring their disruptive ideas to life.

Cantina houses adept expertise in building interfaces, which Francesconi believes enables them to tackle its clients’ challenges in the IoT landscape. “IoT really is a concept. A part of it is essentially instrumenting more of the objects of the world. Everything comes back to user interface. With our skilled resources in developing front and back end of an innovation, we have built interfaces with capable design resources,” he adds. “A lot of our work revolves around mobile and IoT is an extension of a major chunk of what we do.”

Cantina is a ‘work for hire’ company that leverages modern-day technology and techniques to build customer-facing products for its client. Their extensive experience in combining the right set of technology and design enables Cantina to build custom applications and products. “We enlighten our clients about the business impact and end-user needs of the solution they desire to build, and help them design the software,” says Francesconi. “Our team is adept in making the user side interact with the network side of the solution.”

The company follows a ‘business first’ approach, which involves the team conducting a series of workshops and training sessions with its clients. “Our clients have an idea of the solution to the problem they have, and we really help them to flush out that solution,” states Francesconi. Once the architecture is determined, the company designs and develops the solution from end-user perspective. Recently, a Boston based bio technology and engineering firm approached Cantina to help design and build a

system to collect data and provide on-demand analysis from a network of air-quality sensors. The technical architects of Cantina worked with this client’s team to understand the requirements and existing methodology in place. “We helped them build the data

architecture and designed and developed the front- and back-ends of the system,” says Francesconi. The company can pull

all the sensor data and give specific air quality information at different places to

relevant users.Cantina is establishing an in-

novation lab where the focus will be on building prototype hard-ware to better understand user interactions. In doing so, the com-

pany aims to further establish itself as experts in the rapidly

forming and changing IoT space. “The market is moving quickly and chaotically. We have to stay focused on listen-ing to customers and building user-centric and valuable interac-tions,” concludes Francesconi.

CantinaBringing Ambitious Innovation to Life

Alec Francesconi

We’re here to turn amazing ideas into ‘digital reality’. Our people shape ideas into successful products and services by using the best design and development techniques available

"

‘Connectivity’ is a pioneering idea that has revolutionized the technological landscape. Right from basic telephonic systems to advanced wireless acces-

sories, everything revolves around an initiative to craft a connected world. Amid this large arena of connectivity, lies the booming landscape of Inter-net of Things (IoT) that has spread its wings to fos-ter whole new era of intelligence.

Realizing this crucial need of intelligence, to-day’s enterprises are embracing the concept of IoT to significantly improve business performance, profitability and customer-experience. Retailers, warehouse systems, and manufacturers have al-ready employed IoT within their workspace and are experiencing benefits of the connected world.

In spite of its current limited coverage, experts of the IT industry foresee high demand for IoT deployments in the coming future. All along this

growth, is the emerging trend for Edge Computing in the field of IoT. Edge computing is an idea where one captures, processes and store the informa-tion locally. This allows organizations to filter out the inconsequential messages while also augment the value of existing data. The other advantages include—deployment of smaller and simplified sensors, and application of security at a local level.

Citing these innovative trends and expansion of IoT, the necessity for competent IoT solution pro-viders has increased immensely. Subsequently, a number of companies have achieved distinction in delivering these services. In the last few months, we have come across hundreds of IoT solution providers and shortlisted some of the pioneer-ing companies who have helped manufacturers, retailers and several other enterprises in tackling the IoT’s impediments. We present you 50 Most Promising IoT Solution Providers 2015.

CIOREVIEW.COMNOVEMBER - 4 - 2015IOT Special

T h e N a v i g a t o r f o r E n t e r p r i s e S o l u t i o n s

50 Most Promising IoT Solution Providers 2015

| | JULY 20149CIOReview

| | November 201528CIOReview

Involved in any discussion on Internet of Things (IoT) are words like digital disruption, innovation, and ‘smart’ devic-es. Today, IoT is in the limelight and increasingly there are

many companies trying to make a dent in this disruptive market. However, many companies lack the necessary expertise to bring their innovative and ambitious ideas to life. “It is imperative for these companies to understand the business impact of IoT and their related technology decisions,” informs Alec Francesconi, President, Cantina. A comprehensive understanding of the tech-nological skills and design approach is required to develop in-novative solutions, and Cantina brings just that. The Boston, MA – based digital design and development firm has been enabling organizations to bring their disruptive ideas to life.

Cantina houses adept expertise in building interfaces, which Francesconi believes enables them to tackle its clients’ challenges in the IoT landscape. “IoT really is a concept. A part of it is essentially instrumenting more of the objects of the world. Everything comes back to user interface. With our skilled resources in developing front and back end of an innovation, we have built interfaces with capable design resources,” he adds. “A lot of our work revolves around mobile and IoT is an extension of a major chunk of what we do.”

Cantina is a ‘work for hire’ company that leverages modern-day technology and techniques to build customer-facing products for its client. Their extensive experience in combining the right set of technology and design enables Cantina to build custom applications and products. “We enlighten our clients about the business impact and end-user needs of the solution they desire to build, and help them design the software,” says Francesconi. “Our team is adept in making the user side interact with the network side of the solution.”

The company follows a ‘business first’ approach, which involves the team conducting a series of workshops and training sessions with its clients. “Our clients have an idea of the solution to the problem they have, and we really help them to flush out that solution,” states Francesconi. Once the architecture is determined, the company designs and develops the solution from end-user perspective. Recently, a Boston based bio technology and engineering firm approached Cantina to help design and build a

system to collect data and provide on-demand analysis from a network of air-quality sensors. The technical architects of Cantina worked with this client’s team to understand the requirements and existing methodology in place. “We helped them build the data

architecture and designed and developed the front- and back-ends of the system,” says Francesconi. The company can pull

all the sensor data and give specific air quality information at different places to

relevant users.Cantina is establishing an in-

novation lab where the focus will be on building prototype hard-ware to better understand user interactions. In doing so, the com-

pany aims to further establish itself as experts in the rapidly

forming and changing IoT space. “The market is moving quickly and chaotically. We have to stay focused on listen-ing to customers and building user-centric and valuable interac-tions,” concludes Francesconi.

CantinaBringing Ambitious Innovation to Life

Alec Francesconi

We’re here to turn amazing ideas into ‘digital reality’. Our people shape ideas into successful products and services by using the best design and development techniques available

"