New feature: Configuration Management

The number of parcel lockers and new locker networks across Europe has grown substantially in recent years. 

As demand for out-of-home delivery from consumers increases, operators increasingly treat their parcel locker networks as core infrastructure. This means that operators are moving away from all-in-one vendor dependency. They want the freedom to source hardware, software and maintenance independently.

Networks that once ran on a single parcel locker hardware type now span multiple manufacturers and multiple generations of lockers, all differing on a component level.

What Challenge We Identified

When talking to market leaders who operate large scale locker networks, we identified that often their networks consist of hardware from multiple manufacturers, multiple generations from a single manufacturer, or a mix of both.

The moment they decided to take more control by having their own locker software, own maintenance contracts, or spare parts management, they often did not have a reliable overview of what specific hardware components are inside each locker. 

Why is that important? Imagine a batch of lockers that aren’t working properly across the network. Finding the root cause can be very time consuming if you don’t know which lockers contain what specific components. Without that overview, it’s very hard to even classify the issue as a hardware or software problem in the first place. 

How Our Configuration Management Module Helps

Configuration Management is a new module in the CollabNet platform that automatically reads hardware and software component data directly from lockers in the field, using IoT and related technologies, this also includes firmware and other software components. Where automatic reading isn’t possible, operators can also add data manually. 

All of this data is systematised into a database on the CollabNet platform, giving network operators a clear overview of the different hardware in their network with the specific components and software versions running on each.

That structured data can then be linked to reliability metrics regarding related to specific hardware manufacturers.

Operators can also use it to detect patterns, for example, if a certain component at a specific manufacturer’s hardware is consistently causing issues, that pattern becomes visible. What used to require hours of manual investigation can now be spotted immediately and acted on before it affects more of the network. 

Configuration Management Was Built With The Support of EU

This development was made possible with the support of European Union financing through the Estonian Arendusosak (Development Voucher) programme, which supports Estonian companies in bringing in technology partners to accelerate product development. The EU financing gave us the runway to make this investment without disrupting our existing operations.