TraknProtect is a Chicago-area startup developing software solutions that aim to revolutionize the way hotels track and manage their inventory. TranknProtect’s flagship application is a real-time inventory tracking and analytics platform for hotels and resorts that instantly transforms rudimentary inventory filing systems into real-time, automated tracking systems. With TraknProtect, your staff can now locate any piece of inventory - cribs, rollaway beds, tables, projectors, etc. – instantaneously, allowing them to respond to and fulfill any guest request for additional inventory in a fraction of the time. TranknProtect uses Bluetooth low energy (BLE) trackers and an easy-to-use proprietary app to track equipment so that your staff can instantly locate any piece of equipment, without undergoing any additional training. Plus, the app provides you with an analytical evaluation of your hotel’s inventory usage so that you can forecast future inventory needs – saving you valuable resources that are often wasted on purchasing unneeded inventory.
According to Founder and CEO Parminder Batra, TraknProtect functions to make any piece of hotel equipment “smart”, by providing hotel employees with its location in real-time. "Traditionally, when a guest requests an additional item like a crib, a member of the housekeeping staff receives the request, and has to comb through every possible storage area to find the item. This process takes time and can lead to dissatisfied guests and loss of future business,” Batra says. “By expanding TraknProtect’s ability to integrate with leading hospitality service solutions, we can help any hotel become more organized and efficient, while also improving their customer service.”
Although TraknProtect was initially conceived as a side project of Batra’s, the company has been an instant hit throughout the hospitality industry, securing contracts with many of the most prestigious hotels in the United States including: Hyatt McCormick Place, Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Clarion Inn, and Grand Hyatt New York. TraknProtect has also been accepted into the Travel Startups Incubator, which will help the company expand their client network and secure additional funding. Batra and her team are very pleased by the rapid success of TraknProtect and are looking forward to expanding into new markets, and new industries, in the coming months. The company is currently eyeing entry into the air travel industry and has engaged in talks with several large airline providers.
Boasting a highly-experienced developer team, TraknProtect decided to build their solution using the Azure stack because of its speed, reliability, and most importantly, scalability. In addition to basic hosting, the app utilizes a variety of Azure services including: Visual Studio, Web Apps, Virtual Machines, and Power BI. TraknProtect uses a client and admin portal running on an Azure Web Application and all data collected by IoT hubs are sent directly to an Azure VM Server. The solution utilizes several Virtual Machines – running in both availability sets and standalone, to consume and store data. The app also leverages Visual Studio to quickly develop and edit code, and is currently working to incorporate Power BI to improve the solution’s reporting platform.
“Using Azure has enabled us to rapidly scale as we grow our client base, while maintaining high availability and reliability,” Batra says. “Plus, templates to create Virtual Machines, availability sets, and clusters have been very handy in allowing us to quickly get our infrastructure up and running. Azure definitely decreased our to-market time and allows us to efficiently improve our solution to meet any need, no matter how unexpected.”
Batra also states that Azure’s ability to seamlessly incorporate an extensive library of open source material was instrumental in her company’s decision to use Microsoft technologies. TraknProtect’s backend solution leverages MySQL using a Master/Slave VM, Redis Cache, and source code that was developed using PHP. “Our solution was built using a lot of open source, and we knew that it was essential to choose a technology stack that could fully integrate anything we threw at it. Azure has allowed us to successfully build our ideal app at low cost. We are very happy that we decided to leverage Azure and would recommend it to anyone.”
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About BizSpark: Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps startups succeed by giving free access to Microsoft Azure cloud services, software and support. BizSpark members receive up to $750 per month of free Microsoft Azure cloud services for 3 years: that’s $150 per month each for up to 5 developers. Azure works with Linux and open-source technologies such as Ruby, Python, Java and PHP. BizSpark is available to startups that are privately held, less than 5-years-old and earn less than $1M in annual revenue.