OTODATA, CHOOSING THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES
HOW DID CHOOSING THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES ENSURE THE PLATFORM'S LONGEVITY AND EVOLUTION?
The business relationship between TLM and Otodata began in 2013.
At the time, Otodata was just getting started. Connected devices were barely part of the conversation. Since then, the company has carved out its place as Canada’s largest wireless network operator dedicated to the Internet of Things. Their team designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes connected devices across multiple sectors. When it comes to growth, they know what they’re doing!
To this day, the software development team includes 9 dedicated developers from TLM and 3 in-house developers. Together, they collaborate to maintain and evolve the ecosystem designed for Otodata’s connected devices. Now that the team has grown, our involvement goes far beyond staff augmentation. We contribute to research and development, provide guidance and leadership to the entire development team, and ensure effective project management and successful delivery.
OTODATA AND TLM, A WINNING PARTNERSHIP SINCE 2013
It all started when Otodata wanted to replace alarm system cellular chips with radio waves emitted by its antennas to relay emergency messages to power stations. Our team saw the potential of this solution right away: cellular chips were becoming so expensive that it was imperative to replace them!
The years passed, and projects followed one after the other. We have connected several other objects to this network, such as a remote starter and a liquid level monitor intended for large industries. But, as with all respectable businesses, we also have unfinished projects. Not by the lack of will, however! Our customer explains it very well:
« We’re constantly innovating. To some extent, we create the knowledge. We could never use other experiences as a basis to not making the same errors. We build on what we have learned, and we innovate. This is what makes our developers a force to be reckoned with: We learn, and we evolve. »
– Philippe Meilleur, Coordinator and Vice-President, Technological Solutions at Otodata
THE TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED
In the world of connected objects, the greatest challenge consists of optimizing the communication between the server, the object, and the user: It is quite the puzzle! For these projects, we also created mobile apps and a web platform in order to make the user’s life a little easier. Useful features were added to make products with added value. One more way to make the investment profitable!
Otodata revolutionized an entire industry. How? According to them, the secret lies in the work methodology and the knowledge of technologies. The main mission of our programmers was to build a sustainable technology and an architecture that supports the evolution of the company and its products.
« We didn’t have the financial resources for new hires. We were still able to rely on the entire TLM team, which gave us access to multiple resources and more skills for the same price. We were able to avoid the errors of being just one person. TLM always manages to find an answer. »
– Philippe Meilleur, Coordinator and Vice-President, Technological Solutions at Otodata
AND WHAT ABOUT THE EXECUTION OF THE MANDATE IN ALL THIS?
Creating connected devices does not happen without a few bumps in the road! We faced our fair share of development challenges. Here are some of them:
- Building a product structure that could support future evolution. What does that even mean, you might ask? In concrete terms, it means planning growth properly and, more importantly, creating the right level of quality at the right moment. This ensures we develop the right features according to the project’s maturity. This choice also has a major impact on managing the development budget.
- Reducing message response time. We needed response times that were reasonable for users, just a few seconds, while also ensuring there was a fallback solution in case a message did not go through.
- Understanding how antennas behave… those famous antennas. Their biggest advantage was their ability to transmit messages between devices at a lower cost. But that did not prevent a major challenge. More than one antenna could receive the same message. We had to design a solution to manage message transmission properly because each message had to be relayed only once.
- Anticipating the growing volume of messages. In 2020, we were talking about 400,000+ connected devices from across North America, transmitting thousands of communications to servers every minute. In 2021, the target was 1 million connected devices! The system absolutely had to be able to withstand this increase.
As of 2025, Otodata had more than 3 million connected devices worldwide.
«Development is not linear. We sometimes test with a mutual agreement. Together, we make the company evolve; we have a plan. The vision of growth is shared. This makes things so much easier! »
– Philippe Meilleur, Coordinator and Vice-President, Technological Solutions at Otodata
CHALLENGES come with SOLUTIONS
The database processes and compiles an exorbitant amount of information. We identified the processes that were taking too long to ensure a rapid response. We then transformed the incoming and outgoing message queues into RAM. We have also modified the indexes of the table portions, made the processes asynchronous, and integrated advanced SQL features. Ok, you may feel a little lost at this point. Don’t worry! Our advice: Nod your head; say something casual like “Ah, OK! Cool!” You’ll get off just fine.
We’ve also designed a distributed and redundant message communication system. This means that the connected object calls one of the servers, creates a message, and then transmits it to a queue.
The system then processes the message and sends a reply to the user. It may not seem like it, but this was not an easy task. We worked extremely hard.
And to plug another term loved by programmers, the Otodata system is “resilient” in the event of failure. For example, if a nuclear attack were to occur in Montreal, another server would take over. This safety belt ensures that messages will be transmitted, even if a failure occurs in the network.
« The service structure and division are the same from the start. The infrastructure that we’ve built is strong enough to support new products. New messages are more fluid than before. Back-end communications between the servers and the products are impeccable. We’ve always been able to modify what has been done already. »
– Philippe Meilleur, Coordinator and Vice-President, Technological Solutions at Otodata
We’ve set up daily SCRUMS between the two teams of programmers to ease communication. You may be wondering just what SCRUM methodology is. Well, it’s an agile framework for complex software development projects. It helps teams to collaborate by focusing on common goals, to productively and creatively deliver the highest value products possible.
« Communication is absolutely incredible! It makes a huge difference for co-development. We are two companies, but we move forward together as one, with a common goal. »
– Philippe Meilleur, Coordinator and Vice-President, Technological Solutions at Otodata
The good moves in summary
Good tech choices from the start
Development cycle adjustments
Investments in R&D
Good project management
THE LESSONS WE TAKE AWAY FROM OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH OTODATA
We can’t say it enough: Making the right technological choices early on is necessary to ensure the longevity of any software solution. We promise: It pays off in the long run, both in terms of effort and budget!
Another paramount factor: know how to adjust your development cycle to the different phases of product evolution. Moreover, knowledge was always shared among the members, even though the number of dedicated developers on the team varied.
We’re not ashamed to say: Otodata’s sales success is a source of great pride. Our client is ever-expanding and forging their place as a leader in the connected objects market. For us, contributing to their success is a great source of satisfaction (Yeah, it may seem cheesy, but it’s true!)
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