PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – A new application of Microsoft technology will help MetalForming, Inc. (MFI) roofing customers improve their efficiencies and their communications. Designed with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), MFI’s newest network, OnLinkTM, will bring the remote service capability of the company’s top European-designed machines to a new advanced level.
“The impact on the roofing industry will be similar to what satellite technology has done for the car industry,” said Bill Wilkins, MFI executive vice president and chief information officer. “It will offer a variety of communications tools such as voice, video, health monitoring and productivity reporting from the machine directly to MFI’s unified communications (UC) infrastructure. This will allow MFI to provide instantaneous servicing, training, and troubleshooting support for its broad customer base.”
This technological advance is made possible by next generation software based on the Microsoft.Net 3.5 framework. The system allows total compatibility and connectivity to a wide range of other computers and software.
Through its Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 R2 platform, MFI is able to work with Level 3 Communications, a leading international provider of fiber-based communications services, to perform Direct SIP Trunk testing (using the SIP over TCP protocol)
Level 3 Communications’ network services are supporting the launch of OnLinkTM. MFI has also become a Microsoft Metro Program developer to allow further beta development and testing of Microsoft’s Wave 14 OCS platform, its next generation UC product.
“We recently asked some of our customers to view a beta version of OnLinkTM at the International Roofing Expo, in New Orleans this February,” Wilkins said. “The customer response was overwhelming and positive.
“OnLinkTM combined with a high-quality Level 3 infrastructure now provides the needed competitive differentiator that has reinvented the stand-alone machine into a fully networkable and remote servicing system,” Wilkins noted.
MFI is a major provider of machinery for the architectural metal roofing industry throughout North America. MFI has grown successfully by providing high tech folding and forming machines coupled with innovative solutions designed on a Windows-based controller used to drive these machines. For more information, visit www.metalforming-usa.com.
