Big Stories - 2nd Quarter 2007

NeXGen Dazzles Nashville at NACStech 2007

Allied Launches New and Improved Website

The Lab Report

From left to right: Manager of Engineering and Development Jack Dickinson, Technical Project Manager Mike Vogt, President and CEO Ron Walker, Software Engineer Lou Seitchik, and Sales Manager Al Magro

They say the country’s best songwriters can now be found in Nashville. For two days in May, Nashville could also stake claim to some of the country’s best engineers and software developers. The brain trust of today’s convenience store and petroleum industries gathered at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center to exhibit their products and attend workshops.

Allied’s senior management and engineering team hit the ground running at NACStech 2007, showcasing the new NeXGen product’s many features and highlights. According to Allied Sales Manager Al Magro, current and potential customers and vendors from throughout the industry stopped by booth #311 to meet the Allied group and discuss everything from industry trends to the latest in forecourt technology. “There’s a lot of interest in our NeXGen product as well as the new Allied Communicator and DGS utilities,” said Al.

Technical Project Manager Mike Vogt spearheaded a campaign to propel the NeXGen as NACStech’s “product of the year.” “Vote for NeXGen” buttons were worn and distributed throughout the convention to raise awareness of Allied’s newest product. Although NeXGen didn’t make it to the final round, it certainly gained the interest of many in attendance. “People like the idea of connecting the NeXGen to the LAN and being able to remotely troubleshoot using our DGS application,” said Vogt. “They also like NeXGen’s scalability and the idea that the ports are configurable so they can use a spare port if need be to get the site up and running without a need to swap parts.”

Dwight Wooten, Director of Information Systems for Honey Farms Inc, spent some time at NACStech studying NeXGen from a more practical perspective. “The reduction in size should function well in the tight spaces allocated for electronics in convenience stores,” said Wooten. “I was also impressed by NeXGen’s new 16 channel Ethernet scalability feature. This will make establishing connections easier and more stable.”

Wooten then referenced the new DGS diagnostic utility. “Possibly the niftiest feature in NeXGen is the added ability to control the equipment through an automated interface. This should save maintenance personnel time, which translates into saving money.”

“We were delighted to see the new NexGen forecourt controller at NACStech,” Dwight said.

For more information on the NeXGen controller or any other products and services, contact Allied Electronics.

New look, new colors, more features and enhancements. This is just a brief description of Allied’s new Website—although there was nothing brief about creating it. Just ask Russ Coulon, Manager of Allied’s IT Department, who spent almost 8 months getting every detail just right. “The task of rebuilding Allied’s new Website was both demanding and challenging. I’m a perfectionist so everything needed to be seamless. The fusion of our Website and E-Store was of paramount importance,” said Russ.

Over 24,000 visitors per month visit the Website for access to the Allied E-Store and company information. The Website also provides technical information regarding Allied’s products including training manuals and software release notes.

The new and enhanced Website offers a direct link to the E-Store which allows customers 24 hour access to thousands of products. “One stop shopping at our E-Store for over 2000 products with inventory growing every day,” said Russ. “The detail work was grueling. It involved months of concentration and hard work, but the finished product was well worth the effort.”

The E-Store provides automatic order tracking and status updates. One can even view parts manuals for product identification. Steve Cullen, Manager of Allied’s Parts Department, immediately saw the benefits of the E-Store enhancements. “I can tell that the customers really appreciate the clarity of the product photos and attention to detail. It makes for a much smoother transaction,” said Steve.

A Spanish version of the Website will soon be completed along with an addition to the E-Store called “Rebuilt Parts.”

Even though the features may be new and the overall look changed, you are still greeted by a picture of good old fashioned friendly service when you visit the Website.

“After months of hard labor, this baby’s up and running,” said Russ.

The Lab Report

Support for 8 additional RS232 serial ports was recently added to Allied’s NeXGen Forecourt Controller. This brings the number of serial ports on NeXGen up to 16.

Mixed PIC (Payment Island Cashier) support was recently added to Allied’s ANDI Forecourt Controller. The system supports both the Schlumberger PIC as well as the Helix PIC.

Allied’s new DGS utility has several new features including the ability to set NeXGen’s IP address and modify the various port assignments. There is also a port “sniffer” in addition to a new compact flash management utility.

Contact Allied Electronics for more information regarding recent software enhancements.