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Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach goes big with RyanTech and Microsoft



April 6-8, 2017 - A NEW kind of auction experience

It was a big week last week for RyanTech, Microsoft and Barrett-Jackson auctions.  Not only did they auction off over 400 vehicles and generate tons of cash for charities they "unleashed" the cloud in a partnership with RyanTech, Microsoft and BuildFire.

Our planning for the event started only 2 days prior to heading out to Palm Beach, FL to support the desire to replace the paper catalog that bidders are provided with a digital one.  True digital transformation happened in lightning speed thanks to the interest and approval of Barrett-Jackson's CEO Craig Jackson.  Craig has invested in technology for a very long time and certainly holds the award for most innovative in their space.  Craig has been utilizing the Microsoft on-Premise infrastructure for over 15 years and in fact even stated in an interview at the auction that he personally built the first server that his companies run on.  When I had the privilege of meeting with the executive team prior to the Palm Beach auction last week we found that so many aspirations of the entire team could be made a reality very quickly by RyanTech due to the infrastructure we have in the cloud and our great partners like Microsoft and BuildFire.







THE CHALLENGE:
     First we studied the paper catalog with the help of their team to understand the value that it brings to the bidder.  Simply put, there is a lot number and a photo and description of all vehicles in the auction.  Well, kind of.  Way too often these collector cars have a change to the vehicle makeup that doesn't get reflected in the printed catalog.  For example the vehicle has a broken transmission and needs to be replaced just before the auction happens.  Well, now the printed catalog is outdated and inaccurate.  Furthermore the printed catalog only has a single low resolution color photo.



THE SOLUTION:
     Barrett-Jackson already had much of the infrastructure built in order to make this project a reality.
 We give Kudos to Tim and Dave over there because the JSON stream that they use internally is how we were able to create a user interface on mobile so very quickly.  We tied into their infrastructure and used Microsoft Azure to deploy a web app that gets consumed by the BuildFire Cordova engine.  Once the UI was done we simply had to identify the chosen device.  Best Buy came to the rescue in identifying 50 tablets in 6 different locations and worked with our team that is spread across the US to pick them all up.  Once we had possession of the devices we used cloud deployment methods to lock them down to only the new BarretJackson365 app.  We also were able to fully cloud manage the permissions, WiFi networks and all other items from our cloud management dashboard.

DURING THE AUCTION:
     Patrons were able to utilize the tablets and see 5+ HD pictures of each vehicle.  They could follow along with the next cars to be auctioned off and ALL of the information presented to them was accurate up to the minute.  There were cases where a vehicle had previously caught fire after the original pictures were taken and the printed catalog showed old photos whereas the tablet showed the new paint, flames down the side and even the new license plate number "FIRE".  Our staff was on site and assisted new owners with looking into more detail on the tablets every day.

THE BIG PAYOFF:
     At the end of the auction with only 1 more vehicle to sell we were blessed with a statement to the whole world from Craig Jackson and Steve their President.  They asked all the VIPs with tablets to hold them up for the cameras and our logos were embossed on the back of the tablets.  Craig went on about powering the digital transformation of Barrett-Jackson with the partnership of RyanTech and Microsoft.  At then end, he asked the VIPs to please take the tablets home with them and that way they can be at every auction in the future.  If not in person, please visit with us in the Cloud.





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