airCRM Control / airMAX Network Management Software

About

In late 2013, shortly after I joined Ubiquiti Networks, we began work on the next generation of network management software for the company’s airMAX hardware. The effort spanned the company, with teams throughout the US and Europe collaborating to deliver firmware, back-end and front-end releases which would support our customer’s global deployments. The initial private beta of airCRM Control was released a year later, in November 2014. This desktop web application replaced the previous generation’s locally installed Java controller, bringing network monitoring, configuration and device management to the cloud. Operators could now access the application from anywhere; quickly adopting existing networks with a mass adoption feature and expanding networks with a mobile provisioning app for iOS and Android.

In the months following the initial release, the software team rapidly improved upon the product, increasing stability, responding to user feedback on existing functionality and releasing new features. Despite steady increases to new user registration and device adoption, it became apparent that many users were hesitant to expose private networks to an entirely cloud-based network management tool.  We quickly began development on a locally hosted solution, aiming for feature parity with the cloud software. A few short months later, Ubiquiti announced the CRM Point hardware on October 12, 2015 during Wispapalooza. The plug-and-play device is prepackaged with CRM Control software, allowing users to easily attach the device to existing networks and begin using the software with minimal setup.

airCRM Control was the flagship application for the design and development of Ubiquiti’s LA UI Labs software framework. We built a robust, scaleable UI/UX system which has since been leveraged to rapidly create and release a series of new products, as well as updating existing applications to our latest tech stack and UI/UX vocabulary. As Creative Director, I lead the design efforts for this product, while helping to lead cross-functional efforts between front-end, back-end, firmware and business teams.

Today the application supports mass firmware updates, group device configuration, geographical mapping of networks and powerful monitoring tools. As the wireless internet industry continues to grow, we’ll continue to build on an ever growing library of UI components and release powerful features to help operators optimize networks and connect the unconnected.