Case Study: New England Biolabs achieves real-time inventory control and boosted customer engagement with Heroku-powered smart freezers

New England Biolabs® Builds Smart Freezers Running on Heroku to Distribute Biotech Products in the Field

New England Biolabs (NEB), a Massachusetts-based leader in enzymes for DNA research, faced inefficiencies in its long-running Freezer Program: on-site freezers improved researcher access but left NEB with manual processes, poor inventory visibility, and limited customer engagement or real-time usage data needed to improve service and product offerings.

NEB partnered with Xively to build a touchscreen, barcode-enabled freezer app running on Heroku and integrated with Salesforce. The app authenticates users, tracks product checkouts, monitors temperature and lock status, and triggers automated restocking and targeted marketing. Built rapidly (prototype in 30 days, production in 90), the solution delivered real-time insights, improved inventory management, stronger one-on-one customer engagement, lower IT overhead, and a secure, scalable platform for future innovation.

New England Biolabs

Andrew Bertera

Executive Director of Marketing, New England Biolabs