“New-gen” remote management takes customer experience to new level

The idea is simple: drive asset utilization via the Internet. The goal is threefold, and more complex:

• Maintain peak uptime performance of manufacturing production equipment and large field facilities such as utility plants;
• Reduce the need to dispatch a “man in a van” for troubleshooting and repair when there's a problem; and
• Achieve high levels of “get it right the first time” repair calls.

What was remote diagnostics is emerging as the tremendous growth-potential market known as remote product services (RPS). Among the vendors supplying this technology is Axeda, founded in 1999 on the premise that there was a market to be tapped.

Axeda now is generating excitement among a new cadre of customers: OEMs that are embedding device relationship management (DRM) and remote service-management capabilities as standard components in their products.

One such Axeda customer is Respironics, a $1-billion sleep and respiratory products supplier headquartered in suburban Pittsburgh. Its Critical Care Group develops and markets the Esprit Ventilator used in intensive care units.

Esprit is a sophisticated medical device that aids patient breathing. Respironics releases a steady stream of software upgrades to continuously enhance Esprit ventilators. Prior to using Axeda's remote technology, upgrade releases required ventilators be removed from the patient and an updated version be reinserted. Not only is this labor-intensive and uncomfortable for the patient, but there is risk involved.

“Anytime you remove an invasive item like a ventilator there is potential risk of infection, and historically, there's never been a solution for that,” says Dick Ellis, director of Respironics Critical Care Services “If we can do it remotely, it saves us money, it saves them money, and it's better for the patient.

“We're using Axeda to big benefit in downloading software,” Ellis explains. “The hospital connects the ventilator to a PC and from that point forward, all they have to do is give an 'okay' instruction a couple of times, and it's all automatic.”

To date, Respironics has activated its Respi-Link Device Relationship Management system in more than 300 sites, representing 25 percent of its U.S. customer base. “No one has turned us down,” Ellis says. “It's the kind of product that's a win-win-win—for the patient, for the hospital, and for us.

“Presently we are focused on uploading information and downloading software, but that's just the beginning,” continues Ellis, adding that Respironics now is adding Axeda technology to other product lines. “It's become a standard for new products going forward,” he says.

Since embedding the technology and offering its service-centric capabilities, Respironics is achieving some remarkable benefits:

• A reported $1.2-million savings from an optimized software upgrade process;
• A 12-percent increase in service contract renewals;
• A 20-percent reduction in field service visits; and
• A 15-percent reduction in overall service costs.