Access-free diagnosis and repair will be the next future of service. In the old days, diagnosis and repair required one or more visits to the site. Presently, we can use remote access to perform diagnosis and (hopefully) no more than one visit to the site to repair. But the diagnosis and repair can be accomplished even faster, with the addition of new automations that don't force service technicians to have to gain interactive remote access to those devices. This is accomplished in two ways.
First, telemetry of system critical metrics, events and status is returned to the factory from each device as that device is used in normal operation. Telemetry means that the data required for detecting issues is in the factory almost immediately after a problem occurs. It also means that sufficient data is in the factory to be able to predict future failures, of course with the assistance of machine learning and AI.
Second, automations are put in place that, based on telemetry data or predictive analytics, trigger the automated retrieval of log files. One method would be to perform the detection of faults from telemetry data on the device and have that device auto-send log files to the cloud. Another would be to have the assessment of telemetry data (and predictive analytics and AI) performed in the cloud, and then having the cloud pull the log files from the device.
These automations, which can be accomplished through applications like service relationship management (SRM) software, result in a real efficiency gain for service technicians, when telemetry flags that a device in the field is having an issue, all the historic telemetry data and log files are already in the cloud where they can be quickly analyzed. There is no longer a need to manually log into a remote system and go through the steps of pulling log files to the cloud.
Automation workflows are real in SRM. By combining Alerting based on telemetry, machine learning and AI with predetermined sequences of commands (such as pulling of log files), SRM solutions significantly reduce the workload on service teams and hasten diagnosis. Further automations, with sequences of commands can further hasten repair and increase customer satisfaction, again without having to gain remote access. Access-free repair and diagnosis saves time for your team, and that saves money.
To be very clear, site visits will never go away because sometimes physical things break. Because software architectures are improving with time, the proportion of things that can be diagnosed and repaired through automations is ever increasing.
maiLink SRM software is a service relationship management platform that helps you build a rich database about your installed devices. It also seamlessly integrates telemetry from your products and has no per-user fee (so any employee you authorize can have access to the data). To learn more about maiLink SRM, visit www.maiData.io and sign up for a free trial.