SMART DIAGNOSTICS AFTER-SALES SERVICE TODAY

SMART DIAGNOSTICS AFTER-SALES SERVICE TODAY

DIAGNOSTIC LIFECYCLE AFTER-SALES SERVICE TODAY Today s dynamic global markets have become increasingly complex. Companies must deal with major challenges in the area of service, and particularly with the growing demands of discerning customers. Service has become a strategic goal: Companies have a way to distinguish themselves from the competition, often more effectively than through their products. Services have a substantial effect on sales and cash flow. This demands efficiency and outstanding quality, which, particularly in the case of complex customer inquiries, pushes many existing service systems to their limits. Smart solutions must enable companies and their service departments to simply and elegantly preserve knowledge so that appropriate responses to service queries can be found as quickly as possible. It is of utmost importance to apply solutions, once they have been acquired, to similar cases as they arise. Thus, competent, and most of all, consistent support can be provided across every possible contact channel: first level (call center or self-service portal), second level (on-site service) and third level (experts/development). With case-based reasoning (CBR) technology, Empolis utilizes a methodology for Smart Diagnostics that has been applied since the beginning of human cognizance: in order to solve a new problem, we apply similar incidents from the past to solve the current case. The newly gained experience expands our pool of knowledge. The basic principle of learning is also possible for knowledge and service systems and, thanks to the latest CBR technologies, it can also be used without continuous modeling effort - it is self-learning. Automatically generated dynamic decision trees assist technicians with issues for which solutions are not immediately known. With the help of targeted questions, the technician receives support in eliminating possible causes and narrows down the search further. In order to deliver demand-driven service information in the Internet era, Empolis offers organizations a comprehensive service and diagnostic platform providing integrated support for in-house service organizations and their technicians, customer service partners and end customers, with delivery to any desired device in online or offline mode. Typical problems that are inacceptable and certainly avoidable: We had a similar problem in a plant in Spain before. Why do we have to solve this problem again now? Our senior service technician with years of experience has retired. We don t know how he got the system up and running again. SMART DIAGNOSTICS ENSURES FOR: A ticket system that is also a pool of knowledge Automated decision trees without additional modeling effort Simple and efficient semantic error search Best possible preparation for maintenance/ repairs Integration of diagnostic equipment and analysis readings from equipment data and information. Smart Diagnostics can go productive almost immediately and offers you a service solution with intuitive control!

CHALLENGES FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE Today s products, machines and systems are often highly complex. This complexity is also the cause for the rapidly increasing number of possibilities for errors. At the same time, these systems must be highly efficient and need to operate without downtime. The sum of increasing device and system complexity, plus shorter and shorter product lifecycles and continuous product innovation, make know-how a service organization s most valuable resource. A necessary step in the direction of risk and cost reduction is, therefore, the introduction of an efficient and effective service information and knowledge management solution. In reality, a few, extremely busy experts have a monopoly on important service knowledge. This knowledge cannot be shared by utilizing today s employee training methods. For this reason, companies, employees and customers need an integrated service knowledge management solution. COST DRIVERS IN CUSTOMER SERVICE Redundant and inefficient problem resolution (expensive, timeconsuming, low quality) Multiple on-site customer visits Longer repair and downtimes Replacement of entire component groups instead of just a single defective part High demands for employee qualifications and training The right INFORMATION at the right TIME to the right PERSON on the desired DEVICE

SERVICE TOOL REQUIREMENTS The general requirements for an integrated knowledge management solution in service departments are: Offer the best support for diagnostics with guided questions or via semantic filter options Use all available information and data, as well as existing know-how relevant to the context i.e. depending on the machine, peripherals, configurations, modules, etc. Implementation with immediate productivity Even non-specialists are capable of identifying the right answer and solving the problem quickly Continual process improvement with selflearning, feedback loops and logging SMART DIAGNOSTICS A PLATFORM FOR THE ENTIRE DIAGNOSTIC LIFECYCLE The Smart Diagnostics platform enables service staff to identify the appropriate response, even when faced with complex issues. It helps them professionally communicate solution know-how in a competent and consistent manner. Service staff are guided via questions and answers to the correct solution or answer to the query. Even non-specialists are capable of identifying the right answer and solving the problem quickly. Experience has shown that service cases fall into one of three categories (see figure below). 1. Standard errors that occur very frequently in comparison to the others, 2. Problems that have occurred previously, but happen relatively seldom ( I think that something like this happened three years ago in Spain... ) 3. New problems that have never occurred before In order to calculate the absolute amount of effort, the average time required to locate the problem must be specified for each service case category. This is described in the following diagram: New cases Search Periodically occurring error cases Sporadically occurring cases Sporadically occurring cases: CBR Error trees Frequency distribution of the various types of service cases Time requried for problem diagnostics for each service case category Actual time spent Do you know what your efforts amount to? It is easy to see that the search for sporadically occurring cases generally results in the greatest absolute effort spent. The actual time and effort spent on new and periodically occurring error cases is roughly equivalent. A state-of-the-art service knowledge system must ultimately offer a useful technology mix in order to meet the requirements for the various service case categories.

THE SYSTEM Smart Diagnostics is based on Empolis Information Access System (IAS). The Information Access System is a semantic platform for value-added knowledge management solutions. IAS understands unstructured data (e.g. texts) and transforms them into smart information through semantic annotations. Analyses are carried out on the basis of actual contexts, and links are created to structured data. All of the data sources that are of relevance for the diagnostic process whether internal databases, ticket systems, ERP systems or file servers, or data that are available to the public on the World Wide Web can be flexibly connected using the system s open, Web-based architecture, to be adjusted to meet your needs. Of course, it is also possible to connect existing third-party systems such as SAP or Siebel, thereby ensuring an integrated service process. The system is ready for immediate use. Modern diagnostics systems combine various technological approaches in order to optimally meet all requirements in the problem-solving process. IAS therefore integrates four primary techniques in order to implement diagnostic methods and strategies: Static diagnostic trees for standard error cases diagnostic processes exist and can be specified by experts Semantic queries and dynamic decision trees for finding similar cases Case Based Reasoning (CBR) allows solutions to be found on the basis of similar problem-solving processes in the past. Ad hoc queries are generated for the most probable cause in order to successively restrict the amount of results. Rules necessary if, for example, certain symptoms, when analyzing (sensor) data, may have a relative deviation from the set point and calculations are required for this Semantic and associative/statistical search enables a search for potential solutions for new and therefore unknown problems in all technical documents and reports TECHNICAL OVERVIEW Empolis Content Lifecycle System with decision-tree editor for editorial content Empolis Information Access System for distribution of knowledge User interface can be customized individually with modern Ajax technology Web-based diagnostics and system administration Adaptable offline client based on.net as the diagnostic application for end users (prepared to communicate with the machine to be diagnosed)

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SERVICE TECHNICIANS AND CALL CENTER STAFF Smart Diagnostics attaches great importance to the satisfaction of its users employees on site or in call centers. Employee performance and thus also service as a whole is improved because of: ARGUMENTS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMPANIES Smart Diagnostics offers companies benefits that can quickly be measured: Be predictive avoid trouble instead of fixing it Increase the service margin lower service costs Transforming service from a cost center to a profit center Shorten interactions with the customer and onsite repair time Reduce follow-up work and costs of spare parts Prevent service piracy Lower warranty costs and facilitate rapid feedback to the manufacturer s service, warranty, production and development departments regarding problems Ongoing analysis of service processes improves quality and optimizes product development Smart Diagnostics also allows companies to strategically position their service departments. Early indications for arising problems (predictions) Satisfaction with easy-to-use software More competent interactions with customers Less time and effort for training Problem-solving processes based on individual skill levels rapid or guided Less frustration stemming from unnecessary time and effort spent on repairs and service calls FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CUSTOMERS Simplified day-to-day operations at the workshop, reduced throughput times and greater end-customer satisfaction Self-service with easy-to-use functions available round the clock Step-by-step guided support or rapid expert mode Early error detection and fast resolution CBR THE METHOD Service becomes a source of added value by increasing and standardizing service quality and reducing dependence on individual experts. All components of the service process are integrated and automated. This enables the service department to become a true asset to a company, and one that offers measurable added value. A problem occurs...

THE EMPOLIS SERVICE SOLUTION THE FACTS The Empolis Information Management GmbH has collected substantial experience with numerous international customer projects for more than 25 years. Empolis has a proven track record and its customers have clearly improved their key performance indicators (KPI) on a sustainable basis with Empolis solutions. These include: increased First Call Fix Rate by over 20%, reduced average handling time for a customer call by over 34%, lower number of calls extended from 1st to 2nd level support by over 40%, reduced overall cycle time for an issue from over 24 hours to less than a half an hour and a decreased number of service calls by over 20% with the implementation of a web self-service system. YOUR SERVICE MADE SMART S Swiftly ready for use (No major modeling effort required; instead, the tool can be used efficiently right away) M Measurable (Goals, time and cost savings can be measured quickly) A Accepted (Empolis solutions are in productive use with many major international companies) R Realistic (Empolis tools meet the requirements for your service process challenges) T Technologically advanced (Smart diagnostics is based on state-of-the-art CBR, statistics and text mining methods) Empolis customers have, for example, realized an ROI in only a few months and have saved tens of millions of Euros within only three years. has a similar problem occurred before? solution found, experience gained!

Empolis Information Management GmbH Europaallee 10 67657 Kaiserslautern Germany Empolis provides solutions that enable companies and organizations to analyze, interpret and automatically process the rapidly growing amount of structured and unstructured data. They utilize their knowledge capital to improve enterprise-critical business processes enabling decision-makers, employees and customers to reliably receive precise and relevant information, situation-appropriate and task-relevant, for faster and better decisions. Phone +49 631 68037-0 Fax +49 631 68037-77 info@empolis.com www.empolis.com 2013 Empolis Information Management GmbH