Locating devices in the world of mobile assets is just one of the problems faced by the owners of these devices.  As discussed by Don Clark on the Wall Street Business Journal Blog , tracking has significant value in order for nurses to find pumps in their hospitals. However, as devices become more intelligent and flexible, many other important issues arise such as:

• Are they setup the correct way?
• Are the all setup the same way?
• Are they up-to-date with software updates?
• Have they been calibrated?
• Are they operating efficiently?
• Have the required preventive maintenance procedures been run?
• Which devices are no longer in warranty or support plans?
• Are there parts that are about to fail?
• Are there consumables that are about to run out?

These are vital elements in determining if an asset is ready for use. To address these issues, our customers are delivering value-added remote services that provide additional capabilities for the owners and users of these devices.

To better understand the concept, let's focus on one of our customers, Respironics.  They make ventilators that help people breathe, which is a problem when these devices need regular service like software updates.  Previously, when the service person arrived at the hospital to update a fleet of ventilators, the patient would need to be removed from the ventilator and bagged while the service was performed - obviously not ideal for the patient.

Respironics has helped their customers (hospitals) solve this problem by implementing their remote service solution called Respi-Link.  With Respi-Link, hospitals dedicate a PC within their network that will be used to complete repairs, software updates and configuration changes.  The PC receives information from Respironics for the specific range of ventilators in use at the hospital.  When these ventilators are not in use, they are wheeled down to the Respi-Link "smart repair depot" where they are connected to the PC in order to receive the correct updates and configuration changes.  This eliminates the need to remove a patient from the ventilator in order to service it.

Remote service solutions like Respi-Link allow manufactures to accurately answer the questions listed above, which keeps their mission-critical assets operating at peak performance while significantly reducing inconvenient downtime.