Heidelberg Service Technicians Now also Online While Traveling by Air
08/29/2005
Company-wide web-based service communication increases expert
availability for Heidelberg customers
With a customer base spanning over 170 countries, travelling is a routine part of the job for service engineers at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). Service staff were previously unable to make use of the majority of time spent in the air but now that some airlines are offering their passengers broadband Internet access, they can, if necessary, also access Heidelberg's global network of experts in flight, allowing them to provide customers with Remote Service support.
A test with Deutsche Lufthansa AG's "FlyNet" Internet access demonstrated the compatibility of Heidelberg's Remote Service with the FlyNet portal while maintaining the company's high security standards for online data transfer. During the pilot phase that has just started, Heidelberg service specialists are testing access to the FlyNet portal and the customer support options available in flight. They can use the portal to contact their service colleagues on the ground and can also be contacted by these colleagues in the air, allowing fault diagnoses to be prepared jointly and advice to be given to engineers at the agencies in the relevant countries.
"The first time I made use of this facility, on a flight to Singapore, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and speed of the connection. I arrived at my destination with a shorter list of things to do and left the aircraft in the knowledge that there was one more satisfied customer out there," said Franz Haaf, head of Service Automation Systems at Heidelberg.
Bernhard Steinel, Senior Vice President Service worldwide at Heidelberg added: "A key aim of our service activities is to ensure the productivity of customers' printing systems at all times wherever possible. Our customers derive particular benefit if web-based tools such as our Remote Service and Lufthansa's FlyNet work together smoothly throughout the company to achieve this aim."
Various airlines around the world now operate a total of 73 aircraft with broadband Internet access, some 42 of them belonging to Lufthansa, and this service is becoming ever more widely available.
About Heidelberg's Remote Service
Web-based Remote Service technology, with its conference system design, constitutes the technical basis for Heidelberg's global network of experts. Remote Diagnosis always starts with an engineer from the Heidelberg branch in the relevant country working with his customer over the Internet. He can access diagnostic data from the equipment and guide the customer through the operating menus. If a problem cannot be solved in this way, the service engineer contacts a specialist from the global network of experts over the Internet. This network is available round the clock, seven days a week. It is rare for a problem to persist beyond this stage.
Image:
Heidelberg service engineers now also have the option of accessing the Remote Service tool and working with a colleague on the ground over the Internet to prepare a problem diagnosis during a flight. (Photo: Lufthansa)
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com
With a customer base spanning over 170 countries, travelling is a routine part of the job for service engineers at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). Service staff were previously unable to make use of the majority of time spent in the air but now that some airlines are offering their passengers broadband Internet access, they can, if necessary, also access Heidelberg's global network of experts in flight, allowing them to provide customers with Remote Service support.
A test with Deutsche Lufthansa AG's "FlyNet" Internet access demonstrated the compatibility of Heidelberg's Remote Service with the FlyNet portal while maintaining the company's high security standards for online data transfer. During the pilot phase that has just started, Heidelberg service specialists are testing access to the FlyNet portal and the customer support options available in flight. They can use the portal to contact their service colleagues on the ground and can also be contacted by these colleagues in the air, allowing fault diagnoses to be prepared jointly and advice to be given to engineers at the agencies in the relevant countries.
"The first time I made use of this facility, on a flight to Singapore, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and speed of the connection. I arrived at my destination with a shorter list of things to do and left the aircraft in the knowledge that there was one more satisfied customer out there," said Franz Haaf, head of Service Automation Systems at Heidelberg.
Bernhard Steinel, Senior Vice President Service worldwide at Heidelberg added: "A key aim of our service activities is to ensure the productivity of customers' printing systems at all times wherever possible. Our customers derive particular benefit if web-based tools such as our Remote Service and Lufthansa's FlyNet work together smoothly throughout the company to achieve this aim."
Various airlines around the world now operate a total of 73 aircraft with broadband Internet access, some 42 of them belonging to Lufthansa, and this service is becoming ever more widely available.
About Heidelberg's Remote Service
Web-based Remote Service technology, with its conference system design, constitutes the technical basis for Heidelberg's global network of experts. Remote Diagnosis always starts with an engineer from the Heidelberg branch in the relevant country working with his customer over the Internet. He can access diagnostic data from the equipment and guide the customer through the operating menus. If a problem cannot be solved in this way, the service engineer contacts a specialist from the global network of experts over the Internet. This network is available round the clock, seven days a week. It is rare for a problem to persist beyond this stage.
Image:
Heidelberg service engineers now also have the option of accessing the Remote Service tool and working with a colleague on the ground over the Internet to prepare a problem diagnosis during a flight. (Photo: Lufthansa)
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com
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