The cloud, connected field services and remote solutions can ensure manufacturing continuity
Elly Yates-Roberts |
The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in governments around the world instituting social distancing and stay-at-home directives for their citizens in order to prevent further spread of the disease. Simultaneously, many businesses were either required to shut down temporarily or were classified by those same governments as being essential to the general populace and allowed to remain open. For organisations that remained open, and those that have returned (or will return) to ‘business as usual’, recent events have provided motivation to embrace remote operations in some form.
ICONICS is a global developer of automation software solutions. Founded in 1986, the company counts over 375,000 customer installations in multiple industries worldwide including manufacturing, smart buildings, transportation, utilities and industrial automation. During the pandemic, businesses in all of these industries have sought ways to continue operations while preventing exposure to multiple employees. In addition, companies have seen the benefit in multi-site operations, where systems can be controlled and monitored remotely and where valuable data isn’t isolated within one siloed location.
IoTWorX is ICONICS’ solution for industrial internet of things connectivity to help customers take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing, including the ability to easily integrate data from multiple locations (via integration with cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure) for monitoring and controlling operations via any connected device anywhere in the world. IoTWorX allows data from an organisation’s geographically dispersed assets to be used for intuitive visualisation, rapid archiving/retrieval, in-depth analytics and mobilisation.
ICONICS has also developed CFSWorX, a new connected field service and remote expert collaboration solution. Among the software’s features are the capability to guide field technicians and customers with annotations for enhanced collaboration, and the ability to stream live video and audio to remote experts to improve issue resolution and remote knowledge sharing. The software supports remote users on their existing devices and augmented reality-enabled wearable devices.
Video conferencing, virtual chats and the ability to despatch remote experts to resolve issues and provide support and collaboration will be more important than ever in keeping employees safe when businesses resume operations. With that in mind, ICONICS has offered free use of its CFSWorX solution to new applicants for the remainder of 2020. You can enquire about the free trial offer at iconics.com/CFSWorX-free.
Melissa Topp is senior director of global marketing at ICONICS
This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of The Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.