POINTR and Sysmex: Remote Support as Key Differentiator
Currently, Remote Support Tools and Remote Service have a spot on the shopping lists of many companies. Ever since the corona pandemic, massive restrictions impacted day-to-day business noticeably, forcing companies in all industries to face the challenge of how to guarantee the usual service and support for their customers – even if they cannot provide an on-site technician. However, for the medical technology company Sysmex, this question did not even arise.
Sysmex develops and sells laboratory analysis devices for urine and blood tests worldwide. The Japanese company, which is based in Kobe, commands a global network of subsidiaries all over the world and took a different path early on. Sysmex had already opted for POINTR before the corona outbreak took place.
The shared success story of Sysmex and POINTR does not only illustrate how valuable the POINTR Features are in terms of Remote Service but also depict how continuous encouragement for innovation has contributed greatly to the ability to react, allowing them to successfully act on the restrictions in the wake of the corona pandemic.
“With regard to the quality of our devices and our services, we consider ourselves to be the world’s number one concerning in-vitro diagnostics”, Pierre Hennig explains, Assistant Director Technical Product Management Life Science & FCM at Sysmex Europe LLC in Norderstedt. From its location in Schleswig-Holstein, Sysmex Europe carries out 2nd level support through more than 30 subsidiaries within the EMEA area. “Innovation at all levels is an integral part of our corporate DNA. The same principle applies at POINTR. Thus, our decision to opt for POINTR as our Remote Support Tool was not driven by necessity due to the pandemic but had been part of a long-term deliberation as we contemplated how to improve our excellent global service further. For this reason, we already decided to test POINTR back in 2017. Meanwhile, 460 technicians at our company utilize POINTR”, Hennig states, who kept promoting the implementation into the EMEA area in conjunction with Jörg Röhl, Senior Vice President Technical Service.
After introducing the Remote Support Tool POINTR in Japan and China, the global launch of the solution within the corporate group is about to take place. “At this point, the POINTR functionalities have even convinced the sceptics in our company. Now, we have technicians who consider a previous POINTR call to be a requirement for a service visit. That is valuable feedback not only for POINTR but also for us, seeing as we have made this decision. From the beginning, this mindset was precisely our goal. Many problems that occur on-site are not as complex as they appear at first glance. Oftentimes, the customer’s technician does not lack the competence, but merely the experience with a certain device, because they probably do not work with this particular device as often, for example. In such cases, the preferable solution results in quickly escalating the matter to the next level. Due to POINTR we can avoid this unnecessary escalation”, Hennig explains, illustrating just one of the numerous benefits of Remote Service.
POINTR commands 15 languages and often makes on-site visits redundant
Employees from 40 nations work for Sysmex on behalf of customers – in the EMEA area alone. Thus, it is particularly valuable that POINTR speaks 15 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, and Korean. “We soon received very positive feedback, especially from the Middle East and Turkey. In Turkey, for instance, we work with a number of sub-distributors from Istanbul. Here, the accessibility of the locations is often an issue. When POINTR made it possible to install a device remotely from the main office and without an on-site technician, it created ripples by pointing out the benefits of POINTR”, Hennig highlights, depicting an example that also represents other areas. After all, the accessibility of the locations also counts among the important matters in Nordic countries, consequently resulting in inquiries for a Remote Support solution from the Faroe Islands.
Remote Support ensures service in fenced off facilities
The problems on the Arabian Peninsula are of a different cast. “In Saudi Arabia, for example, many hospitals are actually military hospitals, which are situated inside of military bases that are very difficult to access for civilian staff. In this case, POINTR facilitated the procedure for our technicians by providing the trained technicians of the military base with POINTR in order to instruct them via remote guidance from our branch in Riyadh.”
Remote Service as a booster for innovation and reputation
Sysmex also benefits at a secondary level from the utilization of POINTR. Hennig explains: “By using POINTR we were able to improve our services significantly and managed to convey our company values to the outside world: Sysmex is an advanced company that relies on innovative, novel technology in order to enhance service. Due to opting for POINTR early on, we were prepared throughout the pandemic and lockdown. That was incredibly helpful in areas where the lockdowns were particularly strict. Throughout the first lockdown in the UK, technicians were neither permitted to go to the hospital nor were they allowed to leave their residential districts. During that first and very strict lockdown, we experienced a tenfold increase in regard to the number of calls we received.”
POINTR can be utilized at very short notice
As a pioneer, Sysmex benefits from the recent introduction of POINTR. Another POINTR success story from Vietnam proves that the POINTR solution can also be utilized at extremely short notice – as a fire extinguisher, so to say. You can find this one and other use cases of the application here.