Being There Minimizes Downtime, Satisfies Customers

Putting It All Together

With the video quality proven, Robert set out to put together a complete kit he could leave with first-level support teams around the country. The prototype kit was an iBook G4 with an iSight camera connected to the FireWire port through a long extension cable (with a built-in repeater to avoid loss of signal strength). For greater visual clarity, particularly when looking deep inside a CF printer, a high-intensity LED light (the SightLight from Griffin Technology) was attached to the camera. The kit is called Being There and today incorporates a MacBook instead of the older iBook. Because Apple no longer sells external iSight cameras, future kits will also include alternative Firewire cameras that are still being evaluated.

Being There works like it sounds. The on-site technician first connects the MacBook to the Internet, either wirelessly or by using a supplied 30-foot CAT6 Ethernet cable. He initiates an iChat AV session with a distant specialist, then positions and aims the iSight camera at various possible trouble spots around (or inside) the printer while being directed by the specialist. A Bluetooth-enabled wireless headset handles audio communication.

Being There has been extremely successful because the high quality of the video has allowed almost all problems to be diagnosed correctly by the specialist. “Over the last year, we have probably saved at least $15,000 to $20,000 in travel costs — about 10 trips,” says Stock. “We have already easily paid off the initial investment. And the customers are very happy that we’re solving their problems faster.”

Sir Speedy Pays Homage

One Xerox customer — Sir Speedy Whittier in southern California — has enjoyed firsthand the benefits of the Being There process. This facility is the highest-grossing Sir Speedy franchise in the United States and specializes in advanced technology printing for customers who want to “print less more often” so they can minimize warehousing costs.

Sir Speedy Whittier uses Xerox DocuPrint 1050 CF digital printers to process orders from around the country, mostly for bound documents. The business handles 1 million impressions per day.

George Coriaty, president of Sir Speedy Whittier, is exacting when it comes to his business. He generates enough business to run his printers 24 hours a day, so any downtime costs him money. According to Coriaty, “Every day my system is down means I miss an opportunity to make money. If I have a problem on Tuesday, I want it fixed on Tuesday.

This technology is unbelievable; you really have to see it in action to appreciate how well it works. Its use has reduced our downtime dramatically.

Coriaty has been the beneficiary of Being There a half dozen times already, and he’s sold on the technology. “It works just great. Most of the time the local technicians can fix our problems, but occasionally something out of the ordinary happens, and they need someone with broader knowledge. The spoken word often doesn’t do justice to the problem; however, providing the live video usually leads to a quick solution, and that is critical to us. This technology is unbelievable; you really have to see it in action to appreciate how well it works. Its use has reduced our downtime dramatically.”

Minimizing downtime also helps Sir Speedy maintain high customer satisfaction levels — an intangible benefit, to be sure, but one that’s extremely valuable in an industry in which referrals and references are the keys to business growth.

They Like To Watch

The other big fans of the Being There kit are the second-level Xerox service specialists whose jobs have been made so much less stressful because they can now solve most problems more rapidly without ever abandoning the comfort of their offices. No more scrambling to and through airports. No more worrying about making plane connections. No more stuffy hotel rooms.

Being There has been so successful within Xerox that plans are already underway to use it to accelerate service calls for other product lines across the company. Xerox’s support teams are eager to see the technology used more broadly because, as the CF team has discovered, they like to watch. That’s good for Xerox, and it’s good for Xerox’s customers.