CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7 - 10

10

You can't just drive the

hindering shoppers' ability to move from floor to floor.
In the past, it could take several hours before the facilities

technology initiative, you

manager was even aware of this problem. It sounds hard

have to think about how you

to believe, but think about it: When you're in a store and an

can substantially improve
your business model.

elevator isn't working, you assume the problem has already
been reported by someone else. It is usually hours before
someone finally tells the front desk or a supervisor and
news of the problem reaches the facilities manager.
We had earlier created a web portal for our customers
called Schindler Dashboard, which provided them with,

Our digital reinvention has four pillars: our customers,
our products, our employees, and our processes. But
don't mistake these pillars for silos. Making each of the
four areas "smarter" through new digital capabilities
synergistically increased the "intelligence" of one or more
of the other areas.
The program has been tremendously successful and
it has yielded significant business benefits for Schindler.
But this isn't the end of the story. As we said after we had
been through our operational excellence initiative, "What
needs to be done next?"

alerted them when one wasn't working. In talking with
customers about this, we learned that, while they liked
the portal, they were often away from their desk as they
traveled through a building or between sites. They told
us, "I'm on the move a lot of the time and I want to be
alerted to problems as soon as they happen."
So we recently unveiled the Schindler Dashboard
mobile app. It provides the facility manager real-time
operational status of all his elevators; allows him to make
service requests; and regularly notifies him of the status
of repairs, including whether the service technician is

THE FOUR PILLARS

already in transit or onsite and when the equipment

Our slogan at Schindler is that we move 1 billion people a

information on his mobile phone, the entire process is for

day on our elevators, escalators, and moving walkways.

him nearly hassle-free.

is expected to be back in operation. With all this

That's one-sixth of the world's population, and so we have

Smart & Connected Products Of course, if a facilities

a big responsibility. Our mission is to ensure the safety and

manager is to receive real-time notification of equipment

reliability of that vast system. Doing so not only benefits

breakdowns, you can't rely on shoppers or employees

the passengers using our products but also increases

to report a problem. So information on the operational

customer satisfaction and thus drives revenue growth.

status of all his elevators is now communicated directly

Our digital transformation has helped further that

from the equipment to the Schindler ecosystem,

mission in four aspects of the business.

including the Schindler call center, the dispatched

Superior Customer Experience We asked ourselves

Schindler service technician, and eventually the facilities

how our digital service platform could enhance the

manager. When there is a problem, everyone knows

experience of our customers - in our service business,

about it.

typically the facilities managers of one or more buildings.

The products report much more than breakdown

One of the worst things that can happen for the facilities

alerts. For example, our elevators now include sensors

managers of, say, a big retail store chain is an elevator

that anticipate possible future problems, which allows

being out of service. Not only is it inconvenient for the

us to do predictive as well as regular maintenance. This

store's customers but it also can put a dent in sales by

remote condition monitoring of potential problems has

The first message is sent over the ARPANET, the
predecessor of the Internet, between the network
node at UCLA and a second one at SRI.

1971

1969

among other things, the status of their elevators and

Ray Tomlinson at BBN writes the code
for network email and sends the first
email over the ARPANET.
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7
