KONE Corporation, pressrelease, February 8, 2017
KONE, a global leader in the elevator andescalator industry, has today launched a unique tailor-madeapproach for its maintenance services and new 24/7 ConnectedServices, which uses the IBM Watson IoT (Internet of Things)platform.
The company is bringing new levels of flexibilityto elevator maintenance, with the introduction of a fullycustomizable portfolio of services and advanced tools, designed tomeet the individual needs of different customers, such as buildingowners and facility managers. KONE's customers will be able torequest and customize services to match the specific requirementsof their business, their tenants, or their building type, insteadof predesigned service packages.
"With new technologies and connectivity, we areable to even better meet our customers' changing needs andexpectations on speed, transparency and predictability. Ourcustomized approach for maintenance services is designed togetherwith customers, for our customers, to help them to better succeedin their business and add value in totally new ways." says HenrikEhrnrooth, President and CEO, KONE.
As part of KONE Care(TM), KONE has also launched24/7 Connected Services, which uses the IBM Watson IoT platform andother advanced technologies to bring intelligent services toelevators and escalators. It means a completely new experience forKONE's customers, with less equipment downtime, fewer faults anddetailed information on maintenance work. For people usingelevators and escalators, it means less waiting time and morepersonalized experiences. The system enables vast amounts of datafrom elevator sensors to be monitored, analyzed and displayed inreal-time, improving equipment performance, reliability andsafety.
Ehrnrooth continues: "This is just the beginning.With this platform we will be able to bring new services and innovations faster to the market for our customers and consumers.Not only are we able to customize services based on our customers'individual needs - with better predictability, planning and peaceof mind - but we will also bring artificial intelligence for ourservices, which will help predict and suggest resolutions topotential problems."
"We are well on our way towards creating a trulyintelligent elevator and escalator service platform, which will useWatson's cognitive capabilities and take elevator and escalatorservices to a new level."
The launch of 24/7 Connected Services comes a yearafter KONE and IBM announced a multiyear agreement in which IBMwill provide cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) technologies andservices to drive innovation in the elevator and escalatorindustry.
Both the new KONE service offering and 24/7Connected Services have been piloted and introduced in selectedmarkets and will be commercially available broadly during 2017,with roll-out continuing throughout 2018. KONE aims to connect over1 million additional elevators and escalators to the cloud over thenext few years.
To bring a human touch to the technology behindKONE's 24/7 Connected Services, KONE and IBM have teamed up todemonstrate intelligent services. Discover how different elevatorsin different countries "talk" to the IBM Watson IoT Platform, liveand in real-time at http://machineconversations.kone.com/
Read more:
Previous press releases are available at www.kone.com/pressincluding:
February 19, 2016: KONE joins forces with IBM for IoT cloud servicesand advanced analytics technologies
For images and videos, please visit KONE's Material Bank on http://bit.ly/KONEservices
For further information, pleasecontact:
Liisa Kivelä, Director, Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358204 75 4330, media@kone.com
About KONE
At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As aglobal leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provideselevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well assolutions for maintenance and modernization to add value tobuildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effectivePeople Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient andreliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2016, KONE had annualnet sales of EUR 8.8 billion and at the end of the year over 52,000employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq HelsinkiLtd. in Finland. http://www.kone.com