The MESSENGER Project
This EC funded MESSENGER project developed advanced electronic communication between engineering or IT firms and their service and maintenance networks.
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The MESSENGER consortium gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the European Commission. Without that support, the project would never have been undertaken.
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| Description of project |
| EC PROGRAMME: | IST |
| PROJECT TITLE: | Manufacturing, engineering and service status electronically negotiated for greatly enhanced response |
| ACRONYM: | MESSENGER |
| PROGRAMME TYPE: | 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme) |
| CONTRACT NUMBER: | IST-1999-10195 |
| PROJECT WEB SITE (if any): | http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| START DATE: | 01 Jul 2000 |
| END DATE: | 30 Jun 2002 |
| COORDINATOR DETAILS: |
Name: Peter Burton Organisation: Isomatic UK Ltd. Address: 9 Pimms Close, GU4 7YG Guildford, UK Telephone: +44 1483 534634 E-mail: peter.burton@isomatic.co.uk |
| PARTNERS NAME: |
|
Indra Sistemas S.A., Jorge De Teresa Isomatic Lab Ltd, George Stoyanov Aplicaciones de Ingenierìa y Formaciûn S.L., Nuria De Lama Radiocor Digital Solutions division of Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A., Andrea Pozzi Siemens S.A. Payphone Division ICM PP, Carlos Roy IrisCube S.p.A, Marielle Binken Cimmedia Ltd, Philip Purslow Meadowhouse España S.L., Paul Jarvis |
| Commission Officer Name: | Juha Halonen |
| Executive summary |
| Original research objectives MESSENGER will deliver an advanced electronic service platform for communication of information between manufacturing and product services organisations and their service networks, including non-affiliated SME agents. The goal is to improve the efficiency of the communication mechanisms by providing innovative electronic services for transmission of engineering data, including full technical manuals plus updates, to the service network and to receive back spares orders, consumer guarantee claims, product/service complaints and fault/repair information. This feedback will be routed to the corresponding departments, providing a mechanism for tracking actions to correct the situation for future deliveries, improving the internal production and design processes. The platform will provide technical support to the service network through multimedia tele-training and video-conferencing facilities, which will improve the technical knowledge and the quality of response to the customer. |
| Expected deliverables D1: Consortium agreement, data management & change plans, schedule example, Project presentation, WWW pages and FTP directory. D2: Legacy systems report & requirements analysis. Complementary projects; search & liaison results. D3: Services and architecture specification. D4: Interim software report D5: Software completion report. D6: Training plan, Pilot assessment at user sites, Prototype presentation. D7: Dissemination and Use plan, dissemination material, presentation/publication list, example article, CD D8: Assessment and evaluation report, Technology Implementation plan (TIP) |
| Project's actual outcome Service Management S/W comprising; Product Installation (includes Mobile Framework and Hub), Claims Support, Content Management, Technical Support and Management Reporting. Pilot Installation at Radiocor showing Product Installation, Technical Support and Management Reporting. User and Administrator manuals for each S/W package (used for training personnel). Dissemination at various events. Material, including brochure and web site. Future dissemination plans Exploitation plans. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) report. |
| Broad dissemination and use intentions for the expected outputs Dissemination will raise awareness of future MESSENGER products among potential end-users and collaborators, to facilitate commercial exploitation, ease market penetration and create strategic alliances. The consortium. having developed a good product, priced it attractively and made it accessible to the target customer, will also communicate its existence effectively, including : |
| Overview of main project results |
| Result No. | Self-descriptive title of the result | Category A, B or C* |
Partner(s) owning the result(s) (referring in particular to specific patents, copyrights, etc.) and involved in their further use |
| 1 | Product Installation software module; computerises the activities associated with installation of hardware and/or software at a customer site and commencement of use. | A | IrisCube S.p.A |
| 2 | Mobile framework; software module providing communication with sales staff and field engineers (or even customers) using mobile telephones and PDAs, based on the IrisCube Janus background software. | A | IrisCube S.p.A |
| 3 | The Hub software; provides interfaces between the MESSENGER software modules and the MESSENGER database and also between MESSENGER and user legacy systems, based on IrisCube background software. | A | IrisCube S.p.A |
| 4 | Claims/faults support S/W; provides utilities to manage and track claims processing for service, maintenance and fault repair, including registration of new claims, request of claim status, etc. | A | Indra Sistemas S.A. Aplicaciones de Ingenieria y Formacion S.L. |
| 5 | Content Management S/W; administrative tool that allows users to define different Content Types (e.g. user manuals, training courses, etc.) and to publish the contents on the MESSENGER network. | A | Indra Sistemas S.A. Aplicaciones de Ingenieria y Formacion S.L. |
| 6 | Technical Support software; provides Videoconferencing, Chat service, Whiteboards, FAQs and Search Engine to support field installation, service, maintenance and repair personnel. | A | Isomatic Lab Ltd |
| 7 | Management Reporting S/W; utilities to create report types (templates) organised into different topics, create reports and store them, access to operations being determined by the role of the user. | A | Isomatic Lab Ltd |
| 8 | Pilot Installation in Milan; covering Radiocor¹s needs for Product Installation, Technical Support and Management Reporting, accessible by Radiocor staff, service subcontractors and customers. | B | Radiocor Digital Solutions division of Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A. IrisCube S.p.A Isomatic Lab Ltd |
| Comment on European Interest |
| European dimension of the problem Funding was unavailable from national programmes and it was advantageous to undertake the project at a European level. Service networks are international and the problems to be solved apply to organisations and their SME agents/subcontractors globally. It was much more efficient and effective to work together in a single European consortium to produce one solution than in several smaller national projects producing incompatible solutions. The project will benefit European industry more widely than the consortium. Some partners have user interest groups and all are committed to disseminate the results and/or develop an exploitable product. This will be sold to users outside the consortium at a commercial price, transferring the MESSENGER results throughout Europe. Improved communication across international boundaries will be added value from the results. MESSENGER development within a European consortium has supported the exploitation activities and opened new distribution channels. |
| Contribution to developing S&T co-operation at international level.
European added value Nine non-affiliated industrial partners from UK, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria provided complementary expertise. There was substantial European added value as none of the partners had the expertise or critical mass in human or financial terms to undertake the work alone. Collaboration increased access to pooled resources and technology transfer, emulating the global marketplace. The Bulgarian partner added an international level. There are perceived and real problems in collaboration and technology transfer between Eastern and Western Europe. IT can solve known difficulties in communication and control of the required two way flow of IT, engineering, commercial and manufacturing information. The results are of mutual benefit to East-West European collaborators. Eastern Europe offers Western businesses skilled sub-contractors at competitive prices plus opportunities for the West to supply emerging markets using local service agents. |
| Contribution to policy design or implementation USER-FRIENDLINESS is by WWW-style user interfaces and instant communication of problems/solutions. These previously used telephone and postal communication to a single, often the wrong, recipient. Multi-lingual and multi-cultural aspects are accommodated. Results are SCALEABLE and MOBILE. INTEGRATION and CONVERGENCE across information processing, communication and media feature strongly. Business process re-engineering, database management and communications are integrated. GLOBALISATION of RTD co-operation is aided by the inclusion of an Eastern European partner. SMEs. Six of the partners are SMEs, as are many service agencies. INTEROPERABILITY and STANDARDISATION of communications and interfaces are by generic modules that are independent of the underlying heterogeneous infrastructure, using Internet, XML, GSM, etc. DISTRIBUTION and SHARING of information will revolutionise field service processes. DATA SECURITY, DATA PROTECTION and PRIVACY are key elements. |
| Improving the quality of life in the Community: MESSENGER will improve working conditions with new skills. Tedious operation of a paper and discussion based approach will be replaced by automatic prompts and system checks. ¹Clocking in¹ will be at the moment the service technician switches on his computer/PDA and connects to the network, not when he arrives at the work place. Service agents using the mobile framework will not need to travel to a central location. This will reduce travel by thousands of kilometres, giving a better quality of life. Italian partner Radiocor undertakes 12000 site visits every year. Reduced travel reduces road accidents and inhalation of toxic fumes, particularly in Eastern Europe where clean exhaust gases are the exception. MESSENGER will break down linguistic and cultural barriers . Using an electronic terminal to perform a service operation will guide the user with prompts rather than expect verbal explanations in a strange language. |
| Provision of appropriate incentives for monitoring and creating jobs in the Community (including use and development of skills): Jobs will be created by improved products, service and global competitiveness. This will increase market penetration, leading to business expansion in the manufacturing companies and in the installation and service SMEs. The IT skills gained will increase the pool of European employees familiar with state-of-the-art data communications. They will jump from paper to e-work and from e-work to m-work. Technical support is a major action within MESSENGER, easing the learning process and encouraging collaborative work. The Installation support module is particularly aimed at helping field personnel to increase the added value of their work. A key action is training of management and staff in organisational changes and new practices, essential to ensure their future employment. A mentality and culture change is particularly needed for Eastern European SMEs with a history of working in a state planned economy rather than one that is market driven. |
| Supporting sustainable development, preserving and/or enhancing the environment (including use/conservation of resources): Use of the mobile framework for instant transmission of service reports and receipt of manuals plus updates reduces travel time compared with the need to return to base each day. An experiment undertaken in Tuscany and Puglia between mid-1997 and mid-1998 with the TIM system (cell-phone network service) showed that the number of kilometres travelled to reach the site of the first call out was reduced, in Tuscany from an average of 108 to 34 and, in Puglia, from 155 to 29. Reducing road traffic is critical for the environment of European towns and cities. The extreme measures being taken in such cities as Florence (restricting parking to residents) and Athens (cars used on alternate days) are well known. A less well known example is Sofia, where one of the MESSENGER partners is located. In a bowl surrounded by mountains, the city is almost permanently in the polluted environment of a miniature Los Angeles without any of the clean air regulations. |
| Description of Results |
| Result No. | Title |
| 1 | Product Installation software module; computerises the activities associated with installation of hardware and/or software at a customer site and commencement of use. |
| Name | Marielle Binken |
| Position | Marketing Communications Manager |
| Organisation | IrisCube S.p.A |
| Address | Via Fabio Filzi, 41 Milano 20124 ITALY , |
| Telephone | +39 02 670-71517 |
| Fax | +39-02-670-75555 |
| marielle.binken@iriscube.com | |
| URL | http://www.iriscube.com/ |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| This software module computerises the activities associated with installation of hardware and/or software at a customer site and commencement of use. The Product Installation service will help all the users involved in the workflow to make their work more efficient, gaining the benefits that the MESSENGER Architecture is able to provide, such as Mobile Connection, alert/notification, personalisation of the application for a particular client without any coding, etc. Processes are valid for both a new customer AND an existing customer requiring an additional service. Use cases are: 1 Customer acquisition and profile definition, i.e. sales and contract activities 2 Customer activation, i.e. account creation and planning authorisation 3 Manage intervention 4 Performing installation, i.e. Field Engineering activities 5 Service commencement and invoicing. Product installation is integrated with the following independent modules; mobile framework (result 2), hub (result 3), technical support (result 5) and management reporting (result 6). For staff training, and in preparation for a saleable MESSENGER product; user, administrator and installation manuals have been produced. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| User/Administrator manual | Installation Manual, document 058 rev 3.1 English | Public |
| Report | Product Installation, document 047 rev 0.5 English | Confidential |
| The Product Installation module can be used as part of a complete MESSENGER suite of software or it can be sold with its integrated support services as a stand-alone product. It can be run on the server of the purchaser or from the supplier¹s server for a monthly payment but lower initial investment. It is relevant to all enterprises that install hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can be customised to interface with any legacy system already in place and it can communicate using a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for such a product is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to process efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings as shown in result 8 ¹Pilot Installation at Radiocor¹. An analysis of competitive products has shown that none provide the full features of MESSENGER. The current status is the Pilot Installation at Radiocor, which is undergoing controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. Further users will be sought, initially in Italy so that IrisCube can give close support while confidence in the product is growing. User, administrator and installation manuals are already available to support trials and future sales. |
| We would welcome approaches from potential users or from those wishing to market the product, particularly from countries other than Italy. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 2 | Mobile framework; software module providing communication with sales staff and field engineers (or even customers) using mobile telephones and PDAs, based on the IrisCube Janus background software. |
| Name | Marielle Binken |
| Position | Marketing Communications Manager |
| Organisation | IrisCube S.p.A |
| Address | Via Fabio Filzi, 41 Milano 20124 ITALY , |
| Telephone | +39 02 670-71517 |
| Fax | +39-02-670-75555 |
| marielle.binken@iriscube.com | |
| URL | http://www.iriscube.com/ |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Mobile Framework is one of the key MESSENGER modules. It is a software module providing communication with sales staff and field engineers (or even customers) using mobile telephones and PDAs, based on the IrisCube Janus background software. The Mobile Framework will enable all those located away from a fixed computer connection to the Internet to obtain all the benefits that the MESSENGER Architecture is able to provide. It facilitates recognition of the mobile or fixed terminal that makes the requests and transforms the data to be delivered to these devices. It makes the mobile channel available for any functional MESSENGER module, e.g. Product Installation, but is not tied to any one of them. Examples of use are: 1 Customer acquisition and profile definition, i.e. salesperson with PDA and mobile telephone 2 Performing installation, i.e. Field Engineers at customer site with PDA/mobile ¹phone 3 Claims support, i.e. Field service personnel at customer site with PDA/mobile ¹phone. Product installation, hub, technical support and management reporting modules are already integrated with the mobile framework. Claims support and content management are ready for integration. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Part of report | Product Installation, document 047 rev 0.5 English | Confidential |
| Part of manual | Installation Manual, document 058 rev 3.1 English | Public |
| The Mobile Framework can be supplied as part of a complete MESSENGER suite of software or with individual modules. It can be run on the server of the purchaser or from the supplier¹s server for a monthly payment but lower initial investment. It is relevant to all enterprises that install, service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The Mobile Framework is integrated with the Hub software. The potential for the Mobile Framework is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings if field sales and engineering personnel are not required to relocate to a position with fixed Internet access every time they need to communicate. This could be very frequently in some situations. The current status is the Pilot Installation at Radiocor, which is undergoing controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. IrisCube sells the Janus Mobile Framework for other applications. |
| Potential users wanted. Also Marketing input, particularly outside Italy. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 3 | The Hub software; provides interfaces between the MESSENGER software modules and the MESSENGER database and also between MESSENGER and user legacy systems, based on IrisCube background software. |
| Name | Marielle Binken |
| Position | Marketing Communications Manager |
| Organisation | IrisCube S.p.A |
| Address | Via Fabio Filzi, 41 Milano 20124 ITALY , |
| Telephone | +39 02 670-71517 |
| Fax | +39-02-670-75555 |
| marielle.binken@iriscube.com | |
| URL | http://www.iriscube.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Hub software provides interfaces between the MESSENGER software modules and the MESSENGER database and also between MESSENGER and user legacy systems, based on IrisCube background software. Examples of legacy systems are the Radiocor GAT system, the SAP system used by Siemens, Oracle databases, etc. The Hub is an essential part of the MESSENGER architecture and is present in all configurations, regardless of which optional modules have been selected. Product installation, mobile framework, technical support and management reporting modules are already integrated with the Hub. Claims support and content management are ready for integration. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Part of Report | Product Installation, document 047 rev 0.5 English | Confidential |
| Part of manual | Installation Manual, document 058 rev 3.1 English | Public |
| The Hub is supplied as part of a complete MESSENGER suite of software or with individual modules. It can be run on the server of the purchaser or from the supplier¹s server for a monthly payment but lower initial investment. It is relevant to all enterprises that install, service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The Hub always interfaces with the MESSENGER database and will interface with all the other selected MESSENGER modules and the user¹s legacy system(s). The potential for the Hub is considerable, with the largest potential market of any project result. Substantial savings in initial investment can be made by rapid integration with existing legacy systems. This is a condition imposed by many prospective users because they cannot contemplate losing a legacy database with the need to transfer all existing information from it. The current status is the Pilot Installation at Radiocor, which is undergoing controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. IrisCube sells the Hub with other applications. |
| Potential users wanted. Also marketing, particularly outside Italy. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 4 | Claims/faults support S/W; provides utilities to manage and track claims processing for service, maintenance and fault repair, including registration of new claims, request of claim status, etc. |
| Name | Nuria De Lama |
| Position | Technical Director |
| Organisation | Aplicaciones de Ingenieria y Formacion S.L. |
| Address | Calle Galileo 82 Madrid 28000 SPAIN , |
| Telephone | +34-606-965960 |
| Fax | +34-91-4312206 |
| ndelama@apling.com | |
| URL | http://www.moviquity.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Claims Support software module provides utilities to manage and track claims processing for service, maintenance and fault repair, including registration of new claims, request of claim status, etc. Furthermore, MESSENGER provides new features and possibilities by means of this service. This comprises the possibility to define and manage different types of claims (each with a different process model associated), access to new operations such as starting dialogues between internal employees or between the front-desk and customers, the generation of lists of internal people that will help in the resolution of a specific claim or mechanisms to access documentation or generate warning messages automatically. The above is supported by workflow software that is capable of processing actions that involve many management steps, verification of results, etc. Workflow capabilities are enabled by the Process Integrator, i.e. the workflow module of the BEA Weblogic Application Server. MESSENGER is able to control any operation related to any workflow process thanks to this module and its integration with the diferent functional applications in the platform. MESSENGER also provides an additional graphical tool to define new workflows that is not part of the Process Integrator. This facilitates the use of the tool by the administrator. Some of the modularity advantages of the platform result from the workflow support, as this tool enables the dynamic configuration of the workflow processes. One of the important features of this service is that it can be dynamically configurable, allowing the definition of different claim types, claims process and views for the different actors. For staff training, and in preparation for a saleable MESSENGER product; user, administrator and installation manuals have been produced. Also the exploitation plan was updated to cover sales of this result as a separate module. A roadmap was produced to cover such activities, together with a Business process re-enginering plan. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Report | Claims support service S/W, document 049 rev. 3.2 English | Confidential |
| User Manual | Claims support service user manual, doc .054 rev. 0.2 English | Public |
| Administrator Manual | Claims support administrator manual, doc. 054 rev. 0.2 English | Public |
| The Claims Support module can be used as part of a complete MESSENGER suite of software or it can be sold with its integrated support services as a stand-alone product. It can be run on the server of the purchaser or from the supplier¹s server for a monthly payment but lower initial investment. It is relevant to all enterprises that service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can be customised to interface with any legacy system already in place and it can communicate using a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for such a product is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to process efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings. An analysis of competitive products has shown that none provide the full features of MESSENGER. User, administrator and installation manuals are already available to support trials and future sales. An exploitation plan and roadmap show how it might be exploited. A colour brochure is also available for distribution to potential customers. The current status is the hand over of software modules from Indra to APIF. Trials at APIF will ensure that the Claims Support module works outside the Indra environment. Users will be sought, initially in Spain so that APIF can give close support while confidence in the product is growing. |
| Spanish Users wanted for trials. Potential users from world-wide wanted for future. Marketing wanted, particularly outside Spain. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 5 | Content Management S/W; administrative tool that allows users to define different Content Types (e.g. user manuals, training courses, etc.) and to publish the contents on the MESSENGER network. |
| Name | Nuria De Lama |
| Position | Technical Director |
| Organisation | Aplicaciones de Ingenieria y Formacion S.L. |
| Address | Calle Galileo 82 Madrid 28000 SPAIN , |
| Telephone | +34-606-965960 |
| Fax | +34-91-4312206 |
| ndelama@apling.com | |
| URL | http://www.moviquity.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Content Management S/W module is an administrative tool that allows users to define different Content Types (e.g. user manuals, training courses, etc.) and to publish the contents on the MESSENGER network. Each Content Type is characterised by means of different attributes, also defined by the user. Each time a new content is available, it is associated with an existing content type and published in the system. Publication comprises entering the meta-data attributes given by the Content Type and the uploading of physical files connected with the content. The content can then be found by the Search Engine service. Content Management will be integrated with the Technical Support and Management Reporting modules. These three modules work closely together. For staff training, and in preparation for a saleable MESSENGER product; user, administrator and installation manuals have been produced. Also the exploitation plan was updated to cover sales of this result as a separate module. A roadmap was produced to cover such activities, together with a Business process re-enginering plan. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Report | Content Management S/W, document 048 rev. 3.2 English | Confidential |
| User Manual | Content Management user manual, document 055 rev. 0.2 English | Public |
| Administrator manual | Content management administrator manual, document 059 rev. 1.2 English | Public |
| The Content Management module can be used as part of a complete MESSENGER suite of software or it can be sold with Technical Support and/or Management Reporting as a stand-alone product. It can be run on the server of the purchaser or from the supplier¹s server for a monthly payment but lower initial investment. It is relevant to all enterprises that install, service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can be customised to interface with any legacy system already in place and it can communicate using a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for such a product is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to process efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings. An analysis of competitive products has shown that none provide the full features of MESSENGER. User, administrator and installation manuals are already available to support trials and future sales. An exploitation plan and roadmap show how it might be exploited. Commercial brochures have already been produced and distributed. The current status is the hand over of software modules from Indra to APIF. Trials at APIF will ensure that the Content Management module works outside the Indra environment. Users will be sought, initially in Spain so that APIF can give close support while confidence in the product is growing. |
| Users, initially in Spain, then world-wide. Marketing, particularly outside Spain. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 6 | Technical Support software; provides Videoconferencing, Chat service, Whiteboards, FAQs and Search Engine to support field installation, service, maintenance and repair personnel. |
| Name | George Stoyanov |
| Position | Programming Manager |
| Organisation | Isomatic Lab Ltd |
| Address | Liabchev Blvd 4 Sofia 1797 BULGARIA , |
| Telephone | +359-2-9743066 |
| Fax | +359-2-9753032 |
| geca@isomatic.com | |
| URL | http://www.isomatic.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Technical Support software provides Videoconferencing, Chat service, Whiteboards, FAQs and Search Engine to support field installation, service, maintenance and repair personnel. These are detailed as follows: 1 Access and use of collaborative tools, e.g.: a Videoconferencing-Chat service, allowing MESSENGER users communication between them in real time with the possibilities for chat and file transfer. b Whiteboards, permitting users to collaborate in real time using graphic information. c FAQs, showing them with their respective answers organised in topics for technical support and allowing users to submit questions and receive corresponding answers. 2 Search and access to technical documentation. A Content Search Engine will permit the users to look for the different content resources published by the organisation: User Manuals, CAD data models, training course, etc. The Technical Support service is built as an ordinary service but is only a gateway or access point to other services, i.e. FAQ, Conferencing and Search Engine. In order to keep the same building framework for all services, these services (FAQ, Conferencing and Search Engine) are defined as operations of Technical Support service. So in this way although these services are sub-services of Technical Support, they are built as full functional services from the same level as the level of Technical Support and Management Reporting. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Part of Report | Technical Support and Management Reporting, document 046 rev. 3.2 English | Confidential |
| The service is relevant to all enterprises that install, service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can interface with any legacy system already in place by customisation at the Hub. Communication can use a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for such a product is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to process efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings as shown in result 8 ¹Pilot Installation at Radiocor¹. An analysis of competitive products has shown that none provide the full features of MESSENGER. The current status is the Pilot Installation at Radiocor, which is undergoing controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. Further users will be sought, initially in Italy so that IrisCube and IsoLab can give close support while confidence in the product is growing. |
| Users required, initially in Italy, then world-wide. Marketing required, particularly outside Italy and Bulgaria. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 7 | Management Reporting S/W; utilities to create report types (templates) organised into different topics, create reports and store them, access to operations being determined by the role of the user. |
| Name | George Stoyanov |
| Position | Programming Manager |
| Organisation | Isomatic Lab Ltd |
| Address | Liabchev Blvd 4 Sofia 1797 BULGARIA , |
| Telephone | +359-2-9743066 |
| Fax | +359-2-9753032 |
| geca@isomatic.com | |
| URL | http://www.isomatic.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| The Management Reporting software comprises utilities to create report types (templates) organised into different topics, create reports and store them, access to operations being determined by the role of the user. This is to prevent incompetent users modifying functions that require a deep knowledge about corresponding business processes. One of the main features of this service is that it can be dynamically configurable. The reporting service is created for two business processes: Claims Support and Product Installation. It is possible for the service to work with multiple claim types and product installation types without changing the management reporting service. There are differences between two types of reporting service concerning the database to be queried for creating reports. The Management Reporting Service provides: 1 a configurable security control over the operations granted for each user in the service, different roles having access to different kinds of operations 2 different topics in which the service is organised to filter the access of different users to the specific information, thus preventing statistical information being viewed by users who are not authorised to see information in specific areas 3 for different users to see different topics according to the actor groups in which they are participating 4 different types of report generation according to the types of database architecture of business process with two sub reporting modules, one for product installation and one for claims support 5 separation into sub-modules where the system supports many different types concerning the database information structure 6 support for different database organisation in the sub-modules specified above. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Part of report | Technical Support and Management Reporting, document 046 rev. 3.2 English | Confidential |
| The service is relevant to all enterprises that install, service or maintain hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can interface with any legacy system already in place by customisation at the Hub. Communication can use a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for such a product is considerable, with a very large potential market. Substantial improvements to process efficiency can be made, with consequent financial savings as shown in result 8 ¹Pilot Installation at Radiocor¹. An analysis of competitive products has shown that none provide the full features of MESSENGER. The current status is the Pilot Installation at Radiocor, which is undergoing controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. Further users will be sought, initially in Italy so that IrisCube and IsoLab can give close support while confidence in the product is growing. |
| Users, initially in Italy, then world-wide. Marketing, particularly outside Italy and Bulgaria. |
| Result No. | Title |
| 8 | Pilot Installation in Milan; covering Radiocor¹s needs for Product Installation, Technical Support and Management Reporting, accessible by Radiocor staff, service subcontractors and customers. |
| Name | Andrea Pozzi |
| Position | |
| Organisation | Radiocor Digital Solutions division of Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A. |
| Address | via Tiziano 32 Milano 20145 ITALY , |
| Telephone | +39-039-2036150 |
| Fax | +39-039-2036155 |
| a.pozzi@ilsole24ore.com | |
| URL | http://http://www.ilsole24ore.com |
| Specific Result URL |
http://www.isomatic.co.uk/messenger.htm |
| This is a Pilot Installation in Milan; covering Radiocor¹s needs for Product Installation, Technical Support and Management Reporting, accessible by Radiocor staff, service subcontractors and customers. It was a collaboration between a development team (IrisCube and Isomatic Lab) and a user partner (Radiocor). The main business issues were: a Communications b Product support c Access to information. The IrisCube team responsible for development of the Product Installation module (with co-operation from Isomatic Lab for the Reporting tool) worked primarily with the RADIOCOR DIGITAL SOLUTIONS Installation and Assistance Department dealing with all aspects related to external communications covering communications between the call centre and the external field force in order to provide: 1 information about a particular customer situation, and for product installation information, 2 scheduling of technical activities 3 information about product support 4 access directly by customers, to view their situation. Radiocor was the ideal client for checking out the effectiveness of the MESSENGER solution as its main business is to work within the management of real-time financial information. Radiocor is primarily a volume supplier of pre-defined financial products to a marketplace requiring real time data. Dealing with a high number of customers, installations and products, Radiocor has a considerable base of support activities to control and manage. The pilot: a demonstrated ease of software installation b put in place a complete integration (of the required modules) of the MESSENGER solution with existing legacy systems/solutions, using MESSENGER basic features and integration capabilities/components c gave Radiocor the training and manuals required for understanding the software use and ability to maximise software features within a limited period of time (days not weeks) d produced effective results within a short period (e.g. limited number of weeks) related to: 1 more effective and efficient communications between the field and the centre 2 provision of tele-training on the job or e-learning 3 availability of on-line brochures and documents for pre-sales support 4 availability of technical documents on-line supplied by the development department to assist technical field service (difficulties/bugs of product and work-around for solve them, installation facilities, etc.) 5 availability of a Knowledge Management Centre and frequently asked questions (FAQs) 6 a system of ticketing 7 a facility for video conferencing. |
| SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS CODES |
| 362 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT 150 DATABASES, DATABASE MANAGEMENT, DATA MINING 399 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS 90 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 123 COMPANY RE-ENGINEERING/ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| Documentation type | Details (Title, ref. number, general description, language) | Status: PU=Public CO=Confidential |
| Report | Initial Radiocor Pilot assessment, document 060 rev. 0.9 English | Confidential |
| User manual | User guide for Radiocor, document 051 rev. 2.1 English | Public |
| Administrator Manual | Administrator guide for Radiocor, document 050 rev. 2.1 English | Public |
| Training plan | Training plan for Radiocor, document 052 rev. 0.2 English | Confidential |
| This Pilot Implementation is relevant as a case study for all enterprises that install hardware or software products or services at customer premises, using either in-house or subcontract resources. The module can interface with any legacy system already in place by customisation at the Hub. Communication can use a client computer via web pages or it can use the mobile framework to communicate via mobile telephones or PDAs. The potential for the installation at Radiocor is to: 1 shorten the communication cycle 2 guarantee distribution of standard documentation 3 monitor the installation process in real time. These affect six Radiocor departments the installation subcontractors and all the customers, potentially resulting in considerable overall improvement in efficiency and hence reduction in costs The current status is controlled trials before being used with real customers during the first 6 months of 2003. |
| Offering a case study for for marketing organisations that have signed an agreement with IrisCube or Isomatic Lab. |
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