Smart Services Summit Review

Fact: Over 50% of SSI Staff has 8 or More Years Experience

"You can count on the work being done right and on time." ~ SSI Client

Fact: 30% of SSI staff has twelve or more years experience

"The people blended in and became part of the design team."

Fact: Experienced Team Lead manages all projects

"I was impressed with the quality of SSI's work throughout this contract. I appreciated their ability to work with minimal guidance, and minimal design details. And I greatly appreciated their suggestions and alternate design proposals. Their willingness to work overtime when necessary to meet deadlines was greatly appreciated." ~ SSI Client

Fact: All SSI staff is trained on the Quality Development Process

"Work is spectacular. More exceptional than I thought it would be. Sensors work great. They can detect the slightest pressure accurately. It is WAY beyond my expectations." ~ SSI Client

Fact: Long term staff retention rate at SSI is > 95%

Fact: SSI's Internal Software process operates as CMM Level 3

"The experience was a good one" ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI has been in business 16+ years

"The best thing about working with SSI is that the people genuinely care about the success of the overall project. Typical contractors stop when they have merely met the letter of the contract that they are bound to; where as, SSI is willing to go above and beyond to drive a project to completion and ultimately success." ~ SSI Client

Fact: Over half of SSI Business is from returning clients

"I would use SSI again" ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI client relationships last several years

"The best thing about working with SSI is that the people genuinely care about the success of the overall project. Typical contractors stop when they have merely met the letter of the contract that they are bound to; where as, SSI is willing to go above and beyond to drive a project to completion and ultimately success." ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI's Customers report a consistent 4.5 out of 5 rating for satisfaction

"Keep finding people who can get to the root of the issue and resolve it as specified. [Your Engineer] is golden!." ~ SSI Client

Fact: 100% of clients surveyed said they would recommend SSI to others

"SSI will deliver what is promised on a timely basis." ~ SSI Client

Fact: SSI Supports Continual Employee Training

"Consistent high quality engineers who perform very well. SSI is the only company -- contracting or consulting -- who consistently provides the best talent who are not only technically accomplished but have excellent verbal and personal skills. I have not seen anything like it before." ~ SSI Client

SSI's Review of the Third Annual Smart Services Summit

Once again, SSI was invited to attend the Smart Services Summit, held on July 17 and July 18, 2007, in Chicago, IL.

This annual networking event is hosted by nPhase, a Qualcomm business, to bring together customers, analysts, and integrators of Smart Service Solutions. The event is an exclusive invitation-only executive event focused on exchanging best practices and collectively advancing Smart Service deployment.

Throughout the two days, three unique customer panels representing 12 different companies shared their failures and successes with implementing Smart Services (aka M2M or machine-to-machine solutions).

Panelists helped build the business case for Smart Services by offering their real world experiences. Participants shared how Smart Services were used to:

Develop new revenue streams such as ASP Hosted solutions. One panelist used Smart Services to uncover a customer’s need for additional training services.
Enable proactive customer service. By having the data to know what part to bring, repeat dispatch of a technician could be minimized. Also, with real time snapshots of an actual problem, technicians could more quickly fix a problem. Previously, when a technician arrived, diagnostic codes and I/O may have been altered, preventing the identification of the actual problem.
Provide monitoring reports that make solutions friendly to government mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Improve labor efficiencies.
Proactively monitor consumables such as power consumption or fluid levels. Smart Services are keeping customers stocked with product or their machines running without interruption.

A few tips were shared for rolling out Smart Service Solutions:

Phase in solutions rather than try to be everything to everybody.
Put your product in front of the customers for early feedback. The way customers use your solution might not be the same as you intended.
Look at the big picture: Cheaper solutions might cost you more in the long run due to unexpected costs further down the road. One customer shared an example where rolling out a cheaper solution than what nPhase offered resulted in higher costs caused by dropped packets and increased bandwidth usage.
Consider time-to-market. It might be worth an extra $1 per module.