Business Info - issue 155

01732 759725 17 magazine COMMS Case Studies Big Switch Off – FireSwitch Spitfire IoT – Wilcomatic Wash Systems The Challenge Wilcomatic Wash Systems are the UK’s leading provider of commercial wash systems for road and rail with more than 2,000 installations globally, cleaning more than 8 million vehicles per year. Supporting Wilcomatic’s equipment is a 60-strong team of field engineers, but it is becoming more and more difficult for traditional maintenance and service programmes to keep pace with equipment requirements as technology and monitoring systems continue to advance. Wilcomatic needed to find a solution that used data via the mobile network to help monitor installations, was easy to deploy and maintain and above all was cost-effective, so they turned to Spitfire for help. The Solution Spitfire has provided Wilcomatic with an IoT data connectivity SIM solution, currently serving in excess of 600 machines across the UK. Live data points including temperature, fluid volume, on/off, fault codes and volume and type of transactions are fed back to a cloud-based reporting dashboard, where actions and priorities can be observed in real-time. The Benefits Being able to remotely monitor and predict Wilcomatic’s maintenance requirements in the field has meant a more efficient service for both Wilcomatic and its clients. By using Spitfire’s IoT data SIMs, Wilcomatic is able to greatly reduce the data connectivity costs (by a factor of 10 compared to that of a fixed line Internet connection!), paying only for the data that is used. The solution also enables new machines to be added to the network in less than 24 hours and they can be located anywhere on site, not restricted to where a physical cable has been laid. Thanks to Spitfire’s IoT Data SIMs, Wilcomatic is able to achieve the best possible connectivity, no matter where the machines are located. Overall efficiency gains from the solution are significant, with the data collected from each machine relayed to an activity dashboard where judgements and remedies can be easily actioned. This allows for engineering workflows to be optimised, machines to operate at maximum capacity and issues to be dealt with in a timely manner. Spitfire recently started working with a small chain of food retail outlets based within London who faced some challenges when it came to telephony. Using analogue lines at each store, they were aware of the upcoming need to move to a futureproofed solution and wanted to benefit from improved communication between sites. The director of the business regularly works from home with a dedicated analogue line for business use and occasionally travels to visit suppliers. To address these challenges, Spitfire recommended the implementation of a new FireSwitch hosted telephone system. Handsets were deployed at each store and at the director’s home office, providing a single communications platform across all sites with free internal calls. Existing telephone numbers were easily ported from their analogue lines to Spitfire’s resilient SIP network, meaning the customer no longer relied on outdated legacy infrastructure. As the existing broadband services were carried over the analogue lines, the customer opted for Spitfire VoiceAssisted broadband circuits to futureproof their data network. The broadband service carries both their voice and data traffic, with features designed to help assure call quality, such as Real Time QoS for the prioritisation of telephone data traffic across the network. The director of the business was given full access to the proprietary softphone application for smartphones, meaning important business calls could be made and received when working away from the office. Spitfire FireSwitch enabled this customer to beat the anticipated rush to the 2025 Big Switch Off, allowing for a seamless transition, and with the added benefit of cost savings and improved flexibility for remote working and inter-site communication. www.spitfire.co.uk

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