Service Organizations Simplify Tasks and Automate Processes Through Service Hub's Integration With the Internet and Wireless Mobile Devices
Southboro, Mass. - June 10, 2000 - ViryaNet, a leading provider of business-to-business Internet solutions for service communities, today announced the release of Service Hub 2.0, a major upgrade to its core product. Service Hub 2.0 enables companies to optimize the use of their workforce through connectivity between the Internet and mobile devices. By using Service Hub 2.0, organizations can potentially reduce service cycle time, improve customer satisfaction, and increase
revenue.
Service Hub 2.0 includes functionality that allows an organization's field staff to interact with Service Hub using wireless mobile devices. It also supports the procurement of parts through Web auctioning capability, and includes a set of advanced processes and algorithms for defining and managing Internet communities.
"Nationwide, there are more than seven million field engineers who still conduct service processes manually," said Ian Schmidt, vice president, product planning and marketing at ViryaNet. "Service Hub automates the activities of these field engineers and simplifies their jobs - both on and off the road. Service Hub 2.0 unites all of the constituents in the service community and provides real
value to the organization in terms of improved productivity, better quality service, and, ultimately, more satisfied customers. These are attributes that provide true market differentiation."
"World-class organizations in the telecommunications, high tech, and industrial automation industries already are using Service Hub 1.0," said Ron Ben-Natan, CTO and senior vice president of engineering, ViryaNet. "Service Hub 2.0 includes major technological innovations to our strong foundation, and allows us to maintain our strong competitive position. We are proud of our achievements with
this new release, and are delighted with the initial feedback we have received from several customers."
The upgrade includes significant advancements in the areas of:
-Mobile Workforce Management
-Service Community Management
-Parts Procurement
Mobile Workforce Management
ViryaNet's new Mobile Workforce Management application, Mobile FE, enables field engineers using wireless mobile devices, such as Palm Pilots, to interact with the Service Hub. With Mobile FE, field engineers can initiate typical service delivery processes and:
-View site details pertaining to a specific service call
-Acknowledge a service call
-Report on activities regarding labor, travel, parts usage, and expenses
-View maps
-Search and view service call history
Mobile FE also offers engineers the ability to update information captured while offline by synchronizing with a channel server via the Internet.
"The use of wireless mobile devices by field engineers has dramatically increased due to the portability and flexibility of these devices, as well as the numerous advantages that they offer including a reduction in paperwork, data entry, and data entry errors," commented Ian Schmidt. "These advantages result in quicker and more efficient service calls, and more accurate billing
records."
Service Community Management
Service Hub 2.0 provides community management features that include support for:
-Community administration
-Mass customization, allowing users to be profiled and assigned user groups based on their profile
-Dynamic self-registration, which associates a new user with a user group (such as vendor or supplier) based on business rules defined by the community
-Parametric shortcuts and Key Performance Indicators based on user data allow user groups to share the same community, but view only the business data that is relevant to them.
In addition, Service Hub 2.0 supports other Service Community features such as service chat, service forums, and customer satisfaction surveys.
Parts Procurement
Service Hub's Service Process, which enables users to interact with various service applications and databases, now offers auctioning capabilities that allow suppliers to bid on requests for new parts via the Internet. With the enhanced Service Process, suppliers have an Internet-enabled, end-to-end, automated process for the procurement of parts.
Pricing and Availability
Service Hub 2.0 pricing is based on the number of users and functionality deployed, and begins at $400,000. ViryaNet's Service Hub 2.0 is immediately available for implementation.
About ViryaNet
ViryaNet is a leading provider of business-to-business Internet solutions for service communities.
ViryaNet's Service Hub solution allows an organization's entire service community, including its employees, as well as its customers, partners, vendors, and suppliers, to work and collaborate on the Web. Service Hub consists of out-of-the box applications for workforce management, supporting mobile field engineers who use wireless PDAs and cell phones. Service Hub supports a variety of business
processes in the areas of contracts, supply chain, and repair, including managing service level agreements, enabling customer self service, automating repair returns, and providing auction-based asset procurement and replenishment.
ViryaNet's Service Hub solution enables organizations to utilize the advanced capabilities of the Internet to create highly efficient service communities, while leveraging existing applications, legacy operations, and technology.
ViryaNet's veteran professional services team and implementation partners enable rapid implementation of the Company's solutions for world-class corporations such as CapRock, Data General/EMC, ITC^DeltaCom, Inc., Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems, Symbol Technologies, and Teraoka Seiko.
For additional information about ViryaNet and its solutions, visit the Company's website at
www.viryanet.com.