KONE Corporation, press release, February 8, 2017
KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has today launched a unique tailor-made approach for its maintenance services and new 24/7 Connected Services, which uses the IBM Watson IoT (Internet of Things) platform.
The company is bringing new levels of flexibility to elevator maintenance, with the introduction of a fully customizable portfolio of services and advanced tools, designed to meet the individual needs of different customers, such as building owners and facility managers. KONE's customers will be able to request and customize services to match the specific requirements of their business, their tenants, or their building type, instead of predesigned service packages.
"With new technologies and connectivity, we are able to even better meet our customers' changing needs and expectations on speed, transparency and predictability. Our customized approach for maintenance services is designed together with customers, for our customers, to help them to better succeed in their business and add value in totally new ways." says Henrik Ehrnrooth, President and CEO, KONE.
As part of KONE Care(TM), KONE has also launched 24/7 Connected Services, which uses the IBM Watson IoT platform and other advanced technologies to bring intelligent services to elevators and escalators. It means a completely new experience for KONE's customers, with less equipment downtime, fewer faults and detailed information on maintenance work. For people using elevators and escalators, it means less waiting time and more personalized experiences. The system enables vast amounts of data from elevator sensors to be monitored, analyzed and displayed in real-time, improving equipment performance, reliability and safety.
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 peace of mind - but we will also bring artificial intelligence for our services, which will help predict and suggest resolutions to potential problems."
"We are well on our way towards creating a truly intelligent elevator and escalator service platform, which will use Watson's cognitive capabilities and take elevator and escalator services to a new level."
The launch of 24/7 Connected Services comes a year after KONE and IBM announced a multiyear agreement in which IBM will provide cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and services to drive innovation in the elevator and escalator industry.
Both the new KONE service offering and 24/7 Connected Services have been piloted and introduced in selected markets and will be commercially available broadly during 2017, with roll-out continuing throughout 2018. KONE aims to connect over 1 million additional elevators and escalators to the cloud over the next few years.
To bring a human touch to the technology behind KONE's 24/7 Connected Services, KONE and IBM have teamed up to demonstrate intelligent services. Discover how different elevators in different countries "talk" to the IBM Watson IoT Platform, live and in real-time at http://machineconversations.kone.com/
Read more: Previous press releases are available at www.kone.com/press including: February 19, 2016: KONE joins forces with IBM for IoT cloud services and advanced analytics technologies For images and videos, please visit KONE's Material Bank on http://bit.ly/KONEservices For further information, please contact: Liisa Kivelä, Director, Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 204 75 4330, media@kone.com About KONE At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2016, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 8.8 billion and at the end of the year over 52,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland. http://www.kone.com
