Our field professional saves time with Otis ONE™ app

When field professional Jason R. first started working for Otis, knowing if each elevator on his route was running and operational meant having to drive or walk to job sites to inspect each unit.

Jason, who works out of our Sydney, Australia branch, has a route that covers a lot of territory. Due to the size of the route, this site-to-site travel could take up most of the day by itself, said Jason. If he found any units needed service, the rest of his route would be delayed for the day.

That’s the old way of doing things. Jason, a self-confessed early bird gets up at 4:45 a.m. and takes a 90-minute drive to work. Once he arrives, he checks his elevators via the Otis ONE ™ App. Now with Otis ONE™ app, I am able to monitor all of my elevators from my mobile phone in a matter of seconds. It is a great time saver, he said.

If there is an issue with any of the units at the buildings that I maintain, I will attend to them straight away, often getting there before an issue has been reported, he said. Once that has been done, I go about my scheduled maintenance shared with me via my Retriever App. I also try to make time to help my fellow mechanics where needed.

Having this smart elevator technology at his fingertips allows Jason more time in his day to listen to customer queries and feel less pressure due to time constraints.

The notification system within the Otis ONE app also keeps our customers informed of the elevator’s status, too. Smart elevators equipped with Otis ONE app notify the customer of equipment issues in real-time and automatically alerts our field professional to the elevator unit. This is extremely helpful, in places like hospitals, airports, hotels, or city buildings, where there are a lot of people on the move. Having all elevators safe and operational is crucial to these businesses running efficiently and people getting to where they need to go, he said.

Otis ONE app is not just for service calls. The customer can also access information, such as eService and equipment status, to see how efficient and effective their elevators are, explained Jason. All of this can be achieved from the convenience of either a mobile phone or laptop.

Not only does Jason use the Otis ONE app daily on the job, but he has also worked with his field service manager to install Otis ONE units in the Otis Australia head office and on-site in some office buildings.

I love my job – I get to learn something new every day, he said.

Smart technology ideas made possible by our smart colleagues

Otis engineer Giovanna D. loves challenges.

Even as a young child, she was fascinated by science technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects and chose her classes in school to match her interests. Though one of very few girls enrolled in these courses, her goal was to become a electrical engineer.

Initially, she specialized in mechatronics – using her skill set to create simpler, smarter systems for the advanced automated manufacturing industry, and later applied her talents to the automotive sector. When she saw an opportunity at Otis she decided to move from her beloved south Italy, to Milan, in northern Italy. Otis has a slogan, Made to Move You^TM, and in my case, that was true, she said, laughing. That was a hard choice, but I never regretted the move - I love my job.

When Giovanna started at Otis, digitalization was already a buzzword, and soon to become an identified strategic imperative for the company. She was attracted by the idea of being part of our transformation, not only in terms of digital products and processes, but also how we apply digital tools and technology to our service business.

I contributed by developing an app, that interacts with Otis ONE™, to support the mechanics’ daily activities. In the beginning, it was just a tool to reduce paper and manage simple workflows at the branch level but, year after year, we have expanded its functionality, she said.

Today, within the app, mechanics can plan maintenance visits and revise their schedules to accommodate critical customer needs. Additionally, the app gives supervisors a dashboard view of the activities in progress. All of this data is shared with Otis ONE to provide real time updates to the customers about their units.

I love science and technology, but I also feel the need to see that what I do is useful to people in real life scenarios. The idea that this app makes the job easier and faster for my colleagues and contributes to improving the level of our service makes me feel proud, she said. I put customers at the center, not only external customers, also my internal customers: my colleagues.

Digitalization and IoT are reinventing the future of the elevator industry. Thanks to developers like Giovanna, we are enhancing our service, by better connecting our people to our portfolio and more effectively monitoring, reducing disruption and improving uptime for our customers and their passengers.

Otis ONE™ enables this mechanic to respond to customers remotely 

Damon L. never expected to be a pioneer. He joined Otis five years ago from the construction industry because he was impressed with the opportunities and where Otis could take his career. I was fortunate to join Otis in time to be part of the launch of the Service Transformation with Signature Service, he said.

Fast forward to today: Damon is now a Service Field Supervisor. And he and his team are responsible for the ongoing service maintenance within the 19-story Kwai Ying residential building – the first building in Hong Kong with equipment powered by Otis ONE.

I’m really proud to be a part of the Otis team working on the first building in Hong Kong with elevators connected via Otis ONE, Damon said I hope many more buildings become equipped with Otis ONE in the future.

Why does this building stand out? Otis ONE is our Internet of Things (IoT) solution that connects elevators to the cloud to not only deliver a seamless passenger experience, but also provide real-time data insights for remote elevator monitoring and an overall enhanced building performance.

Receiving real-time notifications – even before a customer reaches out to identify an issue – helps streamline our work, he said. Otis ONE helps my team to identify the location of the breakdown quickly and accurately.

I also like the ability to check the call-back status of our entire portfolio from the previous night right from my iPhone, so I can plan an efficient call-back schedule for the day, he said. It’s a huge advantage to providing the best customer service.

At Otis, we are reimagining what elevators can be, and Otis ONE is just one example of how we’re accelerating digitalization and finding new ways to use IoT and AI technology to better serve our customers. Overall, about 800,000 units in our global service portfolio are connected through various product offerings, allowing our field professionals to minimize service disruptions through 24/7 remote monitoring and providing proactive and transparent support to our loyal customers.

In China, Otis ONE™ is revolutionizing the way we deliver Service

After working for nearly a decade as an Otis field professional in China, Sailong W. knows what to expect on the job. This includes staying on a tight schedule, anticipating requests from his customers and property managers, preparing for government inspections, and keeping the elevators under his watch running efficiently and safely for his passengers.

Efficiency is important for Sailong as more people in China continue to move into cities. Today, more than 60% of China’s population live in cities, and that number is projected to approach close to 1.1 billion people by 2050*.

In 2018, Otis China launched Otis ONE, a new digital service platform powered by the Internet of Things (IoT). Sailong says this platform has significantly improved the service he provides to his customers.

What impressed me most was the first time I received a fault notification, Sailong explains. At the time, an elevator car door was stuck open by an object and could not close.

Sailong stopped what he was doing and drove to the job site. When he arrived, he confirmed the issue was exactly what his Otis ONE fault alert flagged and solved the problem quickly. When the property management arrived, the elevator had already resumed operations before any resident even noticed.

For an elevator technician who had spent years visiting job sites after receiving a call from a customer, fixing the problem before his customer even knew about it was revolutionary.

I deep dived into studying the features of Otis ONE, asking my colleagues to join me and learn together, Sailong says. All the data for the elevators are on display on our mobile devices. The information supports us in making educated judgments in carrying out service work.

Unsurprisingly, Sailong's customers are benefiting from Otis ONE as well with increased uptime and fewer service disruptions.

Learn more about Otis ONE and how it is bringing the next generation of service to our customers.

*According to data from Statista

An Otis mechanic identified an elevator shutdown with Otis ONE™—before the customer even noticed

Located near one of the world’s busiest airports is a multi-story office complex boasting over 580,000 square feet of office and conference space. Thousands of office workers and conference guests rely on the building’s numerous elevators to get where they need to go each day. One early Monday morning last year, an elevator in the building was out of service in need of repair. To get it up and running, onsite technician support was needed. And on this particular day, the property was hosting a major conference, which made the situation even more critical. The shutdown had the potential to cause massive delays.

Luckily, Bernd J., an Otis mechanic with more than 30-years of experience, saw the problem on his Otis ONE app early that morning as soon as he started his day. The Otis ONE IoT digital platform uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud technology to provide our mechanics with predictive maintenance insights and our customers with real-time information on the status of their elevators.

I usually check the app during breakfast to see if everything is ‘green’ — which means all units are running smoothly, Bernd says. On this day, Bernd noticed one of the elevators at the customer site was shutdown requiring onsite support. Bernd hopped into his Otis van and was onsite by 7:30 a.m. The customer was surprised – and also very pleased – to see him there as the building staff had not yet noticed there was an elevator requiring repair.

Bernd’s dedication, supported by Otis ONE technology, allowed him to get the elevator back up and running before most of the office staff and conference guests had even arrived. The bottom line is Otis ONE means faster troubleshooting and higher system reliability for our customers, added Bernd.