Sensormind case study

Transcription

1 Sensormind case study Vodafone Global M2M Provides peace of mind for relatives and those that care for the elderly Vodafone Power to you

2 Sensormind case study Sensormind powered by Vodafone, allows carers and relatives of the elderly peace of mind and visibility of their loved ones. Sensormind provides a monitoring service to assist independent living for seniors, which is a growing market in the developing world. Vodafone s Global M2M platform allows Sensormind to reliably monitor elderly patients by providing the necessary device management, cost stability and scalability. After a lifetime in blue chip IT firms, including IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, Siobhan King-Hughes can claim an informed position on technology matters. Sensormind is her attempt to bridge that disconnect. The company uses in-home sensors and cloud technology to assist independent living for seniors, a growing market in the developing world. After launching in Ireland in 2011, she is in discussions to expand to Australia, Singapore and the US.

3 3 The need Customers want to ensure their elderly relatives are safe and secure at all times, they don t want to spend time worrying that their loved ones may be in distress without being able to connect with help. The Sensormind premise is simple. Using wireless, infra-red motion sensors in every room, and on every external door, linked via Vodafone data SIMs, families can monitor the movements of seniors in the home. Sensormind s software analyses behaviour, automatically identifying causes for concern, and generating alerts when something is wrong. Notifications can be directed to phones of family members, care providers or monitoring centres. Unlike traditional panic button systems, Sensormind can detect issues and alert automatically, without the vulnerable individual needing to press a button. A report by the British Medical Journal claims four out of five persons with a panic button do not press it in an emergency. It s a plug-and-play solution, installed in 15 minutes straight from the box, says King-Hughes. There are no cameras and access to any data requires client log-in. Fundamental to Sensormind s success, she says, is reliable connectivity. We re only transmitting small amounts of data, but we re doing it regularly and consistently. For our customers to have any confidence in the system, we cannot afford downtime or false alarms. Our alerts have to be accurate.

4 Sensormind case study The solution The solution must also be scalable. King-Hughes says the opportunity was always going to be global and that they could not afford to launch with one technology and then revisit each time they entered a new market: If we had an opportunity to move into India or Singapore, we wanted to move fast, not worry about connectivity issues. To get the business up and running in the UK and Ireland, Sensormind had used a number of different SIM providers. King-Hughes says this was manageable at lower volumes but unsustainable at the volumes needed to make Sensormind a viable business. Using multiple suppliers was hampering business process and customer support. The decision was to go with Vodafone Global M2M Service on a four-year deal, creating a global solution with standardised connectivity for all markets. There were other options, but we ruled them out fairly quickly. Some weren t global enough, some had patchy coverage, others were just too unwieldy commercially, explains King-Hughes. Some just didn t understand what we wanted. Vodafone was great. They had a specialist M2M team in place. They came to our offices, met the team, listened and made suggestions. Sensormind is one of the first Irish customers to use Vodafone s Global M2M platform. King-Hughes says she had no issues pioneering the technology, and that her tech guys had plenty of opportunity for testing: Because this was such a long term decision for us we were always going to be thorough at the testing stage. It took 10 months for us to be happy, and there were 19 firmware revisions. We had plenty of opportunity for sandbox stuff before we went live. We did the work early with Vodafone so we don t have to worry in the future. The solution also offers secondary connectivity. By utilising incountry roaming, Sensormind has access to multiple networks in most regions, providing further resilience. We needed that backup, says King-Hughes. Because this was such a long term decision for us we were always going to be thorough at the testing stage. It took 10 months for us to be happy, and there were 19 firmware revisions. We had plenty of opportunity for sandbox stuff before we went live. We did the work early with Vodafone so we don t have to worry in the future. Siobhan King-Hughes, Founder, Sensormind

5 5 The benefits to the business Since launching to the private market in Ireland, the business has opened a second sales channel: local authorities. King-Hughes won t reveal sales figures, but the company has a raft of customer testimonials exemplifying the solution. "I wanted to release the burden from my mother who looks after my grandfather. We needed the automatic alerts. Now my mother does not have to be checking every few minutes. It has greatly changed her life. I would absolutely recommend Sensormind to another family, writes one Sensormind customer. King-Hughes says satisfaction rates are exemplary. There is a 30- day free returns policy and we ve not had one unit returned by a customer. Once the system is in place they re happy. With the local authorities, much more used to dealing with technology solutions, we re providing the best data they ve ever seen. It is a high-quality service and it s opened up new and unusual applications. We re only just starting to see its potential. Local authorities will be able to use the data to design appropriate care for patients. Another reads: "Gives us peace of mind. We don't want to put him in a nursing home, and we want him to have his independence as long as possible, so we need something like Sensormind."

6 Sensormind case study The Vodafone solution is a fully self-managed communications platform that seamlessly integrates with the Sensormind back-end systems. It means Sensormind can configure and manage all SIMs centrally, regardless of location, ensuring a standard service for all customers. The customer never has to handle a SIM or pay a mobile bill. We handle the entire SIM management for them, preconfigured, out of the box, says King-Hughes. She says the company is trialling a version which identifies, and monitors access for, care workers and is investigating other market sectors: There are huge opportunities. We re now looking to Vodafone to help us in global markets and having discussions with them on their ehealth and mhealth initiatives. We re moving from customer to partner. So much technology never touches the real world, it s all B2B. I wanted to connect real people to available cloud technologies. Siobhan King-Hughes, Founder, Sensormind

7 7 Executive summary Business need: Following a successful launch in the Irish market, Sensormind needed a partner to provide a remote monitoring solution at a global scale. Sensormind needed to be sure that their customers could monitor patients wherever they are in the world. Solution: After a rigorous 10-month testing period, the Vodafone Global M2M Platform provides Sensormind with an international M2M solution. It ensures standard pricing, global coverage and remote trouble shooting. Business benefits: Enriched service to carers of elderly patients ensuring peace of mind for families and patients alike Improved quality of life for long term independent patients Tailored Pricing: Consistent, predictable and manageable cost structure reduces the risk of operating internationally Standardisation of communications: Global M2M Service provides a common communication platform for all of their deployments anywhere in the world, meaning the same standard of service to all of their customers without the additional support required in managing multiple connectivity partners Availability of network: In-country roaming provides access to multiple networks in most regions, ensuring superior connectivity resilience

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