The U.S. employs a significant number of field workers. From public safety employees to the individuals in the military that work overseas, they need technology that can keep up with their needs and their environment. These devices, whether they’re laptops of tablets, need to pass strict standards such as the MIL-STD-810 (Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests) in order to ensure their functionality in the field. Until now, that is; Ricoh, USA Inc. has recently made it onto IDG’s CIO 100 list in 2019 for their hands-free development.
It’s called Smart Hands, and it offers field technicians the ability to connect directly and immediately with cloud-hosted knowledge repositories and subject matter experts (SMEs); as a result, both first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction are improved.
“Smart Hands is a natural evolution of Ricoh’s strong focus on customer outcomes, including uptime, productivity and service satisfaction,” said Kris Rao, Vice President and Head of Information Technology, Ricoh USA, Inc. “We help customers improve employee productivity, grow their business effectiveness and efficiency, and better serve their own customers. [Smart Hands] empowers Ricoh’s technical services to ‘practice what they preach,’ by creating a shared knowledge platform that enables immediate access to the information required to solve complex customer issues.”
IDG’s CIO 100 is a place for greatness to come together. The awards celebrate 100 organizations and the teams within them that are striving to use IT in innovative ways.
“Across the business landscape, companies everywhere recognize the vital role that an innovative, value-driven approach to information technology plays in their success,” said Maryfran Johnson, Executive Director, CIO Programs, IDG. “This year’s CIO 100 winning companies are inspiring examples of how IT leadership, business collaboration and digital transformation will drive future growth.”
Ricoh’s development certainly fits the bill. Smart Hands enables the company’s 4,500 field techs to have instant, hands-free contact with its resources — including live support. Businesses the world over (especially those with large employee bases) can benefit from the immediate access Smart Hands provides to its distant technicians. At the end of the day, customers are satisfied, and business is booming.
