KONE Corporation, trade press release, March 1, 2018
KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, today introduces a new chapter to promote its 24/7 Connected Services. After giving a voice to machine conversations between lifts and the IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) platform, KONE now combines the voice of escalators with social media.
Machine Conversations demonstrated how lifts can chat with IoT servers to share details of performance or any potential issues. It showcased the company's 24/7 Connected Services, which enables vast amounts of data from elevator sensors to be monitored, analysed and displayed in real-time, improving equipment performance, reliability and safety.
KONE now brings a human touch to escalators, the workhorses of the world's cities. Featuring the first ever escalator connected to Twitter, people will see in real time how these heavy-duty machines keep people moving. In addition to the tweets, a virtual reality and 360 degree video is also available, for those looking for their own personal escalator experience.
@JustAnEscalator is in operation at an undisclosed location in London and will tweet details of its working day and conditions. It will provide an insight on how data is transmitted from equipment to the cloud and how KONE can transform maintenance by bringing real-time data and insights to customers and service engineers.
"Escalators are the unsung heroes of cities. They move millions of people a day and of course they need to perform safely and smoothly. People around the world were clearly moved and surprised to see how technology can work for people and help our customers," says Max Alfthan, executive vice president, marketing and communications at KONE. "By using different media we can show how IoT, analytics and insights can take maintenance from the ordinary to the extraordinary."
24/7 Connected Services is compatible with KONE and non-KONE equipment and brings safety, transparency and intelligence to services for elevators and escalators. It uses the IBM Watson IoT platform to create more value for KONE's customers, leading to less equipment downtime, fewer faults and detailed information on maintenance work and equipment performance. For people who use elevators and escalators, it also means less waiting time and a more reliable experience. By bringing artificial intelligence into services, KONE uses vast amounts of data from sensors to monitor, analyze and display information in real-time, to predict resolutions to potential problems.
The services have been piloted and introduced for elevators and escalators in selected markets around the world and roll-out will continue throughout 2018.
For further information, please contact:
Liisa Kivelä, Director, Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 204 75 4330, media@kone.com
Read more:
Previous press releases are available at www.kone.com/press including:
February 8, 2017: KONE revolutionizes elevator maintenance with new customizable KONE Care(TM) service offering and 24/7 Connected Services
February 19, 2016: KONE joins forces with IBM for IoT cloud services and advanced analytics technologies
Campaign site: http://machineconversations.kone.com/escalators
Images and video available at: http://machineconversations.kone.com/for-the-press/
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 2017, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 8.9 billion, and at the end of the year over 55,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland. www.kone.com
Notes to editors:
The launch of 24/7 Connected Services came just 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.
In a first for the industry, KONE launched real-time machine conversations between elevators and the IoT cloud, in 2017. Teams at IBM and KONE worked together to introduce a popular marketing campaign that brings a human touch to intelligent services and demystify a complex topic. http://machineconversations.kone.com/