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2000 News
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Virtual Watchdogs
From its operations center in Montvale, New Jersey, ei³ is using AT&T's high-speed global network to safeguard manufacturing processes around the world.
In recent years, major manufacturers have had to invest millions if not billions of dollars upgrading their manufacturing process just to stay competitive. They've employed computers and digital devices to control everything in the manufacturing process from temperature to motors, robotics to advanced process controls, all in the hopes aims of eliminating expensive down time and increasing output revenue. Not surprisingly, when this sophisticated equipment fails, manufacturers rely on specialists to get their process lines up and running again.
It's something that Spencer Cramer, chief technology officer at ei³ Corporation knows a lot about. "I'm an electrical engineer, and I spent my entire career as a specialist traveling to factories around the world fixing these devices. I've traveled as far away as China, Brazil, and Europe on these emergency calls, while manufacturers had to wait for my arrival, because someone with my expertise was not readily available to them. They had no choice. That is, until we started ei³ Corporation."
"During the ten years that I was traveling around the world, fixing these production line problems I started to wonder if there was a way that my capabilities could be delivered to the plant without the need for me to physically be there," says Spencer. "I began working on this idea, when I met Brett Smith, who is now ei³'s CEO. Together we decided to fully execute this business concept.
Proposed implementation of ei³'s concept ran the gamut from modem technology to the Internet, however, the necessity of speed and security negated these options and led the founders to a Broadband solution.
"We realized we needed a broadband network. A network with a high degree of up-time reliability and a global reach. We also needed a highly secure network with the flexibility to allow us to connect to various devices in various ways," explained Cramer. . "And we needed to be able to connect to a new customer's site quickly. All these requirements pointed to the frame relay configuration."
"Once we decided that frame-relay made
the most sense, then AT&T was the choice."
"We're in the business of helping manufacturers manage vital technology that they are not familiar with on a daily basis. We listened to our own sales pitch and applied it towards the management of our network, which lead us to AT&T's managed network services (MNS) group."
"Initially I was cautious, says Cramer. One of the toughest sells that you can ever make to an engineer is to outsourcing technical capabilities, because in order to do this, the engineer has to be convinced there's someone who can satisfy the technical portfolio more cost effectively and promptly than he can with internal resources." Original doubts were quickly eliminated as Spencer realized the wealth of AT&T advantages. "As a result of our relationship with AT&T, I have a virtual Network specialist who is part of my team. I can't see him, but, whenever I need him, he's there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
"When we go to a client backed by AT&T and explain how our technology works using an AT&T network, that customer can feel confident that we have examined in great detail every step of our process. Having AT&T as a network service provider immediately affords us a high degree of credibility."
The AT&T Advantage
"When we examined our coverage and reliability needs it became clear that AT&T was the company to work with. We looked at a number of other companies but it was obvious that if we went with anyone else our solution would become too complex," explains Cramer. "We would have to support multiple providers for geographical coverage, possibly even redundancy to cover reliability issues and so on. AT&T brought was a simple solution to our complex needs. Once we made the commitment to implement our system with AT&T we were able to go from signing contracts to being connected here and to our clients' sites in 45 days. I have peers who have implemented frame-relay systems with AT&T's competitors and it took longer for them to get connections established at remote sites."
"AT&T's ability to expedite things in such a quick manner is critical to a company like ours that is in its early stages," said Brett Smith, Chief Executive Officer, of ei³ Corporation. "Knowing that we can get a frame relay system established at a new client's plant quickly allows us to make aggressive commitments and keep them. In our business like so many others, speed of execution is critical. Balancing that with sustained quality is an imperative. Our ability to do both is what makes us unique in the marketplace today. AT&T has been a major component in enabling us to grow at a tremendous rate of speed. Their ability to support our "hypergrowth" is what makes them our provider of choice."
A Relationship to Grow On
"Choosing AT&T as our network service provider, means that we've carefully considered our future growth needs," explains Don Klimkowicz, ei³'s Chief Operating Officer and a manufacturing veteran. "If you don't plan for your future growth, you may have to switch service vendors to accommodate your scale-up. That can cost you precious time and money. Don't be fooled into using a small no-frills firm simply because they can provide services to you at a lower cost. You'll have to switch your entire operating system over to a comprehensive provider at some point, and you may suffer a shutdown, during the transition."
Cramer agrees, "Too often entrepreneurs will limit their own growth by not looking far enough down the road. That's why in every element of ei³'s process we've selected established vendors, like AT&T to provide our point-to-point connection equipment. Whether it's this year or four years from now we have a system that we can confidently stand behind."
"We know our technology works," says Smith. "We've proved that with AT&T's help. Now it all comes down to execution, and I have no doubt that we'll be successful. We're a small company now, but we're going to be very big. This is an extraordinarily dynamic and powerful business."
How the Technology Works
"ei³ establishes a kiosk in the manufacturing plant, which connects to all the various control devices in that facility," explains Klimkowicz. "From that kiosk, we use AT&T's high-speed network to establish a continuous connection to our operations center. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, we are able to identify and diagnose technical problems sometimes even before the manufacturer himself knows that his machines are down. From the moment that the connection is established the ei³ team works as if we're physically in the plant.
"We're able to pinpoint which device needs to be replaced, and if it should be a software problem, such as a lost or changed program, we can reestablish the program from our operations center. Because we monitor the process on a continuous basis, we're able to predict when components are likely to experience a breakdown. This allows preventive maintenance to be performed, in advance of a machine failing. And, if a device should need to be replaced, we work with the original equipment manufacturer to expedite delivery of replacement parts, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There's virtually nothing that we could do at the plant site that we can't do from our operations center, thanks to high-speed communications technology."
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