People living a century ago didn’t have smartphones in their pockets or computers to sit in front of. They didn’t have televisions, the internet, post-it notes, or sliced bread either. Such revolutionary inventions have reshaped how we function as a society and as a species, but none of them would be possible without the unsung hero of innovation: coffee.
The first coffee filter was invented in 1908 by Melitta Bentz. Exactly how anyone got anything done with any amount of productivity before that is knowledge lost to the ages. These days, however, commercial coffee machines used by many cafés and restaurants are a very advanced piece of technology. Their firmware needs updating and technical malfunctions can and will occur at some point. As such, they require maintenance just like any other device.
A cutting-edge coffee machine malfunctioning is a serious matter, as few devices contribute to making the world go round as much as coffee machines do. So when the local barista can no longer supply people with their cup o’ joe in the morning because something’s wrong with their machine – you know the stakes have never been higher.
THE CHALLENGE
So what’s the problem here, exactly? A malfunctioning commercial coffee machine means pulling the plug on a café or restaurant’s vein of income and damaging its reputation. A quick and effective fix is needed to prevent that. To accomplish that, a specialized engineer in charge of maintenance needs to travel to the location of the coffee machine, manually inspect it to figure out what’s wrong, and fix it. Even if nothing went wrong but a firmware update is needed to prevent future malfunctions, the engineer still needs to get to the machine’s location to do so.
Companies that provide this maintenance service can have thousands of coffee machines under their care, all in different locations. Naturally, this means a lot of resources need to be spent on travel time and cost, as well as on employing many engineers to ensure that one is always available when a machine needs their attention. All factors considered, maintaining a single coffee machine can cost over a thousand bucks per year. If, say, you have a thousand machines to maintain – that becomes over a million in total.
THE SOLUTION
ALL ONLINE, NO NEED FOR ON-SITE VISITS
