Connected Worker Considerations: Choosing the Right Remote Support Solution

Navigating the industrial landscape for remote support solutions can be a complex task. Many organizations find themselves overwhelmed by the multitude of products available.

Key questions arise - What security features should you be looking at? How do you differentiate between providers with good support and substandard support? What training is required to get operational, both for workers and management? What hardware best fits your requirements?

The devices that can help industrial companies and organizations support workers in remote locations vary greatly, ranging from handheld to smart glasses. With the amount of devices and software solutions available on the market, it has put industrial organizations in the place of power when it comes to choosing the ideal solutions for the tasks they want to support their workers with.

But the point of this article isn’t to provide all the answers on what technology is perfect for you. However, it should help you understand what questions to ask so you can find the right device and software solution to meet your needs.

Here are the areas you should be examining if you’re choosing remote support solutions:

Security

When considering the security risks associated with smart glasses and similar devices, data protection is often the greatest area of concern. Common questions include: Where will my data be stored? How is it being transmitted? Who will manage these devices and licenses? It's imperative to ensure that the vendor you're working with adheres to strict data protection protocols and that you have the necessary tools in place to manage this initiative effectively. To verify their compliance, request to see their certification documentation.

It's also important to inquire about the data centers they use and the security measures they employ to guard against both cyber and physical threats. Understanding their security infrastructure will give you confidence that your data is well-protected.

If your organization has cybersecurity experts on staff, involve them in the discussions about which products are best for your operation. Their expertise can help assess potential risks and ensure that any connected worker solution meets your organization's security standards.

Support

Before examining the support offered by various vendors, you should assess what support you need. Are you using hardware that’s unfamiliar to your staff members, or is it simply a new solution on familiar hardware? Are there technology champions on your team that can help train and troubleshoot in-house?

An often-overlooked aspect of vendor support is their ability to help you design and implement a roadmap that identifies the best use cases for the new solution and assists in scaling it across your organization. Many pilots fail without the right team behind the initiative. This goes beyond IT support; it involves partnering with a solution provider who can help you identify roadblocks and collaborate to overcome them, ensuring successful implementation.

Companies that achieve the most success with connected worker technology are methodical in finding the best applications for it and develop well-thought-out plans to scale its use. Choosing a vendor with expertise in your industry can provide invaluable insights and tailored support to meet your unique challenges. Your vendor should help you devise and implement such a plan, partnering with you as the technology becomes an integral part of your operations.

Training and Change Management

Following on from the last section, you should ask your vendor how they will help you to train both your tech champions and a broad number of end-users. First off, how can they identify champions for this technology? Once identified, what programs do they offer to ensure the champions master this remote support technology and begin to create a buzz about it within your organization? Once the champions are up to speed with it, how does the vendor work with management and the champions to bring others on stream?

A remote support solution needs to be an integral part of a change management program within your organization. By definition, change management involves new ways of doing things. It is one thing to bring change into an organization, but another to properly handle change resistance and eventually successfully achieve wide-scale adoption. The best vendors in the field will work with management and end-users to bring about best practices, so make sure you delve into this area with anyone offering a remote support solution.

Bandwidth Requirement

Remote doesn’t just mean far away. It often means inaccessible, or removed from ideal infrastructure. So before you commit to a new remote support solution, take a look at where your assets are and what the connectivity is like. It is crucial to understand your bandwidth requirements and make sure they can be met by your preferred vendor. Not all solutions are created equally, some are designed specifically for digitally stressed environments while others require less demanding environments like classrooms to function at their best.

This again reiterates the key to success that lies with having the right solution provider who works with your team to identify the right uses cases early on so you can match the best hardware to the job to be completed.

Hands-Free Headset

It’s easy to overlook the advantages – we could say necessity – of a hands-free solution due to the widespread availability of hand-held devices, but its importance becomes apparent the more you work with remote support solutions in an industrial setting. There are two main advantages of smart glasses or similar headsets. First, both parties can see the physical equipment in question so everyone is witnessing the problem under discussion in real-time. The second is that the front-line worker can actually be working on the problem while being supported by an expert or manager a long way away. Using both hands in real-time, the on-site worker can gain experience during the call completing a task, rather than being told how to do it and having to do the work after the call, leaving room for errors and guesswork.

The Bottom Line  

Adopting remote support solutions involves many considerations, and partnering with the right team is crucial to ensure you select the appropriate software and hardware for your specific use cases. We understand that navigating this new landscape can be challenging.

At Kognitiv Spark, we're here to support you every step of the way. We've highlighted some key questions to consider, and we recognize you may have additional inquiries unique to your organization. Our team is committed to providing clear answers and collaborating with you to develop a tailored plan for adopting this technology and integrating it seamlessly into your operations. Together, we can enhance efficiency, reduce downtime, and drive success across your organization.

Ready to take the next step? Contact us today to begin your journey toward a connected workforce.