PTC today announced that Elekta is extending its remote services transformation by implementing PTC’s ThingWorx® Industrial Innovation Platform, powered by Microsoft Azure, to gain an analytical understanding of the data collected from its devices in the field. The ThingWorx Platform will also enable Elekta to innovate faster by gaining greater product performance and service insights.
Founded in Stockholm in 1972 by Lars Leksell, a professor of neurosurgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Elekta has grown into a publicly-traded medical technology group with 3,600 employees and operational assets in more than 6,000 medical facilities around the globe.
Elekta has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, being among the first to seek new ways to generate added value for its customers by connecting, monitoring, and remotely servicing its machinery. The first strategy Elekta implemented was remote service capabilities through Elekta IntelliMax®. Running on PTC’s ThingWorx Platform, Elekta IntelliMax provides securely-controlled remote access and predictive maintenance of its machines.
The ThingWorx Platform integrates with Microsoft Azure IoT to enable Elekta to connect thousands of assets from Elekta customers around the globe, enabling product performance visibility to improve uptime for clinicians and increase patient volume. Elekta already remotely fixes more than 30 percent of all machine issues. With greater product insights, Elekta expects to further enhance predictive maintenance capabilities, enabling users to save significant travel time and cost, and, even more importantly, avoid unplanned clinical downtime, which can negatively impact patient treatment regimens.
“Almost 1.5 million patients are treated with Elekta’s systems each year,” said Daniel Kingham, remote service program director, Elekta. “The importance of not missing a single treatment is absolutely paramount to each of them on both a physical and emotional level. It is unacceptable to deny a patient a scheduled treatment due to machine failure. Elekta IntelliMax, powered by PTC ThingWorx and Microsoft Azure, enables automated alerts predicting parts failures, proactive calls to customers to resolve issues that may cause interruptions, and immediate responses to customer service requests.”
“We are delighted to continue to support Elekta as it becomes more proactive in its service initiatives,” said Catherine Kniker, chief revenue officer, ThingWorx, PTC. “Elekta’s commitment to leveraging ThingWorx is a clear validation of the value the platform provides and the results it delivers in helping Elekta maintain its life saving technologies."
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