A bevy of Treos open doors for Stanley service techs

Walk into just about any department or grocery store, and chances are that the automatic door swinging open comes from a company called Stanley Works-and it’s serviced using wireless technology.
Stanley Access Technologies is a division of the 163-year-old Stanley Works company, which counts hardware and tools among its other products. The S&P 500 business posted full-year 2006 sales of more than $4 billion. Stanley Access Technologies’ Security Solutions group, which provides the automatic doors, has a field force of approximately 400 service technicians and about the same number of sales people.
Stanley Works has deployed Palm Treos equipped with two custom applications to help on-site door technicians service and program the automatic doors, which must meet specific safety standards for specifications such as the speed at which they close and the force they generate.
The smartphones also are used for sending schematics and wiring diagrams for the techs. Techs can use the device’s camera phone to take and send pictures of damaged doors, or use the camera to snap shots of specific parts for which they need part numbers or need to order.
The end result, according to Stanley Access Technologies technical support specialist Jeff Bonas, is “a lot quicker response in getting what they need out in the field.”
Multitasking marvel
Instead of carrying a separate camera, cellphone and multiple binders in order to service the doors properly, technicians are able to rely on the combined abilities of the Treo-although they still need a separate force gauge and stop watch to double-check the settings provided by the Treos.
“We don’t have to set everything up as much. We do have a starting point,” Bonas said, for as many as 50 different parameters, depending on whether the doors are single or double, swing shut or slide shut.
Bonas said that he was also able to convert multiple full technical manuals into digital format, ready to send to techs at need.
“I can just have that right in my shirt pocket instead of walking around with a little red wagon full of binders,” he said.
The change has been a welcome one, according to Bonas.
“I think for the most part, when you introduce change there are some people that grab it and love it. For the most part, I’d say everybody has been positive,” said Bonas. “A lot of the guys are really excited about it and look forward to doing other things with it.”
Other potential applications for Stanley include Global Positioning System technology, to streamline a tech’s ability to get from one site to another quickly, and dispatchers’ ability to see who might be closest to a store needing service.
Today technicians often have to connect the Treo with the door’s control box in order to make the necessary adjustments to the doors. However, Bonas said, Stanley is working on making new door models themselves wireless, perhaps as soon as this year.
In addition to streamlining communication between field techs and local offices, Bonas said another advantage of having a wireless work force is “the ability to change and upgrade the firmware of these control boxes. . We’re able to make those updates as we get new features available.” If, for example, the company creates a new door release for a specific customer, the same features can be passed on through software updates carried by the Treos.
Bonas also said that the wireless connectivity has made his job easier when it comes to deploying new software to the field.
“It is a big benefit to getting things done right away and correctly the first time, rather than having to go back and forth, or sending something in the mail and having them install it on a machine,” he said.
While Bonas said that the deployment has gone well, he also said the company has experienced the same frustration that many businesses run into: gaps in coverage.
“Coverage is one of the bigger issues,” he said. “We deploy nationally now, and we do have a lot of areas where [techs] have cellular coverage, but not data.”