Ayla Networks > Case Studies > Water Softener Company Enables Dealer Access

Water Softener Company Enables Dealer Access

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Ayla Agile IoT Platform
Ayla Service API

Tech Stack

Role-Based Access Control
Cloud Computing
API Integration

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements
Revenue Growth

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods
Utilities

Applicable Functions

Field Services
Maintenance

Use Cases

Remote Asset Management
Predictive Maintenance

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

A leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of residential water softeners, sold under very recognizable brand names, are available throughout the United States from all the major retailers. In addition to the retail channel, the company also has a lucrative dealership channel, with dealers installing units in customers’ homes and performing ongoing maintenance. The OEM had already decided to create cloud-connected models of its water softeners using Ayla’s Agile Internet of Things (IoT) Platform. Dealers would be able to proactively monitor the connected devices and service them remotely, to achieve significant increases in efficiency, time savings, and service revenues.

The Challenge

The OEM was concerned about the privacy of the data generated by the connected water softeners and about how much data a dealer could and should obtain on their customers’ installed units. Because most of a home’s water supply flows through the water softener, the unit could collect data revealing information about the number of people in a household and their water usage patterns, perhaps even their vacation schedules. Concerned about this level of data, the OEM wanted to put in place controls that would allow an end customer to determine how much information their connected water softener shared with dealers on an ongoing basis. At the same time, the OEM did not want to hinder the dealers’ ability to be notified about certain events that would help detect or avoid problems with the installed units. The OEM wanted the dealer to have enough data to remotely troubleshoot or resolve issues.

The Solution

The Ayla cloud team built a sophisticated role-based access framework that is configurable with granular access control rules. The framework allows the OEM to define roles and the privileges associated with each role. Each user in the system can have one or more roles, even down to having different roles for different devices. For example, Jane Doe can be the owner of one device, while having restricted privileges on another device. The OEM defined a “Dealer” role and identified the subset of data from the water softener that this role can have access to during normal operations. This way, dealers are notified only when a unit reaches certain critical thresholds that would be of interest from a service standpoint. When a service event occurs, the dealer can request access to the unit from the customer. Alternately, the customer can grant greater access to the dealer for a specific duration of time. During this time, the dealer gains enhanced access to the unit for easier troubleshooting. Once the problem is resolved, the time-based access can expire or can be explicitly revoked by the customer, and the dealer falls back to a lower level of access.

Operational Impact

As a result of Ayla’s role-based access framework, the water softener OEM was able to navigate the delicate balance between exploiting the capabilities of a connected device and addressing the key privacy issues that arise out of it.
The OEM has put the control of devices firmly in their customers’ hands—without diminishing dealers’ ability to provide a superior level of service.
Using Ayla’s framework, the OEM built a dealer portal allowing dealers to monitor and manage their customer base and installed devices. With this portal, dealers are offering a level of service that was previously hard to achieve.
In addition, the OEM built its own support portal based on the Ayla Service API that provides a view into dealers’ activities and into each dealer’s customers and water softener units.
The OEM leveraged a comprehensive, flexible, and configurable solution from Ayla that not only meets the manufacturer’s stringent privacy requirements, but also provides for future changes to access control policies.

Quantitative Benefit