Remote maintenance: benefits, challenges and solutions for the industry

The importance of remote maintenance in industry is growing. With the networking of devices via the Internet, in-house networks and faster mobile networks, remote maintenance is now an excellent alternative to onsite support in many application areas. Learn here how to optimize your work processes and troubleshooting with the best software on the market.

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What is remote maintenance?

Remote maintenance provides a technician with the ability to monitor and service a device, system, or machine without being near the equipment.

Especially in industry, remote maintenance in connection with Smart Maintenance and new technologies such as Augmented Reality lower costs with better plant availability and more efficient use of resources. But remote maintenance also brings challenges. We explain how remote maintenance works, which remote maintenance software is the best, and what challenges the industry faces.

How does the remote maintenance work?

During remote maintenance, a Remote Software between one device and another and data is transferred. With passive transmission, the technician sees what the user sees and does at the other end of the connection. Active transmission allows the technician to control the device himself.

Devices that can be used for this purpose include a conventional computer, tablet, smartphone or Smart Glasses are possible. The connection does not necessarily have to be made via the Internet. Remote maintenance via the mobile network is used, for example, when remote cell phone maintenance is required.

Basically, any device can be serviced remotely that has an interface that can be connected via a network or a line.

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Which software for remote maintenance? Teamviewer, AnyDesk and ALEGER Remote

The market for remote maintenance software is now large, but most standard solutions are very similar in terms of their range of functions. We compared three of the most common solutions in Germany.

What can Teamviewer do?

Teamviewer is one of the most widely used software solutions for remote maintenance. The software is free for home users, while professional users pay a monthly fee. Teamviewer was originally developed for the maintenance of office computers. In the meantime, however, the developer offers special versions.

How does Teamviewer work?

With Teamviewer, the sender and receiver of the data must download the program. The receiver PC uses the program to create a code that the sender can then enter. After that, the sender has complete control over the receiver’s PC.

With the Teamviewer app, remote maintenance via an Android or iOS smartphone also works. It works the same way in reverse – from the PC they simply do an Android remote maintenance (or an iOS remote maintenance).

How much does Teamviewer cost?

Teamviewer is free for private use. For companies, there are different license models with monthly billing, depending on the needs and size of the company.

How secure is Teamviewer?

Teamviewer uses asymmetric encryption, which means that it cannot be decrypted according to today’s standards, similar to the well-known e-mail encryption PGP. Since the private key never leaves the client computer, third parties can never read the communication.

AnyDesk - A Teamviewer alternative?

AnyDesk is a similar program to Teamviewer and works in the same way.

Also with AnyDesk, a technician can connect to a computer, smartphone, tablet or data glasses to identify and resolve issues.

The functionality and range of functions of AnyDesk is largely identical to that of Teamviewer.

How much does AnyDesk cost?

AnyDesk is free for private use. There are different licensing models for enterprises and professional users.

How secure is Anydesk?

AnyDesk places great emphasis on security. Data is transmitted using TLS 1.2, connections are verified using a 2048-bit key. In the enterprise version, there is also the option to run AnyDesk alone within the corporate network. This means that no data traffic is leaked to the outside.

ALEGER as a partner - ideal for your professional remote support

While Teamviewer and Anydesk were developed primarily for remote maintenance of PCs, smartphones and tablets, ALEGER directly addresses the needs of the industry. With ALEGER, you can use smart glasses for remote maintenance.

How does ALEGER Remote work with Smart Glasses?

An employee on site puts on the data glasses and has his hands free to adequately operate the machines. Using ALEGER Remote, the employee then connects to a support representative with their smart glasses.

Also with Mixed Reality Glasses and Head Mounted Displays you can use ALEGER Remote without any problems.

Advantages of ALEGER Remote

The support staff now sees the same thing as the employee. It’s as if he were there himself. With the integrated image processing and automatic focus, he can thus quickly get an overview of the situation. An integrated chat allows communication with employees on site. Chats are automatically translated on demand, so cross-border collaboration is no problem. The control of the tool works via all end devices: PC, tablet or smartphone.

Of course, we are happy to advise you on the right software and hardware for your use cases.

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Remote maintenance software comparison: Conclusion

Teamviewer and AnyDesk are equivalent alternatives. For PC support as well as for Android remote maintenance and iOS remote maintenance, both software solutions are equally suitable for private users.

In the professional sector, Teamviewer and AnyDesk also offer a similar range of functions. TeamViewer offers better cross-team collaboration capabilities, while AnyDesk boasts a modern user interface.

ALEGER Remote is aimed specifically at industrial customers who want to use data glasses to perform remote maintenance. Features such as an automatically translated live chat and live image editing make ALEGER Remote a powerful tool for remote maintenance in the industrial sector.

Professional remote maintenance with tablet

Remote Maintenance in Industry: From Breakdown Management to Smart Maintenance

For a long time, maintenance in industry mainly meant breakdown management: equipment was used until a fault occurred, which was then repaired by a team.

As plants have become more complex, maintenance has been increasingly integrated into normal operations to increase plant availability and minimize economic damage. With digital transformation and technological innovations, the trend today is from maintenance to smart maintenance.

Smart maintenance is a holistic approach that enables predictive maintenance through the digitization of production facilities. Sensors are installed in a machine, which permanently record data about the condition of the machine. Software evaluates this data and uses machine learning algorithms to detect when the machine is about to break down. In this way, defects are rectified before the machine comes to a standstill.

This increases plant availability and overall plant efficiency. This is made possible by sensors that can be installed cost-effectively in even the smallest components. Software is also getting better: for example, automation technologies have benefited massively from machine learning and artificial intelligence in recent years.

Remote maintenance in industry: maximum resource efficiency and higher plant availability

In this context, the importance of remote maintenance for the industry is also growing. If plants are being digitized anyway, why not also digitize maintenance and have technicians service the plants remotely?

This is interesting not only in times of pandemic. Because in addition to increased safety, the technician saves on travel costs and thus time and money. The technician can theoretically be located on the other side of the world. This is a particular advantage when it comes Smart Factory very specialized equipment that can only be maintained by a few experts. The broken machines of the clients are repaired and put back into operation faster. In addition, standard maintenance tasks do not disrupt operations because they can take place outside regular business hours.

But installing remote maintenance software is not enough. The systems and equipment to be maintained are more complex than conventional home computers. Companies face a variety of challenges on the way from maintenance to smart maintenance.

Challenges for remote maintenance in the industry

But installing remote maintenance software is not enough. The systems and equipment to be maintained are more complex than conventional home computers. Companies face a variety of challenges on the way from maintenance to smart maintenance.

Digitization of assets and preparation of data

In order for a technician to service a system remotely, the necessary data must be collected and prepared so that the technician can access it. Unlike the maintenance of an office computer, there is usually no simple graphical interface.

For this reason, ALEGER has specialized in modern augmented reality technologies, as they offer the optimal solution approaches to this problem.

Read also:

How do smart glasses work in remote maintenance?

Smart glasses combine reality with additional data, which is then played out as an image in reality. The technician can use this altered reality to access the systems from any location and view all relevant data directly. For this purpose he uses AR Software which transmits the image from the AR glasses to him.

Security in remote maintenance

During remote maintenance, sensitive information is necessarily exchanged and made accessible to third parties. It must therefore be ensured that:

  • the connection is secure
  • the person to whom access is granted is clearly identifiable

Modern remote maintenance programs solve the problem with asymmetric encryption. The private key is only held by the recipient. This prevents third parties from reading the data.

The connection itself is also encrypted in the case of remote maintenance software. Some programs also offer the option of operating the software exclusively in the company’s own WLAN.

Reduce maintenance costs with the right remote maintenance and teamwork software

Conclusion: Use remote maintenance and save resources

Remote maintenance is one of the most promising application areas in digital transformation.

Remote support software for PCs and other end devices is already very mature today, and tools such as ALEGER Remote also offer opportunities in the industrial sector to make plant maintenance more efficient, save resources and increase plant availability.

This development is far from complete, however, and companies face many challenges that must be overcome before Smart Maintenance has completely replaced traditional maintenance processes.

Do you have any questions? We are happy to support you!

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