Otis Elevator Co.
Otis Elevator Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, is the world's largest manufacturer, installer, and servicer of elevators, escalators, moving walkways and other horizontal transportation systems. In 1996, Otis decided it needed a more efficient and effective way to deliver its technical publications to its dealers and service representatives around the country.
The Challenge
Otis' paper documentation system included more than 50,000 pages of information. This included spare parts leaflets, operation manuals and field education articles — information that dated back, in some cases to 1978. When an Otis dealer or field service engineer was looking for a replacement part or an assembly guide, the right documentation was not always close by. Bulletins were sent out, but not always filed. A central or regional customer service manager often had to dig through a pile of information, find the right publication, and then mail or fax it off. This increased the downtime of Otis' products and slowed spare parts sales.
The Contegra Solution
In the first phase of our work, Contegra transformed Otis' massive paper documentation into a completely searchable, central electronic library that was available initially on CD-ROM. The information was also cross-indexed to create additional ways to find needed answers. 500 field service managers, armed with laptops, received the CD-ROMs, so they could have the information they needed on-site, immediately.
Subsequently, Contegra migrated the CD-ROM into a robust Web site, complete with parametric key word or full-text search and a dedicated taxonomy. We translated the data into an XML single source repository, which now enables the content to be shared and used by other departments. For example, this data has also been integrated into Otis' Help Desk operations. Contegra has also developed similar, searchable, integrated systems for three spare parts catalogs, helping to improve order accuracy and inventory management.
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Our initial data wasn’t well organized, but the Contegra team was able to assemble it into a web site that has become a great online sales tool.