Salesforce IoT Integration Case Study

Problem

A chain of hotels that are located in different cities and locations within metropolises felt the need to implement a system of centralized management and monitoring.

The hotel chain wanted to manage and monitor the Wi-Fi locks that were located in the hotels, as well as watch the process of maintenance of Wi-Fi locks including installation, repair, replacement of batteries, software reflashing inside the lock.

The maintenance process includes:

• The installation of the Wi-Fi lock and its replacement when discharged;
• Wi-Fi lock repairment (e.g. does not respond to the signal; the mechanism has failed; lock picking if there is a failure in the lock);
• Wi-Fi lock software reflashing (software update for a newer version);
• Lock disassembly in case the repair cannot be carried out on-site.

Solution

Locksmith is an advanced new type of actual locksmith who receives orders and assignments through the Field Service Lightning mobile application for the Service Agent, where you can see when, where, and what exactly he needs to do.

TECHNOLOGIES APPLIED

The solution was created on a cloud basis: AWS IoT Cloud for hardware and Salesforce CRM for software.

All Wi-Fi locks were installed and connected to the AWS IoT Cloud. AWS IoT Cloud allows the connection of diverse IoT devices and their management through internal services.

For the Salesforce IoT integration for this case, among all the Salesforce products, Field Service Lightning was selected as it has native support for IoT infrastructure (Input\Output streams, Orchestration, Platform Events). Moreover, Field Service Lighting allows you to distribute tasks (Work Orders) between Service Agents who provide on-site service for various devices.

USER & ROLE MANAGEMENT

Service Manager: A Salesforce user (multi-user option possible) who received all incoming requests using Salesforce Service Cloud.

User features:

• Maintenance of hotel guests database;
• Registration of all guests and particular guests in a certain room for a certain period (issued a key to access the room; SMS key-password for Wi-Fi lock; plastic chip card);
• Adding room cleaning service orders for the Service Agent after checking out.

Dispatcher Manager: Salesforce user who is responsible for receiving and distributing all Service appointments for Service Agents using Field Service Lightning.

User features:

• Installation of a new Wi-Fi lock for new floors or locations;
• Replacement of the battery in the Wi-Fi lock;
• Repair of the Wi-Fi lock (update of the Wi-Fi password, elimination of technical malfunctions, replacement of the lock with a new one, etc.);
• Disassembly of the Wi-Fi lock;
• Updating the lock software.

Service Agent: these are the external employees who work on-site (locksmiths, cleaners, security service).

Security guard: a security service or security guard at the reception, who can respond to intrusions into the room by responding to an alarm. Wi-Fi locks can signal if the lock has been opened/hacked without permission. The hacking signal is sent to the mobile phone or a call is made to the security service phone.

Hotel cleaning lady: a regular cleaner, or cleaning service, who receives a notification through the mobile application Field Service Lightning that you need to clean a certain room.

See the general scheme of interactions of all processes below.

Impact

The impact which the client received after the Salesforce IoT implementation:

• Centralized control system for all processes;
• Operating time reduction for managers;
• Faster response to service requests and security cases (e.g. hacking);
• Ability to scale your business several times while maintaining a single control panel for all business processes;
• Time accounting of freelancers that work on an hourly basis (cleaning service, security service, technical service (e.g. locksmiths).