Cygnus Technology

Diagnosing and fixing complex scale systems for farmers in the field during peak harvest season

By developing an innovative new way to diagnose and resolve calibration issues for their latest scale indicator, Scale-Tec has set a new standard when it comes to customer support for IoT.

Scale-Tec designs, sells and services all types of weighing technology from planter/seeder scale systems, grain cart, seed tender, feed mixer, and livestock scales for use in the agriculture industry. Scale-Tec serves farmers across the USA and all of North America and is a pioneer of Internet of Things applications for weighing systems.

OPPORTUNITY

Weighing technology is extremely vital to the efficiency and profitability of any agricultural operation. Correct weighing is necessary for things like buying and selling produce & livestock, monitoring field yields, measuring moisture content, and making future planting decisions. This technology is also highly variable in configuration depending on the application, equipment, and operational needs. 

Pressure during peak harvest season means that farmers need equipment that works with little time for phone support when something isn’t right. When a breakdown, configuration error, or other problem did occur, the increase in call volume was debilitating to Scale-Tec’s relatively small support center.  Customers faced long wait time and challenges in diagnosing calibration errors for the existing indicators in the market. Despite their best efforts, support teams could only go a fast as the back-and-forth communication and manual keyed inputs would allow.  

Scale-Tec set out to develop their own scale indicator, POINT, and worked with Cygnus to develop the remote support solution. The idea was that a support representative could connect to the scale head through the user’s mobile device and allow them to see all the parameters set on the indicator and quickly adjust them according to the equipment & implements being used on behalf of the user.  

SOLUTION

This experimental support technology proved to be so successful for Scale-Tec that the organization began to shift their business focus from distribution to manufacturing of their POINT scale indicator in higher volumes, all without needing to hire additional customer support staff.

The POINT scale indicator from Scale-Tec is the answer to the needs of precision-minded farmers and a dream-come-true for their customer support team. POINT can be configured through a Bluetooth-enabled mobile app which allows the user to refine calibration, adjust the scale sensitivity, and view weight readings from the device in their pocket rather than climbing up on the tractor’s grain cart.

Firmware updates are pushed to customers through OTA updates in the mobile app and ability for Reach to connect directly to POINT even in the middle of a field means less operational downtime and shorter wait times on support calls.  

OUTCOME

Nick Von Muenster, President at Scale-Tec, has praised Reach for being a solution that actually delivers on its promises. The company is seeing fewer product returns and an increase in the profitability of their support teams while maintaining their small, family-focused operation. 

“We are seeing an 75% increase in efficiency on phone calls within our call center, lowering a 45 minute phone conversation down to 11 minutes on average. Our product support team increased their profitability by 350% because of Reach."

Focus shifted from finding the problem to providing a fix for POINT scale devices. The Reach remote support solution is the first of its kind in the agriculture industry.

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