Smart Manager

Your journey to Smart Manager intelligent care starts with the Smart Manager Connection, which enables the device to send performance and usage data to the Smart Manager platform. This allows Malvern Panalytical to begin supporting you proactively and even more efficiently. First Malvern Panalytical product lines are equipped with the Smart Manager Connection, getting ready for the Smart Manager Services:

The Smart Manager Portal compiles the performance and usage data, allowing you to self-monitor it – the entry level of a more proactive support experience. A simplified overview of your instrument data is at your fingertips, allowing you to check basic performance and health status parameters through traffic light indicators, and providing an overview of the usage history of all applicable Malvern Panalytical instruments across all your sites. The Smart Manager Portal confirms confidence in your instrument health and allows you to manage instrument utilization. 

Our Smart Manager Service Agreement takes instrument care and performance insights to the next level, with proactive maintenance from Malvern Panalytical service specialists. For streamlined, uninterrupted instrument operation, experts monitor your instrument performance for you, ready to prevent problems and guide you through the fastest resolution of issues. Smart Manager maximizes uptime, accuracy, and reliability while streamlining operations and budgeting for complete peace of mind. Meet your new trusted, proactive instrument guardian, complemented by an experienced Malvern Panalytical service specialist – ready to support your team. 

Proactive support from experienced specialists

The Smart Manager Service Agreement feels like adding a Malvern Panalytical service specialist to your team. Our experts proactively monitor the health of your equipment, and also gain a comprehensive understanding of it across multiple parameters and trends. We notify you as soon as a parameter exceeds certain limits or when an error occurs and then guide you through corrective maintenance or even prevent the need for it. 

This means we are ready to ensure the fastest problem diagnosis and more first-time-right fixes, with fewer on-site visits and less disruption to your workflow. It is the most comprehensive way to ensure precision and reliability, while minimizing downtime and the impact of maintenance on your workflow, ensuring that your instrument operates at its best all the time. 

The service in action

To name a few examples, a Mastersizer user would be informed when their ultrasound probe reaches its operational life expectancy, alerting them that proper dispersion of the sample may be at risk. 

Alongside this, unique or unusual instrument behavior can become visible as well: Malvern Panalytical service specialists detected unusual behavior on a Zetium cooling water flow. Although the cooling parameter of the instrument was still operating within its bandwidth, there was increased fluctuation and a trend downwards. When checking with the customer the root cause has been identified and fixed: improper maintenance on the external water cooling system was performed lately and rust particles started to build up into the Zetium. Unscheduled downtime and severe damage to the instrument have been prevented with the Smart Manager Service Agreement. 

The digital and proactive monitoring combined with experienced service specialists means that the problem gets noticed, the user alerted, and the issue fixed or even prevented.

The Smart Manager Service Agreement package

With a Smart Manager Service Agreement, in addition to the proactive instrument health support from experienced specialists, we provide a quarterly report summarizing Smart Manager’s actions and findings – sharing insights and trends for informed decisions. We also provide access to our Smart Manager Portal so you can self-monitor basic parameters in real-time across different sites. What’s more: Every Smart Manager Service Agreement includes one remote corrective maintenance session of up to 60 minutes, to resolve any potential issues in the fastest way possible. 

The Smart Manager Service Agreement perfectly complements all levels of our service agreements, recommended for many instrument use environments, providing even greater coverage and care for the ultimate peace of mind. We can provide advice on picking a service package that meets your needs, whether you need individual benefits such as fast response times, on-site maintenance, and spare parts coverage, or a full-service, all-inclusive package.

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Smart Manager reduces downtime and maximizes instrument throughput. It’s helped us to visualize lots of telemetry and performance data that would otherwise have taken an operator time to collect and evaluate. This has been particularly useful when conducting maintenance and identifying trends. A powerful tool for remote sites and production environments alike!

Ben Nattriss — Laboratory Operations Manager at SGS (early Smart Manager adopter)

Self-monitor basic instrument status and utilization 

Our Smart Manager Portal gives you a simplified overview to easily check the status and usage of your instruments. Basic performance parameters are displayed with simple traffic light indicators, making any potential technical fault or error easily visible. For example, a Zetium user might see an orange ‘cooling’ parameter, warning them - for example, checking the external chiller can prevent any tube cooling issues that might otherwise affect their measurements and damage the tube. Enjoy regular confirmation of instrument health – and if you encounter more complex problems, we’re here to help!

In addition, easy visualization of instrument usage history is readily available to help you optimize instrument throughput and balance workload. Achieve confidence in the instrument lifecycle, helping you master resource planning and facilitate investment decisions with data-driven insights.

The foundation of the smart support journey

Our Smart Manager Services start with the Smart Manager Connection. The connection allows the instrument to securely send the instrument’s low-level telemetry data to the Smart Manager platform. This includes basic instrument performance data such as pressure and temperature, or instrument usage data such as the number of measurements performed per day. This makes instruments ready for our Smart Manager Services, allowing Malvern Panalytical to begin supporting you proactively and even more efficiently. This is our new standard.

Mastersizer and Zetium instruments are ready for the full range of Smart Manager Services – the Smart Manager Service Agreement and the Smart Manager Portal are available now. The instruments listed below are equipped with the Smart Manager Connection, getting ready for our Smart Manager Services for intelligent care and proactive support coming soon.

Smart Manager Connection: Frequently Asked Questions

How do I connect to Smart Manager?

It’s easy! It is as simple and safe as using a connected printer consumable service you may already have in use.

To get started you need one of the listed Smart Manager enabled instruments that can connect to the Smart Manager platform.

Our full set of Smart Manager Services are available for our Zetiums and Mastersizers from a certain software version onwards: For Mastersizer instruments software version 5.0 or higher is required. You can download the latest version here. For Zetium instruments you can run a test here to check if your instrument is ready or if an upgrade is required.

For the next step, all you need is your instrument computer to be connected to the internet either by Ethernet cable or WiFi. All that’s needed is an outgoing one-way connection from the instrument using HTTPS Port 443 (TLS), connecting only to the Malvern Panalytical Microsoft Azure cloud domain. Only the instrument software can send data. Malvern Panalytical cannot remotely control or access your instrument using Smart Manager. And it does not need to be connected to your company network.

Once your instrument has this one-way connection to the Malvern Panalytical cloud, it is ready to use the Smart Manager Services, the Smart Manager Portal and/or the Smart Manager Service Agreement, allowing you to benefit from proactive monitoring.

What data does Smart Manager collect?

Smart Manager-enabled instrument software sends only necessary, low-level telemetry data on instrument performance and utilization, such as temperature and pressure or results from Malvern Panalytical provided Smart Manager health application (Zetium). This telemetry data relating to the system’s operational status is not viewed as being highly sensitive data, but regardless we follow the strictest guidelines on data collection, management, and storage. We can’t access or collect any of your own measurements or sample results, and we can’t control your instrument remotely through the Smart Manager Connection. This can only be done with your permission in case of corrective maintenance, using trusted remote support solutions like TeamViewer or SightCall.

How is the data sent and stored? Why you can trust the connection and the cloud

Data collected with Smart Manager is secure. The low-level telemetry data is encrypted at origin (instrument PC) and during transfers to the cloud. The connection is outbound only, using encrypted tunnels and the familiar HTTPS.

Please note that remote support cannot be performed through the Smart Manager Connection as it is an outbound connection only. We use the trusted solutions TeamViewer and SightCall, which will only be used with your explicit permission in the event of corrective maintenance.

The data is securely stored and processed in the Smart Manager platform, which is built on Microsoft Azure cloud services and hosted on secure servers owned by Microsoft. With more certifications than any other cloud provider, Microsoft is committed to security, transparency, and regulatory compliance. It is quickly becoming the platform of choice and the industry standard for secure cloud data processing, storage, and analytics.

How is the data processed? Why you can trust Malvern Panalytical Information Security Management system

Malvern Panalytical’s information security management system, including Smart Manager, has been certified to comply with ISO/IEC 27001:2013. This is clear evidence that Malvern Panalytical is capable of managing information securely and safely. Our approach to security design considers people, processes, and technology, with policies and procedures in place to manage potential risks.