What is SHERPAL in a nutshell?
“It is a remote monitoring unit that enables a platform to communicate. Connected to the machines’ CAN buses and fitted with a 4G telecommunications antenna, it sends data to servers that then interpret it and return it in an understandable form.” Christophe Lacaze
“It’s a bit like the machine’s electronic health insurance card. Sherpal transmits all the necessary information to monitor and maintain a fleet. The customer can access all the services on a single portal. It enables rental companies and service managers to access valuable data about their fleet remotely: where the machine is and its state, maintenance deadlines and battery condition.” Nicolas Chaix
How did the idea come about?
“Remove monitoring has been used in construction machinery and heavy goods vehicle fleets for several years already. Logically, these needs extend to other sectors, including lifting operations. Enabling machines to communicate is a way to improve productivity, control usage and know where they are, manage their availability, lower maintenance costs, make work-sites safe, etc. These were all requests expressed by our customers.” Christophe Lacaze
“Three years ago, we launched a major study of the market with our customers on a worldwide scale, the aim being to find out their expectations and needs at every point in the machine’s service life. We then put together our technical and service offer based on these requests.” Etienne Garnier
Why did you prefer a solution “made in Haulotte”?
“We studied all the possibilities and decided on an in-house solution to have better control of this tool and to develop it. All the group’s departments and entities were mobilized for this project, from the design office to the legal departments, sales and HR departments at the headquarters, in the subsidiaries and in the factories. All the business lines were involved. By teaming up with partners having complementary expertise, we created an alchemy enabling us to develop an offer that is unique on the market in less than two years.” Nicolas Chaix
What does the Sherpal solution allow users to do?
“The data is available in real time on the MY HAULOTTE portal. With Sherpal, the customer can stay on top of the geographical position and health of their equipment, identify potential sources of malfunctions remotely thanks to feedback of fault codes and their meanings, prepare operations by accessing the repair instructions, optimize the movements of their technicians thanks to interactive maps, make sure the maintenance instructions and frequencies for equipment and its components are adhered to, monitor dangerous components, abusive use or equipment movements, or analyze usage data to better understand equipment use. This solution addresses issues encountered on a daily basis and is intended to ensure the physical integrity of the machine and the operators.” Etienne Garnier
“With SHERPAL, data is accessible for each of the machines or is combined in the form of indicators and fleet reports. In this way, our customers have a real management tool to carry out remote diagnostics and optimize maintenance operations, avoid unnecessary traveling, reduce maintenance costs and enhance the resale value of the machine. Remote monitoring is a real solution to improve our customer service and assist them with all their requests.” Rémi Heidelberger
And how does it work for customers? What does Sherpal offer in practical terms?
“We have put together a commercial proposal according to the different types of needs expressed by our customers. It is sold by subscription, per machine, for a minimum period of three years. The first level is called WATCH. It is aimed at customers who just want to know where their machines are and their operational status. It offers a real-time vision of the machine. The second level, PROTECT, enables them to optimize the life-time of energy components such as batteries or particulate filters. It can also send alerts in case of dangerous behavior or when machines are due for maintenance. Lastly, the PILOT offer, combining all the available functions, in particular with management of usage time slots, delimitation of working areas, detailed use of machines, access to reports and logs.” Christophe Lacaze
How is the Sherpal solution being rolled out around the world?
“We have trained the Sales, Service and After-Sales teams, and have set up “consultants” to pass on the messages in all the countries covered so that every employee can be a SHERPAL ambassador.” Etienne Garnier
“The Sherpal solution is now available in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, North America and Chile. It will gradually be rolled out in other countries as the approvals linked to the various standards or local regulations are granted.” Christophe Lacaze
Data protection is a major issue. What happens to that collected by Sherpal?
“We own the data, but everything is governed by the GDPR. We do not collect any nominative data and we do not use it for any commercial purposes. Above all, this data is available to our customers so that they can optimize the management of their machine fleets. Rémi Heidelberger
“The information collected by the SHERPAL solution only concerns the machine, not its users. Our customers can access it directly on the MyHaulotte.com service portal or integrate it into their own IT tools using an API, an interface for data exchange between servers.” Christophe Lacaze
The SHERPAL solution is designed to be future-proof. What will this system allow in the future?
“In the future, we should move towards more remote interaction with the machine, give it orders and perform even more detailed diagnostics.” Christophe Lacaze
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