SATO Vicinity
How an interactive product demo app helps SATO bring its complex products to life for prospective customers
SATO Vicinity develops and sells products that use its global-standard
PJM RFID (Phase Jitter Modulation Radio Frequency
Identification) technology to track and identify tagged items.
Uniquely, PJM RFID can quickly identify large amounts of tagged
items with 100% accuracy, even when randomly or tightly packed.
A subsidiary of electronics manufacturer SATO Global, SATO
Vicinity builds high-end, customized applications for customers
worldwide from industries including healthcare, blood and
pathology, and wholesale diamonds.
The challenge
Helping prospective customers understand the benefits of blood tracking products.
Ensuring the right blood sample is used for the right person is
critical for patient safety and wellbeing. SATO Vicinity's PJM RFID
products are widely used in the blood transfusion medicine sector,
because they guarantee 100% accuracy in identifying and tracking
blood samples. They can detect when a blood sample is added
to or removed from a smart fridge, and immediately log blood
type, expiry date, and other vital information.
However, SATO Vicinity found prospective customers sometimes
struggle to fully grasp the benefits and uses of their products from
a description alone.
"We find even medical professionals who are very experienced
in blood transfusion often have difficulty in making the leap between
an audio description of what RFID can do for them, versus seeing
a live demonstration with working software that looks like their
applications might look in a lab or hospital."
— Daryl Dusheiko, Chief Solutions Architect at SATO Vicinity
Any capital expenditure in the medical field typically takes a long
time to approve. So SATO Vicinity's products have long sales cycles
of months or even years.
To help speed up the sales cycle, the company decided to build
a demonstration application to use at conferences and data
exhibitions. The aim was to give people a real-life simulation
of how they can use SATO Vicinity's products to make their
day-to-day work easier.
The outcome
A custom demo app that provides an interactive simulation of how SATO products work.
SATO Vicinity developed a Zato-based demonstration application
that connects to smart fridges and agitators. It works just like SATO
Vicinity's products, detecting blood samples added to the fridge
or removed. It displays information on the blood units in the fridge,
such as blood type, date taken, and date added to the fridge. It also
shows each sample's current status — for example, flagging up
if it has expired or has been out of the fridge for too long.
"SATO Vicinity used the demo app for the first time
at the latest International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) conference
and we are delighted with its potential to shorten the sales cycle."
— Daryl Dusheiko, Chief Solutions Architect at SATO Vicinity
Business Challenge
Shortening the sales cycle by overcoming
prospective clients' struggle to fully grasp
the benefits and uses of SATO Vicinity's
products from a description alone
Solution
An interactive demo application providing
a real-life simulation of using blood management products, built in Zato
Benefits
Shortening the sales cycles in complex,
mission-critical environments
"Zato is our go-to solution now for
developing products requiring integrations with
other systems."
— Daryl Dusheiko, Chief Solutions Architect at SATO Vicinity
