Healthcare provider Hillrom brings in telepresence robots from Ava Robotics

Connected healthcare company Hillrom says it has expanded its sales reach, customer experience and education processes by utilizing Ava Telepresence Robots at two premier product showrooms located in Irvine, California and Batesville, Indiana.

Ava Robotics is a builder of intelligent robots for the workplace.

As a provider of healthcare connected care products and services, Hillrom serves a high-profile customer base of large hospital and healthcare system executives.

Accommodating schedules for on-site visits in their showrooms, even for small groups of three-to-five people, proves challenging.

Well before pandemic disruption, Hillrom was exploring new ways to use technology for product demos, educational workshops and promotional events.

Pete Zawodniak, Hillrom’s area vice president, sales, says: “There is momentum and excitement around tech like Ava. But if we aren’t comfortable figuring out how to best use and package our technology, we can’t expect our customers to be.

“With Ava, our team feels confident that we can deliver a better customer experience than our competitors, and that confidence spreads beyond the sales team, throughout the company.”

Hillrom recognizes the challenge its customers face in trying to satisfy complex schedules, geographical limitations and budget concerns. With Ava, Hillrom sales teams can livestream product demonstrations globally.

Telepresence robots allow remote customers and prospects to experience physical products and understand how they’re used, and view supporting content in various formats in an inclusive, immersive way.

Initially focused on using Ava independently for demos and presentations, the team recognized an opportunity to further the experience by bringing in existing equipment and additional screens to expand perspectives.

Ava Telepresence is fully integrated with Webex collaboration technology but also offers use of multiple video conferencing platforms, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

This combination of tools and technology allowed Hillrom to extend sales reach by including unlimited remote attendees or subject matter experts in the buying and decision-making process, and to increase accessibility for rural/satellite and government facilities with limited travel budget and capabilities.

Marcio Macedo, co-founder and VP, products at Ava Robotics, says: “Hillrom understands the evolving hybrid work environment and is ahead of the curve in anticipating the changing workplace and related needs, like an enhanced sales and education experience for customers.

“Ava Telepresence Robots provide a compelling, reliable platform for virtual meetings and demonstrations without limits – showing what can be achieved and how workplace robots enable hybrid work.”

Extra! Extra!

Ava Robotics has partnered with telecommunications giant T-Mobile to create a line of telepresence robots decked out in the customer’s colors and branding.

Ava Robotics delivered its Webex-enabled telepresence robots to T-Mobile’s headquarters and corporate offices through its relationship with Cisco and IT services provider of collaboration and technology solutions, ConvergeOne.

The company says this value-added reseller relationship is bringing Ava’s workplace robots into companies to enable enterprise-level hybrid work.