The rapid pace of technological change in recent years, particularly when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), has reshaped many industries — including environmental monitoring. Cloud-based, remote monitoring via internet-enabled data loggers and a central interface to track them all has made tremendous progress and offers numerous organizational benefits.
We frequently receive questions from customers about whether or not remote monitoring makes sense for them. This Q&A reflects some of the most frequently asked questions, and should help you determine if remote monitoring will help you meet your organizational needs.
There are several advantages a remote monitoring system presents versus systems that lack such capabilities. Four key areas where your organization stands to benefit are asset protection, organizational safety, resource management, and cost reduction.
Asset protection
The ability of a remote monitoring system to monitor sensitive assets and products at multiple locations via a single, centralized interface represents the most robust, continuous monitoring system available. That means you are giving your organization the best possible chance to take corrective action quickly should a potential issue arise.
Organizational safety
The aforementioned monitoring and alarm capabilities of a remote system also have tangible safety benefits. Organizations know they will be immediately notified of potentially hazardous conditions, and that the remote nature of their system means the ability to maintain continuous monitoring without employees being placed in potentially hazardous situations. The recent COVID-19 pandemic presented a direct reminder of the importance of being able to continue monitoring uninterrupted without support from on-site personnel.
Resource management
Personnel within your organization who may have been tasked with manually checking data loggers can divert that time and effort to other areas, for example patient care in a hospital environment where nurses sometimes conduct data logger checks as part of their routine.
Cost reduction
Fewer man hours devoted to monitoring has the potential to reduce organizational costs over the long term. Also, it goes without saying that the aforementioned asset protection advantages have a financial component as well, as a significant asset loss represents a substantial financial setback for any organization.
Organizations with highly sensitive products
Sensitive conditions are the reason environmental monitoring is conducted in the first place, but the extreme sensitivity of certain products can heighten interest in the robust alarm capabilities that a remote system can provide. Vaccines are one example of a highly sensitive and valuable asset that many organizations choose to protect with remote monitoring.
Organizations with limited availability of personnel
As discussed previously, remote monitoring allows for complete visibility into your organization’s monitoring with minimal input from actual on-the-ground personnel. If your organization is limited for any reason in terms of the time and personnel it can devote to its monitoring practices, a remote monitoring system may prove to be the most sensible choice.
A good remote monitoring system will be highly customizable based on your needs and preferences. This should include recurring reports that can be adjusted to meet your specifications, an easy process for adding or removing users to reflect the pool of people you want involved in your monitoring efforts, simple customization for alarms and notifications, and an intuitive process for incorporating a new data logger or other device into your account.
Yes, a good remote monitoring system has the capacity to support systems of any size and geographic configuration. As previously mentioned, organizations dealing with multiple facilities typically have the greatest need for remote monitoring, which has the capability to track data from around the globe in a single cloud-based interface.
Depending on your preferences, your remote monitoring system should support email, text, and phone alerts for as many users in your organization as you would want receiving such alerts. Any issue warranting attention will trigger an alert immediately.
If you have a robust remote monitoring system up and running, you are likely already in good shape for your audit, but there are still a couple of steps you may want to consider.
The first is ensuring that, if applicable, the validation for all relevant facilities and systems is up to date.
Second, you may want to take a closer look at the reporting requirements of the audit and double check that your reporting setup is optimized to easily provide all necessary information to demonstrate compliance and pass the audit.
When it comes to enforcing standard operating procedures (SOPs), DicksonOne has several features that will prove advantageous, especially when managing a large number of devices. Default device settings create a baseline to which all data loggers will automatically conform (these can be overridden in cases where they do not apply), which significantly reduces the time and effort needed to incorporate new devices into the system.
The ability to easily and systematically template alarms is another major benefit when it comes to enforcing SOPs. Organizations that previously had dozens of different alarm templates have been able to reduce that number to a handful using DicksonOne. Also, the ability to distinguish between alarm conditions and notifications adds another layer of customization to ensure your team receives all relevant updates in the most efficient possible manner.
Should the need to make changes across all or some of your devices arise, our bulk editing tool makes it easy to select the relevant devices and programmatically implement the desired adjustments.
Also, some systems limit the number of users or licenses, or charge for additional users. With DicksonOne you automatically enjoy unlimited users, meaning anyone within your organization you would like to have a view into your monitoring can be added without having to weigh the cost or ration the distribution or licenses.
The DicksonOne system is browser-based, so you will be able to use DicksonOne for your environmental monitoring on any modern browser via any device.
For the on-site installation, we work proactively with your IT team early in the process to identify any potential issues surrounding network configuration or security so that when it comes time to implement the system, everything runs smoothly.
Possibly. If you have older data loggers that are not compatible with DicksonOne you may need to purchase new ones that will support cloud-based monitoring.
That said, you may be able to use our legacy uploader so that your previous data from DicksonWare is incorporated and accessible through the DicksonOne interface. More on that here.
Have more questions about remote monitoring? Feel free to add them in the comments section below, or contact Dickson today.
About the author: Before coming to Dickson, Director of Services Antoine Nguyen spent more than 18 years in quality and validation roles in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.