Overcoming the Secure Media Exchange Challenge

Executive Summary

Honeywell’s Secure Media Exchange (SMX) aimed to revolutionize data transfer in air-gapped industrial environments by eliminating the risk of malware-infected thumb drives. While effective in its core function, SMX faced challenges in user experience due to a lack of transparency and reporting capabilities. To address this, Honeywell partnered with Ascendle to develop a cloud-based portal, significantly improving customer satisfaction and driving sales.

Honeywell Customer Profile

Honeywell serves three primary customer segments: Industrial and Commercial Businesses, Government and Public Sector, and Homeowners and Consumers. For industrial and commercial businesses, such as manufacturing, oil and gas, and aerospace industries, the focus is on enhancing operational efficiency, improving safety, reducing costs, and achieving sustainability objectives. Government and public sector clients, including defense, aerospace, and transportation, aim to enhance mission effectiveness, improve operational efficiency, and protect critical infrastructure. Homeowners and consumers, primarily in residential HVAC, home security, and connected home technologies, seek to improve home comfort, enhance safety, save energy, and adopt smart home technologies.

Customer pain points across these segments include improving operational efficiency, ensuring safety and security, meeting regulatory compliance, achieving sustainability goals, adopting innovative technologies, and managing costs. To address these needs, Honeywell offers reliable and durable products, expert support and services, data-driven insights, customizable and flexible solutions, integration capabilities, and risk mitigation strategies. Key factors influencing customer decisions include cost-benefit analysis, product performance, brand reputation, quality of customer support, innovation, and total cost of ownership.

The Challenge

Air-gapped industrial environments, while essential for security, are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks, particularly through the use of infected thumb drives. The notorious Stuxnet virus serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences. Honeywell’s SMX was designed to mitigate these risks by scanning and securing thumb drives before use in air-gapped areas.

Despite its security efficacy, SMX encountered significant user experience issues. The absence of a user-friendly interface and limited reporting capabilities hindered customer adoption and satisfaction. This lack of transparency created uncertainty and frustration among users.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Honeywell sought a partner with expertise in user experience and rapid application development. Ascendle was selected to build a cloud-based portal that would provide customers with real-time visibility into the SMX system.

Ascendle employed an agile methodology, focusing on delivering value quickly. By utilizing user stories and a collaborative design process, they created a user-friendly interface that met Honeywell’s branding and design standards. Through iterative development and close collaboration with Honeywell, Ascendle successfully delivered a minimum viable product (MVP) within a tight timeframe.

Results and Impact – We need quantifiable/measurable results

• An MVP Web Portal application was released to production within 4 months from development start.
• The rapid creation of this application allowed Honeywell to retain a large existing client that was at risk of leaving.

The cloud portal significantly enhanced the SMX user experience, providing customers with the information and control they needed. This improved customer satisfaction and drove increased sales for the SMX product. The successful collaboration between Honeywell and Ascendle fostered a long-term partnership focused on continuous innovation and improvement.

Key Benefits

• Enhanced User Experience: The cloud portal provided customers with real-time visibility and control over the SMX system.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction: The improved user experience led to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Accelerated Time-to-Market: Ascendle’s agile development approach enabled rapid delivery of the cloud portal.
• Strong Partnership: The successful collaboration between Honeywell and Ascendle laid the foundation for future projects.

Conclusion

The partnership between Honeywell and Ascendle exemplifies the power of collaboration in addressing complex business challenges. By combining Honeywell’s industry expertise with Ascendle’s technical proficiency, the two companies were able to transform the Secure Media Exchange (SMX) from a functional but user-frustrating product into a customer-centric solution that drives business growth.

The successful implementation of the cloud portal demonstrates the critical role of user experience in the adoption of technology solutions. By prioritizing customer needs and leveraging agile development methodologies, Honeywell and Ascendle were able to deliver a product that not only met security requirements but also exceeded customer expectations.

This case study underscores the importance of investing in digital transformation initiatives to enhance product offerings and gain a competitive advantage. By focusing on customer satisfaction, building strong partnerships, and embracing innovative technologies, organizations can achieve significant business outcomes.