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Optra Foundations
Give service teams the tools to monitor, troubleshoot, and remotely assist with devices connected to the cloud.
The Optra Foundation use case gives service teams the tools to monitor, troubleshoot, and remotely assist with devices connected to the cloud. Pre-created GenAI prompts combine Lexmark's connected products service experience with the power of generative AI to accelerate you towards improved service outcomes.
By connecting devices to Optra, support agents gain access to device connection state, alerts, sensor telemetry, and recent device communication — enabling faster diagnosis, optimized service delivery, and fewer unnecessary dispatches.
Things
Connected devices sending telemetry and error data daily over WAN connectivity.
Insights
Dashboards, advanced analytics, and anomaly detection surfacing actionable patterns from device data.
Actions
Notifications, workflow-driven alerts, and optional integrations with enterprise systems.
Overview
The Optra Foundation use case is delivered across two primary stages. The first is an optional pre-sales discovery phase that produces data profiling, a feasibility assessment, and an IoT roadmap. The second is a structured implementation phase that brings the solution into production.
The implementation stage delivers a customer instance of the Optra IoT Platform, enrolled devices with ingested data, configured device templates, designed and implemented alert workflows, optional enterprise integrations, and advanced algorithms with supporting dashboards. Lexmark recommends starting with alerts only and allowing a refinement period before enabling automated case creation integrations.
Targeted Outcomes
| Outcome | Description |
|---|---|
| Increase Customer Uptime | Alerting support agents to specific device states or error conditions allows them to proactively investigate, reducing customer downtime. |
| Increase Support Agent Effectiveness | Support agents have access to device telemetry and recent errors, enabling faster and more accurate troubleshooting. |
| Improve First Time Fix Rate | With remote visibility to devices, support agents are better equipped to select the right course of action to fix the device the first time. |
| Increase Remote Fix Rate | Remote visibility enables support agents to direct customers to resolve issues without dispatching a technician. |
| More Accurate Parts Selection | A current and historical view of errors and usage helps support agents more accurately prescribe parts to resolve an issue. |
| Reduce Time to Systemic Issue Fixes | Early warning to fleet-wide issues allows teams to detect problems and release fixes more quickly. |
| Increase Sales Effectiveness | Visibility to device usage rates and data allows sales teams to make more informed recommendations to customers. |
Functional Architecture
The functional architecture describes the capabilities added to an organization following deployment of the Optra Foundation use case, grouped by operational category.
New Operational Functions
Rule Optimization
As a consumables specialist manager or service manager, detect false negatives — instances where a device should have alerted but did not — enabling reduction of downtime and suppression of unnecessary alerts and shipments.
Core Operational Functions
Remote Device Investigation
Support agents see recent telemetry, alerts, and errors on a device to make better troubleshooting, diagnosis, and remedy decisions.
Device Investigation Alerting
Support agents receive an alert when a condition has been met that indicates they should investigate a specific device.
Systemic Problem Detection
Support agent managers see anomalies in error data to get early warning to fleet-wide issues.
Platform Functions Leveraged
- Platform Device Management — Foundational Optra IoT Platform components and Platform interface for securely onboarding, managing, and monitoring connected devices.
- Optra Platform Native Dashboards — Includes the Device Connectivity Status dashboard out of the box.
- Optra Rules Engine — Purpose-built interface to simplify driving action from complex IoT signals.
- Optra Integration Management — Enables quick setup of integrations to enterprise systems connected to the rules engine.
- Optra Data Accelerator — Ingests device data through the Silver medallion layer and presents Gold consumption tables for reporting.
Things
Devices
The device in the Optra Foundation use case is the machine or system created by the device manufacturer — this could be a crane, backhoe, piece of medical equipment, printer, forklift, or other connected equipment.
The ideal devices share the following attributes:
- Send detailed telemetry data at least daily.
- Send device error and exception detail at least daily.
- Downtime of the device is disruptive and service processes can benefit from real-time data.
WAN Connectivity
As the core value of Optra Foundation is reducing downtime, it is important that telemetry data reaches the Optra IoT Hub in a timely manner. The use case is dependent on telemetry that is typically small in volume and is not sensitive to latency.
Insights
Dashboards
Dashboard accelerators enable insights through data visualisations, correctly loading data into PowerBI from the enterprise data store and displaying it in views that provide descriptive analytics.
| Accelerator | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Event Anomaly Detection | Surfaces anomalous patterns in device errors detected by the Event Anomaly algorithm. | Existing |
| Device Detail Real-time Telemetry | Platform-native capability to display up to 30 days of historical telemetry. | Existing |
| Device Connectivity Status | Displays the trend of enrolled devices and details about connectivity rate. | Existing |
Advanced Analytics
| Accelerator | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Platform Workflows | Lexmark Professional Services collaborates with the customer to turn desired outcomes into SQL scripts that link and join data to facilitate visualization. | Custom |
| Event Anomaly Detector | An algorithm that detects anomalous patterns in device errors across a fleet of devices. | Existing |
Note: The Event Anomaly Detector requires historical data — at least 12 distinct periods. Monthly aggregation requires at least 12 months; weekly aggregation requires at least 12 weeks. Higher-level aggregations produce cleaner signals but sacrifice resolution.
Actions
Notifications
Alerts related to devices enrolled in the Optra IoT Platform are viewable from the device management page. Alerts can be generated by Optra Edge devices aggregating device data, or by rules created in the platform or Databricks code.
Direct Integrations
The Optra Foundation use case includes no direct integrations by default. The following optional integrations can be added based on customer requirements.
| Accelerator | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Alert to Case Creation (Optional) | Enables generation of tickets/cases in the CRM system through a custom integration using the Platform Integration Framework, triggered by Optra IoT Platform rules via Logic Apps, ServiceBus, or AppService. | Custom |
| Account Population in Platform (Optional) | Looks up account details for a device when the device detail page is opened. | Custom |
Batch Integrations
Batch integrations are scheduled movements of data out of a business system into the Optra Lakehouse.
| Source System | Data Type |
|---|---|
| Device / IoT Hub / Data Lake / PostgreSQL TimescaleDB | Device data, error data, historical usage data. |
| Device Master (Optional) | Relates serial numbers to an account and location. |
Note: The customer and engagement team can also use the out-of-the-box integration capabilities in the Optra IoT Platform for common integrations including Teams, Email, and SMS notifications.