AKAMAI

®
CASE STUDY
³Since implementing the Akamai solution, the number of successful software downloads has grown by 50%,
month over month.´
²
Jerry Zolit, Program Manager, Philips Medical Systems Global Customer Services
KEY IMPACTS
‡
50% month over month growthin successful software downloads
‡
Realizes 91% average downloadcompletion rate
‡
Improved site performance anddownload speeds by 50% in Europeand Asia
‡
Increased confidence in Web site
‡
Enabled competitive advantage
The Situation
Philips Medical Systems, one of the world¶s top three medical device companies, is a market
leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems. This equipment can be
complex tomaintain, yet is critical to patient care. The company¶s eSupport portal²known as
InCenter²playsan important role in supporting the delivery of equipment and application
software to thousands of customers, field engineers, and service partners in almost every
country around the globe.
The Challenge
InCenter was launched in 2004 to support the dissemination of equipment documentation
andsoftware to customers and field engineers around the world. But the company quickly
discoveredthat its platform struggled to support document files larger than 20 MB and
software files larger than 250 MB. Philips found that it sometimes took a long time for site
visitors from regions likeAsia and Europe to access files. The result was selective adoption of
the support portal by customersand engineers who then turned to the service (call)
center.Philips support personnel had to separate large software files into sub-files, a
cumbersome andexpensive process. This negatively impacted the customer experience,
requiring end users to downloadmultiple files for a single software release. In addition, some
customers and engineers requesteddocumentation on CDs, which increased Philips costs. ³We
understood the limitations and costsassociated with distributing software and documentation
via DVDs, but we were also aware of theInternet performance issues that were beyond our
control,´ explains Chris LaFratta, director of engineering programs for Philips Medical Systems
Global Customer Services.
The Goal
Philips Medical Systems needed to meet five key requirements to support its objectives:
‡

Ensure Scalability
The company needed to support large traffic spikes every time a new productrelease, patch, or
update was made available.
‡

Improve Performance
In order to ensure adoption of its portal and software downloads, InCenter needed to quickly
deliver downloads to site visitors around the world, especially in Asia and Europe.
‡

Improve Customer Satisfaction

Philips wanted to deliver the most up-to-date software updatesand equipment information as
quickly as possible to its customers and field engineers²regardlessof Internet conditions.
‡

Reduce Costs to Support Customers

The company wanted to reduce the costs associated withproviding software downloads,
producing and sending out documents and DVDs, and supportingcustomers via its call center.
‡

Track Software Distribution

As part of a regulated industry, Philips Medical Systems must ensurethe integrity of software it
provides and be able to produce records of completed downloads.
Why Akamai
Supporting Unpredictable Traffic Patterns
Philips Medical Systems realized early on that it did not make sense to build its own
infrastructure."It¶s impossible to predict when we'll experience spikes in traffic and for how
long. It would have beencostly to expand our infrastructure and, in the end, it would have been
underutilized for long periodsof time. Our IT team explored a few options and strongly
recommended Akamai,´explains Jerry Zolit,program manager, Online eSupport Portal Global
Customer Services. With Akamai in place, PhilipsMedical Systems can scale to support any
surge in traffic. In just over four months, Philips handled a300% increase in site traffic, peaking
at 1.2 TB served with a 91.2% download completion rate.
(
continued on back)
COMPANY
Philips Medical SystemsAndover, MAwww.medical.philips.com
INDUSTRY
Software & Technology

SOLUTION
Akamai Electronic Software DeliveryAkamai Web Application Accelerator
Philips Medical Systems Boosts Portal DownloadPerformance by 50% and Enables
AverageDownload Completion Rate of 91%
©2008 Akamai Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction inwhole or in part in any
form or medium without express written permissionis prohibited. Akamai and the Akamai wave logo
are registered trademarks.Other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective
owners.Akamai believes that the information in this publication is accurate as of itspublication
date; such information is subject to change without notice.AKAMCS-PHILIPS-0108
About Akamai
Akamai
®
is the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online.
Thousands of organizationshave formedtrusted relationships with Akamai, improving their
revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance of their
onlinebusinesses.Leveraging the Akamai Edge Network, these organizations gain business
advantage today, and have the foundation for theemerging Internetsolutions of tomorrow.
Akamai is ³The Trusted Choice for Online Business.´ For more information, visit
www.akamai.com
.
Why Akamai
(
continued)
Keeping Customers Satisfied
Philips¶ InCenter offers hundreds of thousandsof documentation and software files, somemore
than 2 GB in size. When a piece of expensive hospital equipment²such as anMRI system²is
down, hospitals are unableto generate revenue and serve patients¶needs. In these situations,
it¶s critical thatneeded information or software is availableas quickly and reliably as
possible.Akamai offers a download manager thatensures transfer rates occur significantly
faster.That means downloads occur in minutesinstead of hours. ³Since implementing
theAkamai solution, the number of successfulsoftware downloads has grown by 50%,month
over month,³ explains Zolit.
Increasing Portal Adoption
Not only does Philips provide its customers withcritical documentation via the Internet, it
alsodistributes important system patches via thischannel. With hundreds of products to
support,Philips distributes patches²at a minimum²on a weekly basis.³Since implementing
theAkamai solution, we¶ve improved site performanceand download speed in Europe and
Asiaby 50%,´ says LaFratta. ³That type of performanceis crucial in making sure our
customersand engineers have needed information andupdates. It also encourages future visits
tothe portal.´
Lowering Operational Costs
The costs associated with producing anddistributing documents and CDs can quicklymount.
Add to that the costs of supportingcustomers and field engineers through the callcenter when
they couldn¶t access InCenter.The successful deployment of the InCenter eSupport portal
meant that Philips MedicalSystems could retire multiple legacy sites.This resulted in significant
cost savings.In addition, as more people use the site,Philips savings increase.