AKAMAI® CASE STUDY

“Since implementing the Akamai solution, the number of successful

software downloads has grown by 50%, month over month.”
—Jerry Zolit, Program Manager, Philips Medical Systems Global Customer Services
KEY IMPACTS
• 50% month over month growth
in successful software downloads
• Realizes 91% average download
completion rate
• Improved site performance and
download speeds by 50% in Europe
and 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 to
maintain, yet is critical to patient care. The company’s eSupport portal—known as InCenter—plays
an 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 and
software to customers and field engineers around the world. But the company quickly discovered
that 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 like
Asia and Europe to access files. The result was selective adoption of the support portal by customers
and engineers who then turned to the service (call) center.
Philips support personnel had to separate large software files into sub-files, a cumbersome and
expensive process. This negatively impacted the customer experience, requiring end users to download
multiple files for a single software release. In addition, some customers and engineers requested
documentation on CDs, which increased Philips costs. “We understood the limitations and costs
associated with distributing software and documentation via DVDs, but we were also aware of the
Internet 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 product
release, 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 updates
and equipment information as quickly as possible to its customers and field engineers—regardless
of Internet conditions.
• Reduce Costs to Support Customers The company wanted to reduce the costs associated with
providing software downloads, producing and sending out documents and DVDs, and supporting
customers via its call center.
• Track Software Distribution As part of a regulated industry, Philips Medical Systems must ensure
the 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 been
costly to expand our infrastructure and, in the end, it would have been underutilized for long periods
of 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, Philips
Medical Systems can scale to support any surge in traffic. In just over four months, Philips handled a
300% increase in site traffic, peaking at 1.2 TB served with a 91.2% download completion rate.
(continued on back)
COMPANY
Philips Medical Systems
Andover, MA
www.medical.philips.com
INDUSTRY
Software & Technology
SOLUTION
Akamai Electronic Software Delivery
Akamai Web Application Accelerator

Philips Medical Systems Boosts Portal Download

Performance by 50% and Enables Average
Download Completion Rate of 91%
©2008 Akamai Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in
whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission
is 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 its
publication 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 organizations have formed
trusted relationships with Akamai, improving their revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance of their online businesses.
Leveraging the Akamai Edge Network, these organizations gain business advantage today, and have the foundation for the emerging Internet
solutions of tomorrow. Akamai is “The Trusted Choice for Online Business.” For more information, visit www.akamai.com.
Why Akamai (continued)
Keeping Customers Satisfied
Philips’ InCenter offers hundreds of thousands
of documentation and software files, some
more than 2 GB in size. When a piece of
expensive hospital equipment—such as an
MRI system—is down, hospitals are unable
to generate revenue and serve patients’
needs. In these situations, it’s critical that
needed information or software is available
as quickly and reliably as possible.
Akamai offers a download manager that
ensures transfer rates occur significantly faster.
That means downloads occur in minutes
instead of hours. “Since implementing the
Akamai solution, the number of successful
software downloads has grown by 50%,
month over month,“ explains Zolit.
Increasing Portal Adoption
Not only does Philips provide its customers with
critical documentation via the Internet, it also
distributes important system patches via this
channel. With hundreds of products to support,
Philips distributes patches—at a minimum
—on a weekly basis.“Since implementing the
Akamai solution, we’ve improved site performance
and download speed in Europe and Asia
by 50%,” says LaFratta. “That type of performance
is crucial in making sure our customers
and engineers have needed information and
updates. It also encourages future visits to
the portal.”
Lowering Operational Costs
The costs associated with producing and
distributing documents and CDs can quickly
mount. Add to that the costs of supporting
customers and field engineers through the call
center when they couldn’t access InCenter.
The successful deployment of the InCenter
eSupport portal meant that Philips Medical
Systems could retire multiple legacy sites.
This resulted in significant cost savings.
In addition, as more people use the site,
Philips savings increase.
Furthermore, Philips is able to reduce the
costs associated with hard-media distribution.
“As software is updated, you’re left with a
warehouse of outdated CDs and DVDs. With
Akamai in place, we expect to lower both
our up-front production and back-end scrap
costs,” explains Zolit.
Satisfying Regulatory Requirements
Because it delivers software to support sensitive
medical devices, Philips Medical Systems must
track all software delivery and ensure that no
software corruption occurs during downloads.
Prior to Akamai, the company was forced to
package its software in a unique way in order
to ensure software integrity. “The Akamai
Download Manager automatically performs an
integrity check upon download completion,
eliminating the need for additional manufacturing
steps. All download activity is reported back
to Philips, enabling central tracking of software
distribution and greatly improving our reporting
and auditing capabilities,” says Zolit.
Leveraging the Web as a Viable Channel
Philips quickly saw the promise of using the
Internet to support its customers. “By incorporating
Akamai into our infrastructure, we’ve
been able to successfully migrate to a much
more suitable business model—we are able to
quickly and reliably transfer files and our portal
adoption rate has increased. All of this gives us
the proof we need to see the Web as a viable
channel for supporting our customers. Akamai
helps us serve customers in unique ways and
differentiate ourselves from the competition,”
concludes LaFratta.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering
products, services
and solutions through the brand promise of “sense and simplicity.” Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 124,300
employees
in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of USD 34 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical
diagnostic imaging
and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News
from
Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
AKAMAI® CASE STUDY
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
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Tel 617.444.3000
Fax 617.444.3001
U.S. toll-free 877.4AKAMAI
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PHILIPS MEDICAL