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Remote diagnostics: The time has come?

The promise of remote diagnostics, which would let a packaging machinery builder "fix" a customer's in-plant machine problem via a Web connection, has been talked about more than practiced thus far. A key roadblock has been the unwillingness of the IT (Information Technology) manager at a packaged goods company to let outsiders past company firewalls so that they can access the company server. Without that access, remote diagnostics is difficult at best.

A recent conversation with Mark Lorenz, electrical applications engineer at Conflex (www.conflex.com), suggests that IT managers may now be warming to the idea of allowing remote diagnostics to take place. Conflex is a Wisconsin maker of shrink wrap equipment.

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