Accelerating lead time & simplifying choices inside the cabinet with Smart Build
Predefined options for faster, easier cabinet deployments Decisions, decisions … Have you ever felt overwhelmed by too many choices? Sometimes, more options create complexity rather than flexibility. That’s why Equinix’s Smart Build is designed to streamline decision-making and speed up cage deployments for our customers. Making it easier to do business with us Once a customer has purchased space and power from Equinix, they need to pivot on the nitty-gritty of getting it up and running—the extra things you don't think about but matter to ensure a seamless setup and experience. That’s where Smart Build comes in, offering key solutions for custom parts, plus labor and accessories that help get deployments up and running. And our new Accessories model moves us toward pre-selected, off-the-shelf options that accelerate lead times. Think of it like building out a kitchen—you could install a custom Viking range, but for most, a high-quality GE range does the job just as well, at a better cost and with quicker access. Similarly, our Accessories offer reliable, pre-approved products with set delivery SLAs that meet most customers' needs without the long wait. While we still support custom builds, we want to make it easier for customers by offering predefined, pre-approved, and pre-priced options that seamlessly fit within our power and IBX space constraints Offloading the heavy lifting to Equinix Under the Smart Build umbrella, we also offer Smart Hands, a service that provides on-demand, remote maintenance for our colocation customers. If a customer isn’t physically present at a site, they can call on Smart Hands to reboot a server, inspect hardware, or perform other essential tasks. Think of it like home maintenance—sure, you could go to a hardware store to fix a leaky faucet yourself, but most people prefer calling a plumber. With Smart Hands, customers get expert support without the hassle What’s next on the roadmap? Our top priority is standardization—getting customers up and running faster by removing complexity from quote to fulfillment. Expanding accessories: By the end of the year, we’ll be broadening our add-on accessories program, offering more ready-to-deploy solutions inside the cabinet. This means faster deployments and less guesswork for customers. For example, we’re adding copper, fiber, and basket trays to help customers easily organize and connect their infrastructure cabling between cabinets Introducing visualization tools: We’re working on tools that will allow customers to see their cage layout before deployment. Imagine designing a car online—choosing specs, colors, and features before buying. We want to bring that experience to our customers, helping them drag and drop cabinets, power distribution units (PDUs), and other elements into a virtual cage layout to make decisions fasterHave you scheduled Smart Hands using the Availability Calendar yet?
Every second matters – that’s why we’re making it easier for you to schedule and execute Smart Hands on your schedule. Using the Smart Hands Availability Calendar, you can: Schedule Smart Hands at specific times, up to 3 hours of Smart Hands service in 1-hour increments Have real-time access to technician availability Use our enhanced scheduling experience with fewer delays and ticket rejections Get started with the availability calendar today by logging into ECP and follow the steps to Order a Scheduled Smart hands request We’re working hard on making the improvements you need and want – comment below or share your feedback via ideasSmart Hands 2022.5 Release
Smart Hands 2022.5 is available October 10, 2022. This release offers a new report and various enhancements related to the ordering process, flexible orders, recurring orders, and inbound shipments/RMAs. Discounted Hourly Rate for Flexible Orders When you create a Smart Hands request, you can choose from several scheduling options (Flexible, Standard, Expedited, etc.). With this release, the Flexible option is now offered to you at a discounted hourly rate – making this your most economical option. Flexible scheduling allows the work to be completed any time before a specified date. For example, if you submit the Flexible order on the 1st of the month, and you specify a completion date of the 10th, the work may be completed anytime between the 1st and the 10th. Flexible scheduling is recommended for low- or medium-priority requests. Inbound Shipments: Shipping Manifest/Bill of Materials When you create an Inbound Shipment request, a new option is available for Equinix to Scan and Send Shipment Manifest/Bill of Materials. With this option enabled, the manifest/BOM is scanned and sent to you electronically when the shipment is received. Enhancements for Recurring Orders With this release of Smart Hands, it’s easier to find your recurring orders, and easier to see the relationships between the parent orders and the child orders. Enhancements to the Orders and Tickets History Screen Recurring orders are now more easily identifiable. A new Recurring tab allows you to see all your open parent orders. You can also use the filtering options to refine the list by status, location, and/or creation date. Clicking a parent order takes you to the Activity Timeline of the parent. Enhancements to the Activity Timeline/Service Details Tabs The Activity Timeline of the parent order shows the 5 most recent child orders associated with it, with a link to each of those orders. The Service Details tab shows the Recurrence Details for the parent order. A new All Recurring Orders tab shows all child orders associated with the parent order (for the last 12 months). It shows whether each child order is open or closed. You can filter this list by date and/or status. The Activity Timeline for each child order provides a link to its parent order, and another link to view all its sibling orders. New Report: Smart Hands Charges and Labor A new self-service report is available in the Reports Center – Smart Hands Charges and Labor. It shows details about all your billed Smart Hands charges for a selected time period. You can view up to 12 months of charges in this report. You can configure the report to run once, or on a recurring basis. Easier Process for Return Material Authorizations (RMA) Handling of an RMA (as part of an equipment replacement) is now a simpler, more straightforward process. Your inbound equipment and associated packaging will be held in the IBX’s intake area until the time of installation. After installation, the packaging will be re-used to return the old equipment. An RMA request will generally consist of 3 parts: An Inbound Shipment order A Move/Replace Equipment/RMA order An Outbound Shipment order You can submit all 3 orders together via the Move/Replace Equipment/RMA order form. The new process allows for better tracking of RMA requests. It also ensures compliance with our Flammable Material Removal Policy, by preventing cardboard from entering the colocation floor. Save Your Order Contact Preferences When you create a Smart Hands order, you must select a Technical Contact, and you must specify when Equinix is permitted to call them (such as only during the IBX's business hours, or only during the Technical Contact’s business hours). With the 2022.5 release, each user can now save their contact preferences in their user profile. Now when you’re selected as a Technical Contact for a new order, your time zone and calling preferences are automatically populated in the order. Expanded Availability of Smart Hands Video Feature Smart Hands Video is a limited-release feature. Via Zoom video conferencing, this feature allows you to collaborate with the technician when they're working on your order in your private cage or non-colo area. With the 2022.5 release, Smart Hands Video is available in these additional IBXs: CH1, MI1, ML2, ML3, ML5, NY2, SH6, SK1, SY4, SY5, SY6, TR2. Learn more about Smart Hands on Docs and Readiness!
Smart Hands 2022.6
Smart Hands 2022.6 Equinix Smart Hands 2022.6 is available December 12, 2022. This release includes the following changes to the Smart Hands interface. Order a Support Plan Online For direct users, Smart Hands Support Plans can now be ordered online. When ordering, you can choose Prepaid Smart Hands Hours or a Monthly Smart Hands Support Plan With Rollover. For more details and instructions, see Support Plans. Note: Online ordering of support plans is not yet available for reseller accounts, or for users in Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Turkey, India, Korea, China, Belgium, Indonesia, South Africa, Chile, or Peru. Enhanced ‘Activity Timeline’ Details The Activity Timeline now provides additional updates about your Smart Hands orders: For scheduled requests – Once the scheduling of the work is accepted by Equinix, the scheduled start date and time are now shown in the timeline. For orders with the video conference option enabled – Once the scheduling of the Zoom meeting has been accepted by Equinix, the meeting date and time are now shown in the timeline. For inbound shipments containing multiple packages – As your packages arrive at the IBX, the timeline is updated to show the number of packages received so far (green=received, red=not received). Once all parts of the shipment have been received, the colored indicator is solid green. Time Zone Indicator on ‘Orders and Tickets History’ On the Orders and Tickets History screen, a new globe icon () in the Estimated Completion column indicates that the estimated completion dates/times are displayed in your preferred time zone (not the IBX local time zone). Note: If you want to change your preferred time zone in ECP, select My Profile (under your username in the top right corner). Select an option from the Time Zone drop-down list and click Submit. New Tooltip for Install/Move/Replace Equipment On the order forms for Install Equipment and Move/Replace Equipment, there’s a new tooltip beside the option for I have an inbound shipment ticket. It explains that if you’ve just finished submitting the Inbound Shipment ticket, it might take up to 30 minutes to be available for selection. New Option on ‘Cable Connectivity Check’ Form On the Cable Connectivity Check form, when selecting an asset, there’s a new option for Proceed with the cable removal if live traffic is detected. If you select it, you acknowledge that Equinix is not responsible for any service outages resulting from the cable removal. Optional ‘Scope of Work’ For Smart Hands order forms that allow you to upload a template or use a Guided Form (such as the order forms for Install Equipment and Install Cables), the Scope of Work details field is now marked as “Optional”. As long as you’ve included all the necessary details in the guided form or the uploaded template, you don't need to include them again in the Scope of Work section. Date Field Clarification for Inbound Shipments For clarification of the Inbound Shipment form, the Date field has been renamed Approximate Arrival Date. Enter the date you expect the shipment to be delivered to the IBX (not the date it was shipped).
