Field Services, Enterprise Mobility and Strategies

I had the thrill of meeting many great people last week while consulting and advising a large European utility company on enterprise mobility, real-time enterprises and networked field services.  I spent four days onsite working with multiple teams understanding their current strategies, processes, ambitions and challenges and helping them formulate an enterprise mobility strategy that would work for them.

The late military strategist, Colonel John Boyd always taught that success in the field comes from three key points in the following order:

1. People (well trained, intelligent, motivated)
2. Ideas (good strategies, processes and philosophies)
3. Things (technologies and resources)

I believe the Colonel.  The team from the utility requested that I spend the week with them helping them to understand enterprise mobility from a global perspective, and to learn what other best in class organizations are doing.  I worked very closely with this team, had good food, laughter and lodging (a castle), and know these people to be motivated and brilliant thinkers. 

We explored their current environments across multiple regions, goals, challenges, processes and infrastructures.  I shared best practices, what I have seen other best in class companies doing to optimze their field services strategies, and provided recommendations.  

The end result of our work together was an understanding of the mobile technology architectures, frameworks and infrastructures that would be needed to support their ambitions and strategies to run a best in class, real-time, field services organization.

Now back to the Colonel's points.  At the utility company, we first needed to understand what the strategies (Ideas) for delivering field services were or should be before we could hope to focus in on the appropriate technology to support it.  We spent the first part of our time together discussing the definition and vision of the "real-time" field services organization.  We asked ourselves, "What does a real-time service organization look like, and what strategies and processes need to be adopted in order to support and manage it?" 

Once the team at the utility company identified the vision they had for their organization and processes, the next step was to review the technologies (Things) needed to efficiently and cost-effectively support their vision.

If your organization would benefit from this kind of workshop, please contact me.

Upcoming Events

Field Mobility 2011 Australia - October 25 - 27, 2011
Enterprise Mobility Exchange, Las Vegas - November 2 - 3, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Tokyo - November 14-15, 2011
Kevin Benedict Speaking Tour, Singapore - November 17-18, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
The Evolution of Enterprise Mobility
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
Healthrageous Mobility Case Study
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform 

Ruggedized and Industrial Mobile Device Articles

Consumer Smartphones or Industrial Smartphones?

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer

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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.