10 Minutes & 78 Holstein Calves Using RFID & Handheld PDAs

Ten minutes is what it took to register 78 calves using a Psion Teklogix Workabout Pro (with a pistol grip and an integrated RFID reader) with MobileDataforce's PointSync software on a farm in Idaho yesterday. What does it mean to register? A truck load of Holstein calves are brought to the "calf farm" and each calf is assigned a "hutch". After each calf is placed in the hutch they are given both a visual ID tag and an RFID ID tag. Next, a farmer walks down the row of hutches with the handheld computer and takes a reading on each calf, links the RFID tag with the calf, visual ID and hutch. This information is wirelessly synchronized with a central database in the farm office. The ID information will stay with the animal for its entire life. This allows the animal, the animal's health records and location records to always be traceable in the event of an illness or health concern.

This is just one part of a fascinating revolution in cattle management and animal tracking that MobileDataforce is helping to implement around the world.

Music Fans & Handheld PDAs with Barcode Scanners

My PSO (professional services organization) is just wrapping up a project that helps bands track their "true" fans by using handheld PDAs with barcode scanners. Music fans are provided with plastic "band" cards with a barcode label on them. Whenever they purchase band or concert products, their card gets scanned and recorded. This allows the team to record and reward fans for their ongoing support through a variety of "true" fan programs and special promotional offers.

How does the mobility solution fit in? Often, band related concerts and products are purchased from "mobile" sales locations that are not networked into existing database systems. Therefore, the sales staff use mobile barcode enabled PDAs to record "true fan" sales activities that can be recorded and synchronized with the main database systems at a later time.

This solution was developed using MobileDataforce's PointSync Software Development Kit. The barcode scanners were Socket Bluetooth scanners that work with consumer grade PDAs.

How Do I Mobilize Business Processes?

Every business has certain defined ways of transacting business. Often these transactions involve the collection of data on a paper form. The paper forms are then moved into various holding areas where the data is read, acted upon, and then stored. This process has many inefficiencies, quality control issues, and opportunities for failure.

When you mobilize business processes you are automating these steps, introducing electronic quality assurance measures, making this process much faster, and enabling all these processes to be completed automatically while you are out in the mud and rain on the jobsite.

For small business owners, mobilizing business processes often brings a sense of relief from the knowledge that the data was collected, transferred and stored all automatically. It is not dependent upon office staff to complete the work and do it right.

Job estimates, work orders, project updates, inspections, audits, product orders, etc., can all be completed on handheld PDAs, and then transferred to office database applications without human intervention.

You are extending your business software outside the office to the jobsite. You are enabling the person collecting the data to do it immediately at the site of the work that is being recorded. This improves the accuracy of the data, and allows for the complete collection of data at the source. If you wait to complete the paper forms until you return to the office, you often forget the details and no longer have access to the field data.

There is a concept taught in the book "e-Myth" that all business owners should be managing their companies as if they were going to "franchise" it. The point the author was making - set up your businesses so they are operated on repeatable business processes. Processes that can be defined, documented and automated if possible to avoid points of failure or possible errors or dependencies on staff. Mobilizing your business processes is a very efficient means to accomplishing this goal.

Cartegraph & MobileDataforce - Handheld Solutions for Government Agencies

MobileDataforce and Cartegraph began a partnership last year to provide mobile solutions to cities, counties, states and other public works focused organizations. This partnership has generated significant market interest and we are now delivering solutions such as Mobile SignView which provides the following for sign asset management:

• On-line MUTCD sign library
• Location identification
• Complete history log
• Queries and reports
• Attach images and videos
• Data synchronization with multiple field commands

MobileDataforce's mobile solutions combined with Cartegraph's applications also provide mobile work order management, mobile vehicle tracking, GIS, mobile inspection applications and much more for government agencies involved in public works and asset management.

MobileDataforce's "Green" PDA Solutions

We received yet another order this week from a company in the NW that picks up recycled bottles from stores. They want to be able to use handheld PDAs to record the number of returned bottles at a specific location, and reimburse the stores. This simple solution was done with MobileDataforce's PointSync.

Newspaper Deliveries and Mobile PDA Solutions

This week my team is working on a proposal to help a major newspaper reduce waste and the overstocking of newspapers at specific locations. They want better visibility into the actual sales of newspapers at commercial locations, and the number of overstocked inventory they are picking up and recycling.

The benefits they are seeking are:

1. The ability to accurately predict, produce and deliver the amount of newspapers that will sell at a specfic location
2. Reduce the cost of picking up overstocked newspapers, transporting and recycling them
3. Improve their ability to sell more newspapers at under-stocked locations

The cost savings from having near real time data collection by drivers can save large amounts of costs in over production, over-stocking, under-stocking, recycling, etc.

This is another example of how much a good mobile solution can impact the bottom-line of a company. The solution we are proposing will take advantage of the power in MobileDataforce's PointSync.

US Senator Larry Craig Visits MobileDataforce

US Senator Larry Craig stopped by recently to learn how MobileDataforce's software can help with the implementation of cattle/animal tracking systems to monitor and track animal health. He is involved with animal tracking legislation and many other technology initatives in the US Congress. In the above photo I am showing the Senator how our mobile solutions can collect data, using RFID readers and RFID tags and wirelessly synchronize it to a central database for identifying the movement and health of animals.

US Department of Commerce Award

The US Department of Commerce presented MobileDataforce with an Export Achievement award last month to celebrate our growth and expansion into the European markets. In 2005 we opened an office in Den Bosch, The Netherlands and began selling solutions throughout Europe.

A Mobile Solution that Took 24 Man Years to Develop

I often talk with IT departments that are considering whether they should code their own mobile solutions, or if they should use MobileDataforce's PointSync development platform. I agree that coding their own solution is an option, but I then advise that we have spent over 24 man years in development time, salaries, and testing to provide them with PointSync. PointSync provides a platform for rapidly developing mobile applications. In many cases 80% of our customers' requirements are already available in PointSync. The user simply needs to identify the data to be used and collected in the field, the design of the handheld GUI, and the destination database. All the difficult and time consuming aspects of developing mobile applications and synchronizing the data are already available in the PointSync platform.

At a high level, PointSync provides a development environment for creating mobile applications that can synchronize wired or wirelessly with enterprise databases. The headaches caused by synchronization of data are all resolved in PointSync. The need to create unique mobile applications for unique handheld devices is resolved. The ability to print reports from mobile devices is resolved. The ability to quickly design user friendly GUIs for mobile devices is resolved. The ability to support multiple handheld devices, laptops, Tablet PCs and PDA phones is resolved. My team has done a great job, making your job easy.

A 30 day trial version of the PointSync Developer is available for download.

We walk the talk...my professional services teams all use PointSync to develop and deliver custom mobile solutions for our customers around the world.

Automotive Services Software for PDAs

I am amazed at how much computational power a software application on a handheld computer can have. Let me give you an example - We are finishing up an application for a company that provides mobile automotive services such as vehicle cleaning, washing polishing and detailing. This one handheld solution actually includes all of the following components:

• Work Orders
• Payroll records
• Time Sheets
• Customer invoicing
• Mobile Printing
• Bar code scanning
• VIN decoding
• Wireless database synchronization
• Web enabled access to the data
• Report printing

All of these components are available from one menu on a Pocket PC handheld device. We developed this application using MobileDataforce's PointSync Suite. This application allows the mobile service providers to effectively communicate with headquarters while remaining on the jobsite making money and providing services.

Inspections on PDAs

Inspections are one of the most common types of applications that customers request, and there are soooooo many different kinds of inspections. We are currently working on projects and proposals for the following:

• Tulip bulb inspections - The Netherlands
• Environmental Occupational Safety and Health for the FAA
• Board of Pharmacy - Inspecting pharmacy licenses
• Cattle inspection
• Automobile inspection
• Quality Assurance - food processing plant inspections
• Street sign inspections
• Many more....

On a phone call today, the gentleman said he could conduct 20 inspections in a day, but each inspection takes 3 hours to type into the computer system once he returned to the office. The inefficiencies are enormous and expensive.

Handheld PDAs, PDA Phones and rugged handheld computers can all collect, store and synchronize the inspection data from remote locations directly into a configured database application back in the office. No wonder inspectors love handhelds!!!

Trapped Data Issues

One of the common reasons companies say they want to mobilize their business systems is to release data that is trapped on paper. Let me give you an example - Unilever, one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world, approached us about mobilizing their quality assurance auditing processes. One of the key deliverables they were seeking was to make the audit results available for business analytics that would lead to quality improvements. At the time all of their audits were completed on paper, and filed in paper file folders. The data was trapped on paper and was not available to be analyzed using business analytic software.

With data trapped on paper, the ability to review the data as an aggregate is lost. The ability to mine the data for gems of wisdom, trends, problems, successes, etc., is lost.

Replacing your paper business processes with mobile software applications on handheld computers enables your field teams to provide all of their data electronically. This data can be wirelessly synchronized to enterprise databases in the office without the need to drive to the office and deliver trapped data on paper.

Janssen-Fritsen Selects MobileDataforce® Europe

Janssen-Fritsen selects MobileDataforce to mobilize their Gymnastics Equipment Service and Maintenance Teams. This project is being implemented in The Netherlands. Janssen-Fritsen has 50 field services teams that repair and maintain gymnastics equipment around Europe. Their maintenance and work orders will now be done using MobileDataforce's PointSync software, on handheld PDAs, customized to their requirements.

Mobilizing Automotive Services

MobileDataforce is enagaged on yet another automotive services project. This customer repairs "bumpers" on used cars, and wants to invoice the customer for the work completed. This application will involve the ability to scan a VIN number so the car can quickly be identified, and the work done on it invoiced. All of this will take place on a handheld computer with a barcode scanner, wireless connectivity to a database at headquarters. They will user PointSync Mobile software on each handheld computer, PointSync Server to bi-directionally synchronize the data, and PointSync Developer to configure and develop the complete system.

VIN decoding is a big part. It helps our customer identify the details of the car, so the invoice can specifically identify the car, and the exact work done on it. This helps both our customer and their clients avoid confusion and payment delays.

VIN decoding is not easy. New models are added monthly, and different models are sold in different regions of the world. So the VIN decoder needs to be able to accommodate these weekly additions in an organized manner that protects the integrity of the data. MobileDataforce has a lot of experience designing for these requirements.

Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Mobilizes

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has selected MobileDataforce's PointSync software as their enterprise mobility platform. Their internal IT department will use PointSync to develop a wide variety of mobile solutions for use by their staff in the field.

The Real Reasons to Mobilize

Handheld computers are fun, although the CFO is unlikely to approve their purchase unless there are better reasons to purchase. Here are some very real reasons for your consideration:

• Cash management - quickly invoice for work done, invoice accurately and avoid disputes
• Better fuel mileage - dispatch work crews to the closest job, on the right routes and send them out with the right tools and supplies the first time.
• Improved productivity - avoid wasted driving time, and inefficient paper work
• Improved customer service - respond faster, bring the right tools and parts the first time
• Visibility into inventory use - monitor parts and inventory used and apply these to the right customer accounts. Make sure you aren't losing parts and supplies to theft and loss.
• Reduced liability - accurate documentation of work, wirelessly synchronized with the headquarters database for storage.
• Improve quality and performance - compare times, work productivity, customer satisfaction and profitability of each employee through automated time stamping and handheld work orders synchronized with the central database.

The bottom line, you can do more work, make more money, for less risks and expenses by mobilizing your remote business processes.

Why Mobilize a Field Services Team?

This article contains an interesting reason to mobilize field technicians - better cash management.

For Dave Croteau, manager of customer support for Toshiba America Medical Systems, getting data from his mobile field-service staff in a timely manner was a nagging problem. And the delay was losing the company money.

Croteau oversees customer-service operations for the Tustin, Calif.-based company, which provides service and support for medical imaging equipment, including ultrasound and X-ray machines, to hospitals and labs across the country. His team dispatches one of 400 field service engineers whenever a customer needs help.

Here was Croteau's beef: The engineers were equipped with laptops running Amdocs' Clarify customer relationship management software to enter information about the work they performed. But if they were at a customer's facility, they usually couldn't get a network connection to log in to the Clarify system, and they'd put off the data-entry task. "The average close for a case was running over 13 days," Croteau says, "which coincided with the technical engineers doing their expense cards every two weeks."

That delayed how quickly Toshiba America Medical Systems could get paid, because the billing department can't process invoices until an engineer files a report detailing the work. Plus, Croteau says, the billable hours engineers entered were often only hazy guesses, and it turned out that on average, customers were being undercharged.

So the 2 reasons Mr. Croteau gave for mobilizing - delayed billings, and under charging customers. In other words - bad cash management.

Spending on Mobile Computing on the Rise

This article describes why companies are spending more on mobile computing and what they believe the benefits are:

http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1959015,00.asp

Idaho Fish & Game Department Mobilizes

The Idaho Fish and Game Department has just selected MobileDataforce solutions as their mobility platform. They have requirements for numerous handheld inspection forms and different mobile applications. They will use MobileDataforce's PointSync Developer application to create their own custom applications, whenever and where ever they need them. Their development team will visit our classroom in the next couple of weeks to participate in a training class on the ins and outs of mobilizing business applications.

Let me take a moment to point out the value of owning your own development environment like PointSync. Once you purchase a license of PointSync Developer, you can create an unlimited number of mobile applications at no extra charge. You simply purchase licenses for each handheld device that uses the application. So if your organization has the need to mobilize many different business processes, then this would be a good option.

In addition to being able to develop your own mobile applications without coding, you can edit, customize and update your existing applications without waiting for a vendor to respond to your needs. This is the reason MobileDataforce believes in empowering our customers with the ability to control and edit their own applications.

Choosing Your ERP Mobile Client

Companies we are working with often ask me if they should use a mobile software client provided by their ERP or enterprise software vendor, or if they should use MobileDataforce's PointSync. This is a good question to ask and here are some points to consider:

• Often your enterprise software vendor provides a mobile application that is only usable with their specific software. Any other mobile applications would not be supported or possible. This presents an issue - do you really want to maintain different mobile applications for every different enterprise application? I recently worked with an electrical utility that had 7 different applications they wanted to mobilize. They were attracted to PointSync because it could support all of these applications on one platform.
• Do you want to support/maintain multiple mobile software platforms? If you would prefer to get trained on one platform that can support all of your applications with mobile software clients, then PointSync would be a good candidate.
• PointSync is a rapid application developmentment platform, which means you can develop, edit and improve your own code or one of MobileDataforce's partners can help. You are not dependent on a specific application vendor to update your application.
• PointSync can integrate with multiple database applications at the same time. For example - you can tie into inventory, invoicing, work orders, vehicle tracking systems, etc. and have this information all bi-directionally updated to a single handheld application.

In summary - having your own standardized mobility platform, security, synchronization methodology and development environment often gives you a much better value. It enables you to update and edit your own applications, and have the freedom to enhance your own solutions on your timetable, not a vendor's.

MobileDataforce's Many Electrical Utility Applications

One of MobileDataforce's biggest challenges is helping our potential customers recognize and understand what our mobile software solutions can provide. Why is this a challenge? Because we can deliver so many applications for use on handheld computers and PDAs. We have invested over 20 man years into developing a very powerful set of mobile applications development tools called PointSync and the Intercue Mobility Suite. Our challenge is demonstrating all the applications that we can deliver using our mobile software development and inspection applications. The list below contains just a few of the applications we can deliver to the electrical utility industry for use on handheld computers and PDAs:

• Service Orders
• Vehicle Tracking
• Power Plant Inspections
• Meter Repair & Maintenance
• Line Inspections
• Stray Voltage Inspections
• Health and Safety Inspections
• Pipeline Weld Tracking
• Construction Management
• Facilities Managment
• Asset Manager & Mobile Asset Management
• Sub Station Inspections
• GIS and data collection applications
• Padmount transformer inspection
• Manhole inspection
• Pothead inspection
• Vault (Substation) inspections
• Station inspections
• Padmount station inspections
• Pole inspections
• As-built data collection
• Line patrol inspections
• Ground rod inspections
• Underground Splice inspections
• Network secondary transformer inspections
• Underground secondary network inspections
• Customer equipment inspections
• Sub-transmission insulator inspections
• Switching center inspections
• Farm metering inspection
• Quality control of GIS data (QA/QC on exiting plant)

The power of using a mobile software development solution like PointSync, is you can deliver all the applications above using it. Your IT team only needs to learn one mobile software development environment and platform, and support and edit any of the applications above. The alternative would be to buy separate mobile software applications for each of the above areas, each from different vendors, and get trained on each of their different technologies. Of course that is an unrealistic solution that would be impossible to economically justify, support and maintain. Standardizing on a mobile software development platform like MobileDataforce's PointSync provides an IT organization with a low cost, rapid application development environment that is easy to use, maintain and support.

Electrical Pole Inspections & MobileDataforce

My professional services team has been delivering quite a few inspection applications for the electrical utility industry lately. This screen shot depicts a "pole inspection" application used in the State of Missouri. We have delivered several mobile inspection solutions to Sho-me Power. The other day Andy Meyer sent me this quote.

"Sho-Me Power has been extremely happy with the solution and service provided by MobileDataforce. Our line crews are using the new application to do their annual right of way inspection and we are now working with MDF to provide us with an application to help us build out our fiber network. The PointSync s/w is very powerful and flexible, we have not come up with any ideas that can't be implemented." ~~Andy Meyer, GIS Specialist, Sho-Me Power

GIS, Service Orders & In-Vehicle Inventories

Scenario: A service technician needs a widget part to complete his job. He checks the inventory in his van and he is out. He pulls his PDA phone out, enters the part number into a query, and the map on his PDA shows the nearest van that has his part in inventory. He taps on the van icon on the map and the street address appears with the service technician's mobile phone number. He calls and reserves his part, meets the van and completes his job.

Today's announcement of an integration between MobileDataforce's PointSync Suite, and DeLorme's XMap now makes this scenario possible.

Work Order Management, GIS & PDAs

Today we announced an integration of our PointSync (software for developing mobile applications) with DeLorme's XMap software. This allows us to graphically show jobsites, delivery routes and work locations on maps on PDAs and Tablet PCs.

http://www.mobiledataforce.com/news/apr1906.asp

GPS, XMap software and MobileDataforce's Work Order applications for PDAs and Tablet PCs make a very powerful and efficient system for service technicians.

Our first implementation was for a company in the electrical utility industry involved in meter inspection, maintenance and repair.

MobileDataforce & Utilities Solutions

I found the following figures concerning electrical utility IT spending quite interesting. MobileDataforce does significant amounts of work in the utilities industry with customers such as: Alabama Power, Sho-Me Power, Tampa Bay Electric, New York Power Authority, Lynn Edwards, Power & Construction, etc.

Research by the Research & Analysis Division (R&A) of Energy Central - According to R&A Figures, utilities expect to spend up to $1 billion on ERP solutions, nearly $800 million for work management systems and more than $141 million on business intelligence systems during the three-year period beginning in 2006.