Sky Technologies have announced the launch of SkyMobile Smart Client for SAP® on Nokia Smart Phones and PDAs

Sky Technologies out of Australia seems to be spending some big money to make a push into the SAP mobile application market. In the past week I have read about their expansion to the USA with the opening of a Seattle, WA office, and the release of a new framework for mobile SAP integration. On top of all that, they state they will support the following operating systems, Windows Mobile, Blackberry platforms, iPhone and Android smart clients in 2009.


Sky Technologies has announced the released of its SkyMobile Smart Client for the Symbian OS (Series 60 3rd Edition FP1+). “This enables SAP® users to effectively deploy mobile solutions such as proof of delivery, field service and business work flow solutions onto a wide range of Symbian based handsets. This is primarily targeted at the Nokia smart phone market and is designed to be pre-cursor to the new Symbian open platform."

If Sky Technologies' information is accurate it represents tens of millions of dollars worth of investment in supporting multiple mobile device platforms and operating systems in a tough economic climate. It will be interesting to see if this shotgun approach to developing mobile software and throwing large amounts of money at growing a mobile software company in a rough market will pay off, or suffer the same results as Appforge and Dexterra.

Comparing Netbooks, Mini-Notebooks, PDAs and Handhelds in Field Services

I am a big fan of Netbooks and Mini-Notebooks. These are lightweight portable computers generally with 7-inch to 11-inch screen sizes optimized for internet connectivity. They often have exceptional battery life and can be used as a truly convergent device. Often they are optimized to run the complete Microsoft Office Suite. This article discusses them in more details.

The term Netbook refers to the fact that they are optimized to work on the internet. They are mobile internet devices that also have the power to run your standard office software applications. Doesn't most mobile handheld devices and PDAs that run Windows Mobile already provide these functions? Yes, but the 7"-11" screen is a vast improvement, especially for people needing to do real work, process and read large amounts of data and read diagrams, maps and drawings.

The Netbook, as a mobile internet device, should be set-up to access online documents, manuals and work order applications through simple internet logins. These devices can be generic enough to be shared by a complete workforce. In the morning the user can simply check out a Netbook, login and have access to all the information they need in the field.

Let's take the example of a service technician in the field. A small mobile phone is just not a good option for comprehensive work order management. It will quickly kill the eyes of the user. You need a bigger screen to work with any kind of data intensive work orders or parts catalogs. At the same time, you do not want the bulk and weight of a full size laptop. A small Netbook with a 7 inch screen can fit in the pocket or in a padded pouch easily. The screen size is big enough to show a lot of information and data fields without constant scrolling.

In situations where internet connections will be intermittent you may want to consider a work order management system that can function equally well connected or disconnected and use database synchronization in the background. Vendors like MobileDataforce specialize in these areas.

SAP, Landis+Gyr, Electrical Utilities and Mobile Handheld PDAs

SAP, the world's leading provider of business software, announced yesterday a new partnership with Landis+Gyr, a leading provider of integrated energy management solutions. This partnership includes a software development agreement for the integration of Landis+Gyr's advanced metering infrastructure with the SAP® for Utilities solution portfolio using enterprise services.

You are seeing SAP recognize that there are many specialized business processes that are needed beyond their core ERP solutions, and outside the four walls of the office in mobile environments. SAP has been seeking partnerships that address the industry specific business process needs of companies with mobile workforces.

So far, SAP has seemed willing to give up the mobile applications market for PDAs, handhelds and rugged mobile computers to third parties, and restrict themselves to developing APIs and enterprise service integration repositories for specialized third party mobile application companies like MobileDataforce and others.

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SAP Business Suite 7.0, iPhones, Blackberrys and Mobile Handheld Applications

Today SAP announced the release of Business Suite 7. Reuters reports the following mobile application news concerning SAP's Business Suite 7.0:

Unlike previous SAP products, all programs in the suite will have a common interface, making them easier to use and less cumbersome for IT staff to implement, the sources said.
It is designed to easily work on mobile devices such as the BlackBerry and iPhone, they said.
SAP already offers mobile features in a few packages, such as programs that companies use to manage sales, but has yet to offer those functions across its full line of applications.

SAP's answer to supporting mobile applications is to develop a common interface, web based, and let mobile devices access it via the web. This may work for mobile workers with 100% access to the Internet, but what about mobile workers that travel to remote locations or anywhere with intermittent connections? I have not seen SAP address this issue with an online/offline version of their applications. They seem content to leave the offline/online enablement task to third party mobile application companies like MobileDataforce.

Mobile Handheld PDAs and Mobile Software Application Resources

If you are interested in information related to mobile computing, mobile handheld PDAs and mobile software strategies for your business, you may find this Knol (Google's name for a unity of knowledge) called Mobile Software & Handheld PDA Business Strategies valuable. It contains many useful articles on mobile computing, selecting the best mobile handhelds and advice on developing mobile software applications. Here is the table of contents for your reference:

The ROI in Mobile Applications
What ROI Can I Expect?
10 Steps to Implementing a Successful Enterprise Mobile Solution
Mobilizing and Automating Business Processses During a Down Economy
Mobilized Work Orders
Designing a Mobile Solution to Automate Business Processes
Learning from Mobile Solution Deployments
The Evolution of a Mobile Solution
Buying vs. Building Mobile Applications
Supporting a Customized Mobile Software Application

Mobile Software, PDAs, Rugged Handhelds and SAP

SAP is one of the largest software company in the world, and yet, SAP cannot easily process a simple work order or field service ticket. Think about it! Millions of people use SAP and it has difficulty processing an invoice from a plumber that fixed your office toilet. Let's explore this more.

The poor plumber completes his work, pulls out his rugged handheld PDA and fills out the electronic work order. Once it is completed he has the customer sign the screen and prints an invoice on his mobile printer. The customer (SAP user) takes the invoice and gives it to the Accounts Payable department. The Accounts Payable department looks to see what purchase order the invoice is associated with and finds none. There is now an invoice dispute.

I see this challenge with companies receiving invoices from law firms and in the Oil industry (Upstream). Both industries submit many invoices to firms using SAP and these invoices are rarely associated with a PO. What's the answer? I invite your thoughts.

Even though the world of mobile applications and rugged handheld computers may permit faster invoicing for services, there still needs to be business process improve on the customer side in order for efficiencies to be realized.

New Trimble Nomad 800 Handheld PDA

Timble announced today the release of three new models of their rugged handheld PDA called the Nomad™ 800X Series. It is designed for use in the rain, snow and mud. It would be nice if all of us worked in comfortable, safe and warm environments, but that just doesn't happen in the real world. Construction projects, law enforcement, inspections, engineering and maintenance and many service industries spend nearly all of their time in the wilds.

These rugged handhelds are larger than a consumer grade handheld PDA or smartphone, but are the perfect size for an industrial use where the ruggedized protection is required.

Why are Mobile Applications for Handheld PDAs So Hard to Develop?

Mobile software applications for businesses are getting better and more advanced today, but they are still very difficult and expensive to develop on your own. Why? Let's talk about some of the challenges.

The mobile handheld PDA industry is divided up among, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Apple iPhones, Palm, RIM Blackberry and many other unique operating systems. This means that a software developer must either invest in many different development tools and training classes, or choose to be only a niche player.

If a developer chooses to be a niche player and develop only for Windows Mobile or the iPhone, they are reducing their overall use potential and betting that the devices supported by these operating system will continue to be popular long enough to deliver a positive ROI for the original development effort.

Once a developer chooses the operating system they will support, they have the next challenge which is how to decide how to support the specific features in many different kinds of mobile handheld devices and PDAs. Many devices have different buttons, screen sizes, operating speeds, memory, and other add-on accessories. The developer must decide which subset of features and hardware configurations they will support.

If you are a software developer in a large enterprise that had thousands of employees and a global distribution, then how do you get a consensus on which mobile handheld devices and smart phones you will support? This is a big challenge.

So far we have just listed a few of the challenges related to the mobile software application. These applications have very little value unless they can synchronize and share data with the enterprise database applications in the office. Each operating system and database vendor will have their own kind of synchronization technologies. What mobile database will you develop on? How does it synchronize with your specific office database application?

Does the software in your office have a mobile client, or do you have to develop a custom mobile application? How do you synchronize and share data between your mobile device and your office software if it is not defined by your vendor?

Who will update the software everytime there is a new mobile operating system released? Windows Mobile seems to come up with a new version every year, and Apple about every 3-6 months. Once new OS versions are released, it is very difficult to find mobile handhelds that support the older versions. Therefore to keep your mobile application useful and relevant you must either stockpile lots of mobile devices that support the older versions, or keep you mobile application updated to the latest OS. It is not easy to convince your business manager to support the current development project plus all future update projects. They want to pay once and be done with it. Mobile technology changes to quickly to support this model. Often mobile application development projects are not completed before the next mobile OS is released. Ouch!

These are just some of the challenges IT developers face on a daily basis when working with mobile applications. The right strategy for many of these issues is to find a good RAD (rapid application development) environment for developing a wide range of mobile applications. Many of these issues have been resolved by these vendors. It would rarely make sense for an IT developer to try to figure out all of these issues on their own as IT budgets would rarely afford the time and resources to get through the learning curve.

MobileDataforce is one of many vendors that help developers and businesses work with these issues.

Custom Mobile Software Applications for Handheld PDAs - Don't Start from Scratch

As fun as it may sound to build a custom mobile software application from scratch, I would invite you to consider the merits of using a mobile application development tool kit before you start.

The concept of a mobile application development tool kit, for developing mobile software for handheld PDAs, in this discussion means a software application that has many pre-built functions and supports many mobile project requirements out-of-the box. Many components of a mobile software application should be provided pre-developed in a tool kit, so you can configure not develop them from scratch. Components and functions such as:

• support for GPS
• support for multiple screen sizes
• support for storing and synchronizing digital images
  support for synchronization of data between a mobile device and an enterprise database
• support for RFID
• support for various button configurations on different models of handheld devices and Smart phones
• support for various security configurations
• support for bluetooth
• support for disconnected applications
• support for a wide range of Tablet PCs, laptops, Windows CE.NET, Windows Mobile etc.
• support for audio memo capture
• support for various bar code scanners
• support for new versions of popular operating systems and their new features
• support for odbc database integration
• support for data validations on the mobile devices
• support for various business logic and business rules requirements
• Mobile screen design tools
• much more...

Again the above components and functions need not be developed new for every project. They should be provided pre-developed by your mobile software development tool kit vendor. They are pre-developed, assumed-to-be debugged and tested, added to the tool kit library, improved over time and expanded so all developers can take advantage of them. There is no value added by your internal software development team building what is already available and market tested for less costs than developing in-house.

Many systems integrators and IT consultants have told me they can not profitably run a mobile application practice if they develop custom mobile applications from scratch. They want to configure mobile solutions, not design and program every possible custom scenario.

MobileDataforce is the developer of a mobile software development tool kit called PointSync.

Inspection Software for Handheld PDAs in Mobile Environments

Many inspection services companies work in mobile and rugged environments. They invest time and money into traveling to the point of work. The more time traveling, the less time providing inspection services. In this blog article we will discuss some strategies for saving time, reducing expenses and providing more services using mobile handheld PDA and mobile software technologies.

Many inspections are follow-up inspections or reoccurring inspections on a schedule. In these kinds of inspections the inspector must reference previous inspection data. If the previous inspections were conducted on paper, then the inspector must acquire a copy of these previous inspections to take with them on the next visit. This often requires extra costs associated with driving time, gas and missed opportunity costs (less time inspecting and getting paid).

I remember working with a state agency responsible for inspecting professional licenses and premises. In order to perform their tasks, they were required to drive into the main office, rummage through paper files, remove these paper files and load them into a box to take with them to the inspection sites. They would use a carriage with wheels to transport this box to their automobiles. Let's pause a moment to think of the costs and inefficiencies of these task. They did the following:

• Drove to the main office where previous inspections were stored
• Sorted through file cabinets for previous inspection results
• Read through these files to determine any previous non-compliance or failed inspection issues.
• Recorded issues and highlighted them for review at the site
• Loaded these files into a box and carried them out to their vehicles
• Re-inspected the site and recorded more information on new forms
• Added new paper forms to the files
• Drove back to the main office
• Administration staff typed all the information from the new forms into a database system on a desktop computer

A simple database synchronization with a handheld PDA, laptop or Tablet PC from the field could have completed most of the above tasks in seconds. The inefficiencies listed above are not uncommon. Inspection software applications can be developed that synchronize directly to the central database. Queries on past inspections can quickly provide historic inspection data at the point of work without all the extra expense of driving to the office and manually searching through file cabinets. The time re-typing inspection data can be eliminated as well.

In these times of economic challenges, companies are looking for ways to do more with less. Mobile solutions can provide many cost savings and allow companies to conduct more services with less resources. For more information on mobile inspection solutions please contact MobileDataforce.

Juno SC Handhelds

Trimble has just announced their new Juno SC handheld. This device is meant for people that work out of doors and need a pocket sized and industrial strength GPS unit that uses a Microsoft Windows Mobile OS.

The value of using a Windows Mobile OS is that many mobile software development tools like PointSync from MobileDataforce uses Windows Mobile. You can develop and customize nearly any kind of mobile software application you can image to run on this device.

"The Juno series handhelds are the ideal solution for GIS-enabled organizations that require high productivity from their mobile field workforce," said Peter Large, general manager of Trimble's Mapping and GIS Division.

An iPhones is My Mobile Phone and Handheld PDA

I have and use an iPhone as my primary mobile computing device which means a PDA or Smartphone. It has some exceptional features including:

• GPS
• Easy application uploading and updating
• High speed Internet
• Great screen
• Many great operational features for ease of use

However, the iPhone has some problems or is missing some key features that are required by business users including:

• GPS fails to track fast enough to use while driving
• GPS fails to pinpoint the location of the user
• No TASK function - Apple has not included even a basic TASK function. Many of my colleagues use the standard Microsoft TASK function regularly, and Apple's exclusion of this simple but useful tool is strange
• No CUT and PASTE function - The exclusion of this feature is another strange choice by Apple - who wants to retype every note or phone number that needs to be moved around on the iPhone....what a pain. My only guess is that Apple wants to train us to email everything to a desktop or laptop for editing....very strange and inefficient
• The keyboard on the iPhone is clever, but Apple makes another very strange choice to limit the email keyboard to portrait view only. The Internet browser permits a landscaped keyboard which is very nice, but the keyboard in the email only allows portrait...this view of the keyboard is too small for fast and effective 2 fingered typing. Why would they limit the keyboard in the very application where fast typing is most required?
• The landscape view of an Internet browser is too small for viewing. It is nice that they try to show you a complete view of a full sized website, but it is too small for real use. You continue to find yourself enlarging the view and scrolling all around the website to view it. Not convenient or enjoyable.

I spent some time reviewing all of the applications available on iTunes for the iPhone in December 2008. There were many interesting applications, but there was an obvious lack of real business applications. I consider real business applications as running relational databases and synchronizing or communicating directly with recognized business software applications like SAP. Where are the applications that extend workflows from ERPs into the field?

The lack of real business applications again points to the challenging environment of mobile software. The market is so fragmented that mobile users will find it hard to find a mobile version of their exact ERP or Field Service application. This means companies will need to develop their own customized version, use an experienced mobile software development company or use a mobile software development tool kit from a company like MobileDataforce.

Why is it hard to find a mobile version of your office software? Software companies need to find markets where they can build one software application and then sell it many times to make a profit. In IT environments where customized database applications and customized workflows are the norm, mobile software companies are not able to pre-build mobile applications. They don't know how you want the application to function or what data you need in the field. This must be configured on a customized basis in most companies. Therefore, companies need to work with a mobile software company that can offer a cost effective, very flexible mobile software toolkit so you can take advantage of their tools, synchronizing technologies and application development environments to keep the development costs reasonable.

Mobile Applications for Handheld PDAs and Business Process Automation

Some of the most important and valuable components of SAP's ERPs are the best practices business processes and work flows that are developed in them. These are automated processes that ensure that the business is completed in the appropriate way each time. These work flows and business processes have evolved and improved over the past couple of decades with much research, trial and error. Now that they are highly developed, wouldn't it be a shame to lose the benefit of them when applications go mobile and are used on handheld PDAs and smartphones?

Business process automation is even more necessary when workers are mobile and working away from management oversight. How, when and why should information be collected from the remote work site? How should you handle the need to purchase replacement parts for the equipment you are repairing 50 miles from the office? What paper work do you need to fill out? How do you hire temporary labor at a remote work site? What paper work needs filled out and what information needs sent back to the office so paychecks can be processed? The answers and processes for these kinds of issues are usually pre-determined and pre-configured in the ERP system, but not often on the mobile software that runs on your smartphone or handheld PDA.

When considering the use of mobile software applications, ask your SAP consultant or mobile software vendor how they can help mobile workers by extending business process automation to mobile handhelds and smartphones.

Enterpise Mobile Applications on Handheld PDAs and ERPs

SAP, the world's third largest software company, has defined and standardized many business processes. These business processes are used to ensure repeatable and quality business practices inside the four walls of the organization. The challenge - these business processes are often lost once a worker becomes mobile.

Mobile workers are often disconnected from their company's ERP once they are on the road. Many have Blackberrys or other handheld PDAs or smartphones that allow for a quick ERP query, email or message, but they rarely extend the work flow to a mobile environment.

When a company pays tens of millions of dollars for an ERP like SAP or Oracle, and 40% of their work force is mobile - someone ought to be thinking about extending a work flow out to a mobile device. Blackberrys don't have the robust operating system that Window Mobile does so it may be more of a challenge for Blackberry users. However, companies like MobileDataforce specialize in creating mobile applications that extend your ERP's work flow into the mobile world.

FieldSync Automotive for Mobile Handheld PDAs Hits SEMA with a Storm

This week the MDF sales team attened the SEMA show in Las Vegas. If you are not familiar with the SEMA Show, it is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world. It draws the hottest products for the automotive industry to one place and we were there in force. The show attracts more than 120,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries.

Our booth was a HUGE success! We introduced the latest version of FieldSync Automotive, for use on mobile handheld PDAs, which hosts a slew of new features like Estimating, RO#/PO# reference and enhanced reporting capabilities. Our booth was surrounded by interested parties who were anxious to test drive FieldSync Automotive. After viewing FieldSync one visitor commented, "this will revolutionize our business."

That's our goal - delivering mobile solutions that extend business processes into mobile environments.

We are looking forward to 2009 with great anticipation!

I anticipate 2009 will bring more off the shelf FieldSync products so stay tuned as we move to bridge the gap between your field workers and the home office.

iPhone Enterprise Mobility Apps

Finally, it appears that iPhone has real enterprise business applications available to run on it. This article lists the top enterprise mobile software applications as:

1. Oracle for iPhone
2. Salesforce for iPhone
3. Sybase's Mobile Office for iPhone

These are small applications, but with great potential.

Great Article on Enterprise Mobility Trends for Mobile Handheld PDA Applications

This is one of the best articles, with good data, good opinions and bold projections on the enterprise mobile computing industry, Handheld PDAs and Mobile Software. It is interesting that this article came out on MacNewsWorld.

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/iphone/64169.html

Apple's App Store & T-Mobile's Application Store

Both Apple (with App Store) and now T-Mobile (T-Mobile unconfirmed) are launching or are preparing to launch online stores to distribute and sell mobile business and consumer software applications. I have long been involved in the mobile business application markets and can see both the benefits and challenges this model can have. Let me summarize:

• Online stores promoted by big name companies - this is a good thing. Most mobile business application companies are small companies that can use all the help they can get from a larger company's marketing funds.
• More visibility to the carrier's network of sales people and reseller channels - again this is good for the small software company producing mobile business applications
• Sharing 30% of the revenue with the Online Store - this means you are effectively giving up 30% of your revenue as a "cost of sales" or "marketing cost". This would be OK, if you consider the Online Store as a reseller, however, you are still likely to be required to do all of the pre-sales, sales, post-sales and support work anyway. This can get expensive and unprofitable if mishandled.
• Most mobile business applications consist of many different software components, only a small portion are actually downloadable to the mobile device. So if your multi-component mobile business application only makes a mobile client available on the Online Store, then the remainder could be sold directly by the small mobile business software company in a separate transaction. This is the likely scenario that will work. The Online Store would sell a $19 mobile software client, but the mobile application server, administration component, mobile workflow and device management would be separate applications and fees available directly from the software vendor for another $97,000 (I just made that number up).
• In effect - the software vendor will just alter their pricing to lower the price of the mobile client - sold through the Online Store, but raise the price of their server, manager, work flow and device management components to meet their revenue model.
• The net effect to the Online Store is they will make 30% of the $19 mobile client component downloaded from their site, but none of the $97,000 for the rest of the enterprise mobile software platform, consulting and integration fees.
• The Online Store will not like this model and will tend to promote a monthly service based software package in the SaaS model. The Online Store will see this as getting a larger piece of the entire enterprise mobile solution, not just the small mobile software client.

It will interesting to watch how this model plays out in the market.

- Kevin Benedict

Great Links to Mobile Technology Portals, Websites and Other Points of Interest

Hello Folks,

I found this list of wireless and mobile industry links that is quite useful.


» Portable Design Mobile Computing
» Wireless Week» Wireless Net DesignLine
» Mobilized Software
» Mobile Enterprise
Wi-Fi Planet
» Mobile Handset DesignLine
» RF Design
» RCR Wireless News
» Wireless Design & Development
» Unstrung» Wireless IQ
» Ultrawideband Planet
» Mobile Tech Today
» CWNP Wireless Certifications
» Global Wireless Education Consortium
» WiMax Forum
» FCC- Wireless Telecom Bureau
» Google Mobile
» CDMA Development Group
» WINLAB» MIPI Alliance
» Investing in Wireless
» Open Mobile Alliance
» WLANA
» 3GPP
» 3GPP2
» Bluetooth SIG
» Enterprise Wireless Alliance
» UMTS Forum
» Wireless Messaging Association
» Mobiliser Intel for Wireless Executives
» CTIA
» 3G Today
» The Wireless Report
» BlipLog Mobile Content
» Mobile Mentalism
» Mobile Entertainment
» m-trends Mobile Media Lifestyle
» This is Mobility
» Mobiltee
» Wireless-Watch.Community
» MobHappy
» Mobile Monday

More on iPhone Challenges and Mobile Software

Larry Borsato of the Industry Standard wrote an insightful article recently on the Nine reasons the iPhone apps platform is lacking. Tiny companies, developing tiny applications, with tiny investments may be interested in developing tiny mobile software applications for tiny niche markets, but any significant mobile software company that develops industrial strength mobile applications would be unwilling to work under the present conditions set forth by Apple.

- Kevin Benedict

Otterbox, Dell Axiom PDAs, Handhelds and Windows Mobile 6.0

Today, while waiting for the activation of my new mobile phone, I watched the water bottle delivery guy carry to large bottles a water in the store. On his hip he wore a nylon case with a mobile device in a rugged case (Otterbox) inside it. I could not stop myself. I walked over and asked him what kind of mobile device he was using inside the rugged Otterbox case. He grimaced as he set the heavy water bottles down and reached into the case. He held it up for me to inspect. It was an old Dell Axiom PDA inside the rugged case.

There is nothing wrong with a Dell Axiom, except for the fact they are no longer made. They ran on Windows Mobile 5.0 and earlier versions of pocket pc, so there is no Dell Axiom that can run on Windows Mobile 6.0. Again, nothing is wrong with running on Windows Mobile 5.0, unless the Dell Axiom dies and you need to buy a new mobile device. New mobile devices run on Windows 6.0. There is nothing wrong with buying a new mobile device that runs on Windows 6.0 unless of course the software you were using only runs on Windows Mobile 5.0. If you developed your own mobile software application 2 years ago for the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, and your trusted software developer has long since departed for an IPO-bound career in a wireless mobile software company, then you have some challenges.

Most companies do not think about technical obsolescence issues when they decide to custom build a mobile application internally. For a longer list of issues to consider before choosing to develop your own mobile application please visit this website.

- Kevin Benedict

iPhone Business Applications

On Tuesday, August 5, 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article called Ringing Up Business With iPhone Applications by Raymund Flandez. In this article, an example of a business applications is a set of medical flashcards that work on iPhones. They also suggest these business applications, at $39.00 are expensive. OK...let's talk.

Real mobile business applications are extensions of key business applications that are run in the office. These mobile business applications enable you to integrate mobile devices with large, complex database applications that include workflow automation, database queries and business automation. The challenge that Apple has today is that their software SDK (software development kit) does not include synchronization technology that enables software developers to easily move data between a database applications in the office and the iPhone.

Another criticism I have for this article is suggesting that $39.00 for a business application is expensive. Expensive is of course relative, but significant business applications can often be worth $39,000-$390,000 to companies that can automate and mobilize their mobile users.

- Kevin Benedict

Mobile Handheld PDA Solutions and Mobile Software Implementations & Strategies

Google has recently released a new application called Knol. Knol stands for unit of knowledge. Knols are places to publish "authoritative" information. I spent some time over the last week preparing my first one on the subject of Mobile Solution Implementations and Strategies.

Contents:
The ROI in Mobile Applications
What ROI Can I Expect?
10 Steps to Implementing a Successful Enterprise Mobile Solution
Mobilizing and Automating Business Processses During a Down Economy
Mobilized Work Orders
Designing a Mobile Solution to Automate Business Processes
Learning from Mobile Solution Deployments
The Evolution of a Mobile Solution
Buying vs. Building Mobile Applications
Supporting a Customized Mobile Software Application

Convergent Handheld PDAs & Garmin

I have written several blog articles over the past couple of years on the concept of "convergent" handheld computers and PDAs. My definition of a convergent device is a handheld computer or PDA that combines many different features such as:

• Mobile phone
• Music player and mass storage
• Digital camera/video camera
• GPS and navigation
• Internet connectivity
• Powerful operating system that can run powerful business applications (windows mobile or equivalent)
• Audio memos
• etc

The convergence of these features in one mobile handheld device provide the mobile worker/field services worker the capabilities of automating and mobilizing many of their business processes and applications without carrying multiple devices.

Garmin, a long time satellite-navigation device company, seems to just be absorbing this concept. As printed in the Wall Street Journal's Breakingviews.com on Saturday, August 2, 2008 - Garmin has been planning, but is now delaying the launch of their mobile phone and gps navigation device until the first half of 2009. It does not seem to include many of the features listed above, but does combine the mobile phone with GPS/Navigation. My question, like the Wall Street Journal's, is why now? Where were they when they owned the GPS/Navigation market? Did they completely miss this concept in 2006, 2007 and 2008 when the iPhone was introduced? Did they really think people would want to carry multiple devices around?

- Kevin Benedict

Mobile Software, Handheld PDAs & Paper Processes Compared to Mobile Handheld PDA Solutions

I have worked with many companies that have experienced challenges with processing paperwork. Why? Often the work is performed in remote locations by people without years of experience, far from the accounting systems, managers and administrative staff. Here is some of the paperwork involved:

• Creating a job estimate
• Getting the job estimate approved and signed by the customer
• Scheduling and assigning the work to a specific service technician
• Hiring new employees or contract help and completing the documentation
• Documenting the work (to the customer's satisfaction)
• Submitting the completed work to the customer for payment (in the proper format)
• Paying the employee or contract help

This process may happen hundreds or thousands of times per day across a wide geographic region. How does the central office collect, enter and review all of this paperwork to ensure accuracy? How do managers keep all of the correct business processes happening in the field? How do you ensure quality and professionalism when there is significant staff turn-over? How do you keep your customers happy?

Many of these issues can be avoided, or eliminated by using an automated business process on a rugged handheld, PDA or Smartphone at the point-of-work. The handheld PDA and mobile software application can step each service technician systematically through the correct business processes. The handheld solution can inform the service technician how things need to be completed, provide additional audio and video examples, and alert when something has been done incorrectly. The information entered in the field, at the point-of-work, can be synchronized with headquarters and reviewed by management in near real time. This is how companies can ensure quality, consistency and the ability to scale up their business.

- Kevin Benedict