Digital Thermometers, Restaurants & Handheld PDAs

One of the more unusual projects we were asked to bid on involved the integration of digital thermometers with Pocket PCs. The requirement was for restaurant inspectors to be able to make surprise inspections and insert the thermometers into meat that was being cooked in the kitchen to ensure it was cooked to the right temperatures. They wanted the digital thermometers to record the temperatures and for our inspection software to grab the thermometer readings and automatically add it to the inspection forms on PDAs. Once the inspection was completed, the inspectors wanted the information to be synchronized to a central database via wireless synchronization.

I wonder if the medical field would like this feature?

An additional requirement was for service technicians installing and maintaining equipment in these restaurants to be able to take "before and after" digital photographs to document their work. I know Plastic Surgeons would like this feature. This was important because the restaurant owners did not live in the same region as these restaurants and wanted to view the completed work before paying for it.

Military Use of PDAs & Monitoring Grass Clippings

A few months back one of my sales reps came into my office to brag about a new customer. Seems they had sold our Intercue Mobility Suite to the US Airforce. I get excited about sales to large organizations so wanted to learn the details. I could image all kinds of mission critical applications involving the war on global terrorism. I could see the press releases, articles, news interviews and a visit with Oprah on the horizon, but alas it was not to be.

Our application was mission critical only to the groundskeepers on the US Airforce base in Germany. Seems they needed to inspect hedges, lawns, sprinkler systems, third party landscape contractors, flower beds and the removal of grass clippings.

OK, not as exciting as I had hoped, but valuable none the less. Their current method of tracking the quality and work to be done on the landscape of this very large military base was to document everything on paper forms. This data would then be entered into a database application in the office to manage the work and dispatch landscape maintenance crews. By automating this process using electronic forms on PDAs that synchronized with their database application, they were able to make this process much more efficient.

Oprah will have to wait.

PDAs and Inspections

I have spent a lot of time with government agencies this month reviewing how they monitor and inspect an organizations' compliance to various laws and regulations. For example, today we delivered a solution to a government agency called the Board of Pharmacy. They will be monitoring and inspecting facilities to ensure they are handling and storing medical drugs in compliance with the laws and regulations of their state.

Last month we supplied PDA based inspection forms to the City of Amsterdam in Holland. They are inspecting and monitoring compliance with environmental laws and regulations.

We are now starting our 3rd mobility software project with the Idaho Transportation Department. They inspect their facilities and the work third party contractors do for them. This data is synchronized to a central database from all across the state. Our latest project involves enabling mobile printing from their Pocket PCs in the field.

When government agencies contact us about inspection solutions on PDAs the conversations usually go like this:

Agency: Is there a way we can fill out an inspection form on a PDA that can then be synchronized with our office databases without needing to re-type the data again once we return to the office?

Kevin: Yes

Agency: Can I look up, on my PDA, my past inspections at this location to see if they were non-compliant with any items on previous inspections?

Kevin: Yes

Agency: Can I reference the definitions of various terms on my inspection form to better understand how to grade or rate a particular item?

Kevin: Yes

Agency: Can I make a "smart inspection form" that will route me to a different sets of questions based upon the data I enter on my inspection form?

Kevin: Yes

Agency: Can I print the results of my inspection and leave a copy at the premises?

Kevin: Yes, if you have bluetooth enable PDAs and bluetooth enabled printers. You can print on 2", 3" 4" or regular A4 or 8 1/2" x 11" paper.

Agency: Once I have your software for quickly creating inspection forms that synchronize with my enterprise database, can I edit my own inspection forms?

Kevin: Yes, we provide you with the software development kit for creating and editing inspection forms.

Agency: Is a PDA based inspection solution expensive?

Kevin: No

Agency: Does your company know you are blogging and other people can read this?

Kevin: ...not yet

PDA Phones with Integrated GPS

This morning I read about a new PDA phone with integrated GPS and TMC (traffic management channel). This article tickled my imagination. When these kind of handheld devices are easily available, it will become natural for mobile workforces to have software on the PDA that will report their location to a central dispatch management system, where dispatchers can help route field service technicians to the closest next job. This will improve the response times, lower fuel costs, make customers happier and improve profits for the service company.

Once you have integrated GPS with your "work order management system" you can add GIS and geospatial data collection to your application. Basically what this means is you can associate your work, orders, deliveries, inspections, etc. to a GPS coordinant. Once again this will help management understand patterns, costs, best routing methodologies, locations to build new facilities, and much more.

PDAs in Angola, South Africa, New Mexico, Germany, Portuguese & Kwanza

Everyday we receive calls about new projects. We have a global VAR channel that seems to be able to uncover all kinds of interesting and unusual projects. Over the last couple of weeks we have been working with a reseller partner in South Africa that has a client and project with the following description:

• German citizen
• Living in South Africa
• Owns a bottled water business in Angola
• Has a home in New Mexico, USA
• The handheld computer applications must be written in Portuguese & English
• The currency must be in US Dollars & Angolan Kwanza
• Solution requires a bar code scanner and mobile printers
• A Ruggedized handheld computer
• Must be as graphical as possible (many of the users can not read)
• Synchronization using satellite internet connections

It has been our strategy since 2000 to develop “software development kits” for mobile environments. Because of the power and flexibility of the "software development kit" approach, we can easily develop and implement cost effective projects with the above described unusual requirements.

What Part of Your Application Do You Mobilize?

Today I had an interesting discussion with one of our favorite software partners. They are in the process of mobilizing about a dozen different software modules in their asset management software application. The question we were debating was - how much of their enterprise database application do they replicate on their handheld computer? This is an important question for them and impacts the amount of money and time the projects will take. Here are a few of the issues we pondered:

1. How does your mobile workforce capture data today? Do they use paper forms and a clipboard?
2. Where is the primary ROI (return on investment) coming from? Is it eliminating data entry at the office? Is it extending business processes to the mobile workforce? Is it getting complete and valid data from the field? Is it the ability to query enterprise information from the field? Is it visibility to real-time data (inventory, shipping, project status, etc.)?
3. Do you need your entire enterprise database application in the hands of your mobile workforce, or only a subset?
4. Do you require a full laptop or Tablet PC, or can you accomplish your goals with handheld PDAs?

The answers to these questions helped us understand what to mobilize first. Handheld PDAs do not yet have the same level of data storage and memory that are available on enterprise database servers. Therefore, you need to determine what subset of data and software functionality you need on the handheld PDA to get your desired ROI.

If the primary reason for mobilizing your "service orders" is to eliminate the need to re-type all of the information once you return to the office, then electronic forms with database synchronization is enough. If you want your mobile PDA application to be pre-populated with data from your enterprise database, then this is another level of sophistication. If you want your PDA application to take advantage of handheld computer components like GPS, digital cameras, Bar code scanners, GPRS data cards, etc., then you can add this layer. If you want lots of validations and business logic on the handheld this is another consideration.

The bottom-line, find your primary source of ROI, and start there with version 1 of your mobile application. You can then prove to yourself the value of mobilizing your business processes and then confidently build from there.

Handheld PDAs & Mobile Home Healthcare Services

MobileDataforce was founded as the result of several mobility projects on Palm OS devices in year 2000. We started as the IT department for a company providing community based assisted living care to mentally disabled adults. The Department of Health and Welfare support the care of many of these individuals and all of the services must be completely documented and regularly audited.

The volume of paper forms that are required and the challenges with managing care state wide motivated our founders to seek ways to use electronic forms on PDAs to capture data and synchronize it with a central database.

The first step was to convert paper forms into electronic forms that could be used on PDAs. After successfully creating a few of these electronic forms with a lot of time and effort, we realized it would be more efficient to create a software development tool set to speed it up. This development tool set became Intercue Mobility Suite. Our founders used Intercue Mobility Suite to automate their Quality Assurance forms, Timesheets, Initial Assessment forms, and many other paper processes. These forms can now be filled out on PDAs around the state and synchronized with a central database.

We started with Palm OS support only in 2000, but quickly added Pocket PC, Tablet PC, Windows XP and now Win CE.Net.

The Intercue Mobility Suite was first available to the public as a product in 2003. It is now used around the world for remote data collection and database synchronization. In 2005 a database centric software development environment was released by MobileDataforce called PointSync.

Synchronizing PDA Applications Remotely

I am often questioned on how data gathered on handheld PDAs in remote locations can be synchronized to the company or agency database. This question is especially common from government inspectors who work in Remote-Mountains, Idaho. Here are some options:

1. Synchronize using your GPRS mobile phone network with your PDA Phone, or ruggedized handheld computer using a data card.
2. Synchronize using a traditional dial-up connection on your phone. You can get modem cards for your PDA or ruggedized handheld computer.
3. Wait and synchronize when you return to the office or your home computer with internet connection.
4. Synchronize using WiFi, this is not common in Remote-Mountains, Idaho, but Boise and beyond all have this.
5. Synchronize using a bluetooth connection to a laptop database. If you have a large database on your laptop, and want to synchronize some of the data to the handheld, but not all, you can configure the appropriate data to be synchronized from the laptop to the PDA or ruggedized handheld for use in the field where the laptop is not appropriate (climbing trees, exploring caves, hopping fences, wading in swamp lands, etc.)

The bottom line is that you can synchronize to a central database from any place where you have access to an internet connection.

Field Services, Work Orders & PDAs

Work Orders on handheld PDAs are the most common requests from companies contacting us. Why? Traditionally field service technicians use paper forms and a clipboard to document their work. Once the field service technician returns to the office they deposit these completed (hopefully completed) work orders in a stack to be entered into a computer system at a later time. Immediately we recognize a problem in that 2 people are required to enter the data, not just 1. Here are a list of additional costs with a paper process:

1. Incomplete work orders that require the data entry person to track down the field service technician for additional information.
2. Unreadable handwriting that requires translation by the field service technician
3. Delayed response time when additional parts need ordered to complete the work
4. Delayed re-scheduling when return visits are required
5. Lack of visibility to part's inventory
6. Lack of visibility to other field service technicians' schedules
7. Lack of effective route planning

Many of these inefficiencies involve the field service technician calling the office, and using the office staff as an intermediary to gather information. This process turns a 1 person task into a 2 or 3 person task. Automating the "work order" process can save a great deal of time and money.

We often configure mobile work order management applications on a handheld PDA to do the following:

• Show a list of all assigned work orders for a field service technician
• Enable the field service technician to open and close work orders on the PDA
• Synchronize work orders directly to the work order management system in the office
• Send new work orders directly to the PDA in the field
• Integrate GPS with the work order management application so the office has visibility to the location of the field service technician.
• Enable the printing of work orders with digital signatures at the customer's location
• Check inventory levels via the PDA with a wireless connection to the office inventory software.
• Order parts from the field service technician's handheld to expedite the process
• Reschedule appointments from the field

New technologies in 2006 will also enable the field service technician to talk through their handheld PDAs directly with the dispatch center. Many handheld computer manufacturers are adding this VoIP technology now.

It is very easy to demonstrate a positive ROI with Mobile Work Orders. We have an ROI calculator on the bottom of our website that you can use to determine your specific ROI.

Pocket PC Solutions for Waste Management

In the last few months my team has been involved in a number of different Waste Management projects using Pocket PC computers. I would not have predicted this industry as a niche market for mobile solutions. Let me briefly outline the problem and solution.

The European Community has passed a series of laws regulating the handling and disposal of waste and recyclable materials. I also read in the newspaper last week that the state of Maine has recently passed similar laws. Waste producers must have an audit trail or documented "chain of custody" of their waste from origin to disposal. They must maintain records of the amount, and type of waste, when it was picked up by a trucking company and delivered to a collection facility, and ultimately delivered to the final disposal company. This audit trail involves a lot of paper and must be available for access by government agencies that audit this process.

The waste collecting trucking companies need to collect data at the site of the waste pick-up, and they have been seeking a good solution to this paper headache.

The solution involves handheld PDAs using MobileDataforce's PointSync that are integrated to a Waste Management applications in the office. This Waste Management application is often web enabled to allow the waste producer to view their "pick-up reports" for auditing purposes in near real-time.

The value of this applications goes beyond just data collection efficiencies provided to the waste collecting trucking companies. The value is in keeping an electronic chain of custody record that is accessible to all participants in near real time.