Working with a Budget, Part 3

In the previous 2 segments of this discussion we covered:

• Work order management systems
• "Mobile client" software that runs on the handheld computer and synchronizes with your work order management system
• How to determine the kind of handheld computer to purchase

Now we are going to explore some of the options for dispatching work orders to your teams in the field.

Handheld computers can now be PDA phones. You can buy a Pocket PC Phone from just about any mobile wireless carrier now days. Palm is even coming out with a Treo 700 Pocket PC Phone this Quarter. The challenge with these devices are their lack of durability when Fumble Finger Fred is using them.

Ruggedized handheld computers can also come with wireless data cards built-in. These allow you to send and receive data using the mobile wirless carriers networks, but often do not include "voice" communications. This capabilitiy enables your field work crews to both send and receive work order data at the push of a button on their "mobile client" software. So the office can write up "service orders" and when the field crew pushes a synchronization button on their handheld, any new service orders will be dispatched, and completed service orders would be uploaded to the office.

A number of handheld computer manufacturers are also adding VoIP to their handhelds. VoIP is "voice over IP or internet protocals". What does this mean? It means you can talk to your office through the microphone in your handheld computer using the internet connection, rather than the phone connection. The vision here is the following - a junior service technician can call the office asking for advice on a repair job. The supervisor asks junior for a digital photo of the object under repair. Junior holds up the handheld computer and snaps a photo. The photo is uploaded through the data connection to the office. The supervior reviews the photo and talks him through the repair over the VoIP connection. Mission accomplished.

...more in Part 4

Working with a Budget, Part 2

In the last segment we assumed you already had a functioning "work order management system" in the office. As a first step you needed to find a "mobile client" software package that would synchronize with your "work order management system". MobileDataforce has a "software development kit" for PointSync http://www.mobiledataforce.com/pointsync/pointsync_developer.asp that would resolve this issue. So the next step is determining which handheld computers to use.

Here are a few thoughts on determining which handheld computers to use:

• Do you need a numeric, or alpha numeric keyboard on your handheld? If not you can save money by simply writing on the touch screen with your stylus, or using touch screen buttons.
• Do you need add-ons like a bar code scanner, RFID reader, digital camera, GPS or electric chainsaw? These can be very useful, but add costs to your handheld.
• How rugged does your handheld need to be? If you are repairing desktop tape despensers, you could probably get buy with a $300 consumer grade handheld, but if you are climbing fences, wading through sewage ponds, or immitating a crash test dummy, you may want to seriously considering investing in a ruggedized device that is in the range of $1,500.
• Handheld computers have a standardized rating system that identifies how "rugged" they are. So when considering which handheld device you need, read up on the ruggedized ratings. This will tell you how many times Fumble Fingered Fred can drop the handheld while washing the outside of the windows on the 19th floor.

...more in Part 3

Working with a Budget, Part 1

OK, so you want to know how much it will cost to get your 10 field service technicians set-up with handheld computers so they can be dispatched work/service orders in the field. Let's explore the issues?

What are the major pieces to this mobility solution/project?

-Work order management software in the office (hopefully this is already in place)
-Mobile client software (software on your handheld computer) that synchronizes with your work order management software in the office
-Handheld computers
-Data network through your favorite wireless carrier (e.g. Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, Vodaphone, Orange, etc.)

The first task is to find a "mobile client" software package that will synchronize with your work order management application. The problem is your cousin Bob developed your work order management system 4 years ago for a high school project and he is now back in prison. What next? You may want to find a company like MobileDataforce, http://www.mobiledataforce.com that provides software that you can use to rapidly develop and configure a mobile client that can synchronize with your office software. If you have enough in your budget, it is usually a faster and easier process to involve my professional services team, or to get one of your local talented IT consultant, assuming they are out on probation, to do this for you.

...more in Part 2

Mobile Solutions a Consultant's Nightmare

The first time is not always your best. Consultants and integrators get better the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time they have implemented the same mobile solutions. The problem is- nearly every mobility project has unique and different requires.

-different handheld computers
-different add-on hardware accessories
-integration to different backend database applications
-different business logic needed on the mobile application
-different ways of doing the same business
-different screen layouts
-different data requirements
-different synchronization methodologies

How can a consultant or an integrator profitably and successfully implement these mobility projects? The answer - find what is common about all of these projects and productize a solution that can be flexible and powerful enough to be used over and over again to implement mobility projects. All of us involved in consulting know that reusing previously made code, and leveraging your expereince is how you gain the efficiencies that make your projects profitable.

My Engineering team has been studying mobility projects since 2000, and productizing the results of their studies. The result is our PointSync and Intercue Mobility Suite solutions. Both of these platforms allow you to consistently produce high quality solutions on standardized mobility platforms. Once your team is familiar with using these "rapid application development solutions for mobile environments" (RADs-ME), they can rapidly develop, edit and customize mobile solutions for new customers.

Secret ROIs from Mobilizing Business Solutions

There are many obvious advantages and cost savings that come from mobilizing paper processes. You enter the data once in the field and wirelessly synchronize with your database application. You avoid the office staff needing to re-type all the information, you avoid introducing typos during data entry, and you speed up the process of making the data available for other mission critical business applications and business analytics. Yet there are many not so obvious advantages to replacing paper processes. Here are a few for your consideration:

-Mobile field workers don't have to drive to the office just to deliver their paper forms
-Mobile field workers don't have to drive to the office just to pick-up their paper forms and assignments
-Invoicing can be completed much quicker since work can be updated from the field for immediate processing (better cash management)
-When using handheld computers you can avoid issues with bad handwriting
-Mobile software applications can validate the data entered at the time of entry
-You can attach digital photos directly to your data on the handheld
-You can push data out to the handheld so the field user has continuously updated information
-Field users can preform their own database queries on their handheld, thus avoiding the need to use office staff
-Handheld computers that have GPS functionality with mapping software can help the field worker find their next job site without asking office staff for directions
-Handheld computers with GPS functionality can report the location of the field worker to help managers better organize service responses
-Handheld computers can be used not only to collect data, but to compute the data and show results in the field
-Buttons on the screen of your mobile application can be configured to perform all kinds of queries, computations, analytics and many more time consuming features (recently we created a mobile solution that would provide a route delivery driver with predictive product re-stocking numbers at the push of a button based upon the past 12 months stocking numbers)
-Disciplined business processes - mobile software solutions can be configured to ensure the field user follows the appropriate business processes based upon the data entered (a specific answer can force a separate business process - for example - the geiger counter attached to your handheld shows dangerous levels of radiation - a message pops-up warning you to cover your private parts with a lead fig leaf)

These are just a few of the not so obvious benefits of mobilizing. Please email me any additions that you want me to add to this list.

Mobilizing Business Solutions

Over the past decade companies have invested heavily into ERPs and other enterprise software applications only to realize that a sizable portion of their employees are mobile and do not have access to these expensive investments. Managers are now asking their IT departments for ways to "mobilize" these existing enterprise software applications. Let's spend a few minutes discussing what it means to "mobilize" a business solution.

Mobile application development at a high level involves providing the field user with either a connected, or a disconnected mobile application on a handheld computer or laptop. Connected applications are dependent on a "live" connection using WiFi or mobile phone networks to access the enterprise software application. Disconnected applications have the ability to continue functioning whether there is a "live" connection or not. Most experts in mobility today recommend developing applications that can be connected or disconnected so as not to interrupt the productivity of a mobile workforce.

A disconnected mobile application needs to be able to store data on the handheld computer (i.e. in a mobile database or XML file), and then be able to synchronize all the changed data when a connection to the enterprise database application is again available. This allows the mobile field force to continue adding, editing, querying and printing data in a disconnected mode while working remotely in the field.

The software components that are necessary to develop a disconnected database centric mobile application are:

-Mobile application (GUI Interface) created for the screen size of your handheld or laptop computer
-Navigation on the screens and between screens
-Customizable business logic under the GUI interface
-Mobile database technology to store all required data on the handheld computer
-Synchronization technology to synchronize changed or edited data between the handheld computer and the enterprise database
-Server component to keep both the backend databases and the handheld computers synchronized with each other
-Device and user administration component

I realize I have over simplified, but at the very highest level, these are the components of a mobilized business solution. So in order to "mobilize" your existing in-house database applications, you either need some very smart developers and a lot of development time, or you find a software company like MobileDataforce that has already developed these tools.

Reusable Mobile Frameworks

It is easy for an IT developer, working hard in their cubicle, to feel that the technology requirements of their business are unique and special, although in truth many companies may share similar business processes and requirements, even companies in different industries. Let me provide you with an example of similarities:

-a mobile software solution needs screens designed for use on handheld computers
-a mobile software solution needs graphical buttons, labels, fields and functions on their screen
-a mobile software solution needs to be able to validate the data inputted
-a mobile software solution needs a database on the handheld to store information
-a mobile software solution needs mobile middleware that enables synchronization between the mobile device database and the enterprise database.
-a mobile software solution needs to be able to add custom business rules
-a mobile software solution needs to be flexible enough to handle many different kinds of handheld computers and add-on accessories.

The features described above are needed by every developer of mobile applications. They are required, but are not cost effective to develop from scratch each time. My team of engineers have spent over 12 man years productizing the features and functions listed above so that you don't have to. Often I hear comments from customers that 80% of their project requirements are already completed, productized and proven in PointSync.

More on Convergence and Handheld Computers

In an earlier posting I discussed the converging technologies available on handheld computers. However, convergence is not only happening in the hardware arena. When you design a mobile software solution for use on a handheld computer, you have the opportunity of converging multiple databases and database applications into one mobile application on the handheld. Let me explain:

You may have a "work order" application that you want available on your field service team's handhelds. In this single mobile application you may want to include data from several different internal database applications.

-a work order management application
-an inventory application
-a shipping application
-time sheets
-CRM system
-GIS system
-Accounting application for invoicing
-product catalogs

This is "convergence" at the software level. Mobile solutions can be as simple, or as powerful as you want them to be.

Buy vs. Building Mobile Software Solutions

Regularly companies that need mobile software solutions for their field force are confronted by the choice of whether they should buy a mobile solution or build their own custom solution. This is a fair question, and I am sure there are times when your requirements may be so specialized that custom building is the only way, but this is rare. In most cases your needs are very similar to other companies, and the ability to reuse solution templates and proven frameworks is the better choice.

MobileDataforce invested over 12 man years into the development of PointSync. Our goal, which we have now achieved, was to provide a rapid application development solution for mobile environments. We invested in the grunt work so you would not have to. Most of our customers find that their solution is over 80% completed before they even start. They can configure a database connection, instead of coding it. They can configure their mobile application interface, rather than code it. They can configure synchronizations, rather than code it. They can use one of the 130 pre-built functions from our library, rather than code it. One of the biggest advantages is we have been debugging, documenting and improving PointSync through 3 versions. This is a time consuming and often tedious process, but it reaps rewards for our customers. I would not wish this process on anyone.

Using PointSync, you can focus on perfecting your mobile business processes rather than on perfecting your code. The value and ROI from your mobile application comes from the business efficiencies it brings to your field force. The faster you can deliver it, and the smoother the implementation, the happier your field force and management will be.

Although building it yourself may be necessary in rare cases, most often if you can configure a proven application to enable you to rapidly implement a mobile solution, you, your CFO and your field force will be much happier.

2 Kinds of Mobile Software

Today we are going to discuss two different kinds of mobile software. An electronic forms based application, and full functional mobile database centric applications.

You can start simple and cheap by replacing all paper forms and clipboards with electronic forms on handheld computers. These applications usually don't contain databases, just simple data files that you can sync to your backoffice database. MobileDataforce's Intercue Mobility Suite http://www.mobiledataforce.com/mobility_suite/mobilitysuite.asp achieves this aim admirably. You are able to quickly achieve a positive ROI by avoiding the need to re-type data from paper forms to computer systems in the office. The data goes straight from the handheld computer to the enterprise database thus avoiding re-typing errors and misinterpretations. You can also synchronize via a wireless or mobile phone connection and avoid the need to hand deliver the forms.

If instead, you not only want to fill out an electronic form on a handheld computer, but query information from your product catalog, or customer history, or latest inventory levels, then you would want a mobile software application that was developed with a relational database management system (RDMS) to store information for look-ups. MobileDataforce's PointSync http://www.mobiledataforce.com/pointsync/index.asp accomplishes this goal. With PointSync you are able to rapidly develop a mobile version of your enterprise software application that synchronizes data from the field.

In summary, if you want a mobile interface/mobile client for an existing database application in the backoffice, then you will likely want to use PointSync. If you simply want to replace paper, then MobileDataforce's Intercue Mobility Suite is a great place to start.

Convergent Handheld Computers

In the past PDAs were used for simple time management, contact management and email. Now days you can purchase ruggedized (water resistant, dust resistant, drop to cement resistant) handheld computers that include VoIP, mobile phone, barcode, digital camera, RFID and GPS all on the same device. Add to that full functional database centric software applications that can synchronize with your office software applications, and gigabytes of memory on your device. PDAs are no longer toys.

Since nearly any of your internal software applications can be "mobilized" and made available in a disconnected mode (not connected by a network, but able to be synchronized when connected to a network at a later time) you have a lot of power at your disposal in the field. The real challenge is how to systematically mobilize your software applications without your ambitions overwhelming your field workers and your IT departments.

Where Do You Get an ROI from Mobile Solutions?

ROI s (return on investment) is the term used to define the value of a project relative to the cost. If the project costs are $25,000, how will you justify this cost to your senior management? Senior management wants to know why they should spend their hard earned money on your mobile application solution and handheld computers. The following list contains some of the most common justifications for mobile software projects.

• Save the office staff's data entry time. Enter clean, valid data in the field using your handheld computer and have it automatically synchronize with your office business software application.
• Dispatch service or work order information directly to your field worker's handheld computer in real time. Improves work efficiency and customer care.
• Synchronize data from the field, so you don't have to drive into the office to deliver your paper work.
• Provide access to database information anywhere you go. This can mean customer history, product documentation, warranty information, inventory information, time sheets, work schedules and much more. This creates efficiencies both for the field worker and the office staff.
• You can use bar code scanning on your handheld computer to scan equipment, inventory, buildings, products, etc. Scan a bar code and have all the relevant information on your asset immediately available for your review on the screen of your handheld computer.
• Immediate invoicing, complete work in the field and immediately print the invoice and hand it to the customer for collections. Improves cash flow and reduces collection issues.
• Create an immediate audit trail of work and locations by integrating GPS to your invoices and work orders. Detail work completed in that location.

The bottom line is that paper based systems are inherently slow and error prone. Many more hands must touch a paper form, and each touch can introduce delays and errors. Creating mobile software applications that can validate the data, ensure accurate input and immediate synchronization to your office software applications creates a much faster, accurate and reliable system.

We have all heard the phrase, "information is power." By providing more information to your field workers, you are enabling them to complete their work faster and access required information without the need to involve the office staff in these routine data look-ups.

Some of the most surprising efficiencies that are not always recognized upfront, are the ability to ensure all the data is completed and valid in the field. Many paper forms are turned in that are only partially filled out. This requires the office staff to contact the field worker for additional information. This adds costs to both the office staff and the field worker. Using mobile software applications in the field, you can require that all data is filled out accurately and completely. So how much time is currently wasted chasing down incomplete paper forms?

In the real world - a field worker may use a variety of tools to complete their job. A smartphone to call the office and receive emails, a fax machine, wireless printer and scanner, a laptop computer on the seat of the truck to look up customer information, etc. A complete survey of the business processes that the field user engages in can often demonstrate that nearly all of these tools can be aggregated efficiently into one smartphone application.

Business Processes and Handheld Computers

It is important to recognize the impact on business processes - caused by extending your internal software applications out to your field workers. It is far different than just adding another desktop computer to an empty cubicle. With handheld computers, the user must think about battery life, environmental issues such as water, sand, temperatures, etc, and how they are going to connect to the enterprise software application. One must stop and think about the traditional methods of using paper forms, clipboards, etc, and how a handheld computer will change these processes.

One of the first questions to ask is, "what will change?" If a field worker is accustomed to paper forms attached to a clipboard, how will they need to change their habits and routines to take advantage of a handheld computer. It may be that the real advantage of using a wireless handheld computer is the value of sharing information real time. So again, how will having real time updates of information in the field change the business process? Can you open and close work orders, check available inventory, schedule repairs, review customer files, check the shipping status of parts, find directions to your next job site, invoice the customer while still at the job site? If you do want to provide the customer with a paper copy of the completed work order or an invoice, what kind of printer do you need? Printers can sit on the seat of your pick-up truck, mounted to the dashboard of your truck, or attached to your belt for complete mobility.

From the hardware perspective, "Where do you keep the handheld computers (at the field user's home, in a locker, at the job site? What is the process for replacing one that breaks? Who keeps them charged? What security is required? How many workers use the same handheld computer?" All of these questions are asked by my PSO (professional services organization) team when they are scoping out a project.

It is important to "walk in the shoes" of your field users. Make sure you walk with them and see how the business process is actually done in the field. The success or failure of many mobile application projects are dependent on the field users' acceptance of the solution. Often a project's designed business process changes considerably once you have "walked through the real world" process in the field.

Ruggedized PDAs

Most companies that contact us about buying mobilitiy software, have not yet selected their handheld PDAs. This is not a problem if the requirements for the mobile application are simple data collection, but when the mobile application requires the use of specialized hardware (i.e. bar code scanning, GPS, imagery, digital photos, RFID) it is important to understand your needs before implementing a software solution. Why? There are hundreds of different handheld computers with hundreds of different add-on features. These add-on features and hardware components have "software" drivers. These "drivers" enable a software application to "communicate" with the hardware component. These drivers are most often publically available, but they still require someone to add them to your mobile software application. So when my PSO (consulting team) reviews a project's requirements, they will look to see if there are any new "software drivers" that need to be added as part of the deliverables.

So how do you know what kind of hardware to purchase? This really depends on the environment where the work will be conducted. Do you need water resistant, or water proof? Do you need a numeric keypad, or full alphanumeric, or can you get by with simple push buttons on the screen? Do you need GPS, bar code or RFID integration? If so, do you need these all of the time, or only on special occasions? Will they be dropped on concrete daily, weekly or monthly? Are you working in mud, dust and sand? Generally the more ruggedized you need the higher the price you will pay.

How will you synchronize the handheld computer? Will you use a simple cradle mount, or do you want to synchronize from the field? Do you have access to a WiFi hotspot, or do you need a GPRS data card? Again, these decisions effect both the cost of the hardware and the hardware components you need.

Another question is what kind of battery life do you need? Do you need an 8 hour charge, or a 16? Do you want to purchase spare batteries, do you want to be able to charge the battery via a car charger or simply purchase an extra heavy duty batttery upfront?

It is worth the extra effort to effectively survey the working environment of your team before you purchase the hardware. This will help you ensure that the handheld computers that you purchase will match your working environment, and that you have purchased the hardware configuration that will provide the optimal return on your investment.

PDAs for Real Work

Greetings Readers - I am the CEO of a software company called MobileDataforce, http://www.mobiledataforce.com. We develop software for people wanting to use their PDAs for work. Not the traditional white collar email applications, but industrial grade data collection, bar coding, RFID, GPS, etc. PDAs are finding a new life in the market as real tools for people working in the field. They don't want games and chat, they want an extension of their office applications on pocket sized computers.