More on Buy vs Building Mobile Solutions, Part 2

This seems to be the topic of the week this week - so let me add more thoughts to this topic.

If your organization has .NET programmers that are available now and they have a lot of time on their hands, then yes it is possible to develop your own enterprise mobile application. Here are a couple of questions before you start:

• Have your programmers completed successful mobile applications before? If this is their first time there is a steep learning curve that must be considered.
• Is the same programmer going to code the mobile application, code the security, code the synchronization logic, code the database integration and code the business logic? If there are multiple developers/programmers involved - ask question #1 about each of them.
• Are these programmers going to also write your user guide and document the solution?
• How long will your programmers stay with your organization? What if the programmer leaves? Who will support it and maintain it?

There are many parts to an enterprise mobile solution. It is rare for even an experienced .NET programmer to have experience in all of the components. Here are some good questions to ask a programmer before you start coding your mobile application:

• How do you plan to sync the data?
• What sync engine will you use and why?
• How will you connect to the enterprise database remotely from the field?
• How do you handle security?
• How will you integrate the data into existing database systems?
• How will you glue all these components together in your application so it all works?
• How will you support multiple mobile devices- Windows Mobile, WinCE, Tablet PC, Windows PC?

These are all questions that need to be answered before a programmer begins. Here is the problem - often a programmer views their component (the mobile application on the handheld PDA) as 90% of the project. Will that simply is not the case. The majority of the time and effort is in connecting all the different components together, integrating and testing.

I have often heard a comment from a programmer that the mobile application is done, although it takes another 8 weeks before it could be deployed. The mobile application is often the smallest part of the project. Many programmers can code a simple PDA application. However an enterprise mobile application needs much more than a simple, stand alone PDA application. It needs full synchronization, remote connectivity, device management, integration, security and more.

- the reason companies love MobileDataforce's PointSync Suite is that all of these components and features are already developed and available for you to configure. You are not required to figure out all of these issues and code them. PointSync is a RADs-ME tool - A rapid application development solution for mobile environments. It is designed for organizations without the desire or time to program all of these components.

So in summary - anyone with the time, interest, intellect and money to code a complete enterprise mobile solution can. PointSync is for those that need the mobile application without the time and money needed to code it from scratch.

More on Buy vs. Build

Even More on Buy vs. Build

You've got to be kidding - yet more on Buy vs. Build...

....more

Buy vs. Building an Enterprise Mobile Solution? Part 1

This is a good and fair question. Let's start our discussion with a scenario - You want to monitor assets for your government agency. That means you want to track all the street signs, sewer pipes, manhole covers, guard rails etc, that your organization owns using a mobile software application on a handheld computer. You also want to mobilize your inspection processes involving these assets. In addition, you would like to integrate a "work order" management system to dispatch repair technicians when work is needed. You would like all of these processes to be mobilized on a handheld computer that synchronizes with your central databases.

The problem - Often the above processes involve more than one desktop application and multiple backend databases. How would you mobilize all of these? You can't buy 1 mobile software package that will integrate with all of these desktop applications and databases. Why, some of your applications are home grown, undocumented and specific to your working environment. No one else knows your unique inventory of applications. Typically you will have 3 choices:

1. Buy pre-built mobile clients for each of your off-the-shelf desktop applications. So if you have 8 desktop applications that you use, you will need 8 different mobile software packages in order to mobilize these processes. This is very expensive, forces you to learn 8 different mobile applications, punch 8 different holes in your firewall, learn 8 different synchronization technologies, and 8 different configuration environments. In addition, this does not help you to mobilize your home grown custom applications. Another challenge, most of your 8 desktop applications will not have mobile client applications available.
2. Develop mobile software applications from scratch using .NET or other programming environments. This can be done, but you need a person with mobile programming experinece to develop a new and different mobile client application for each desktop application and database. There is little ability to reuse code so each of these mobilization projects will take considerable planning and lengthy development time.
3. Use a mobile software platform that is a rapid application development environment for mobile solutions. This allows you to quickly configure mobile client applications that can synchronize with multiple backend databases. You can standardize on one method of synchronization, learn one development environment, one integration methodology and have one company that can train and support you. You don't need to be a programmer, and you can edit and update your own mobile applications as often as you want. You maintain control of your own applications and you can easily support any of your custom home grown database applications. You can mobilize all 8 of your desktop applications using one mobile software platform. You don't have to pay someone else to develop mobile applications, your own IT team can support any of your mobile client application needs.

OK...so I am bias, but there is a lot of value to owning your own mobile RADs-ME tool (rapid application development environment for mobile solutions). You buy your RADs-ME tool once, and then you can develop an unlimited number of mobile applications. You control the cost, you control the updates, you customize to your requirements and you are not dependent on some outside software company's schedule and cost structure. Once you have been trained, you can develop mobile client applications internally for any desktop database application.

PMM Selects MobileDataforce Software for Handheld PDAs

Last week MobileDataforce was selected to provide mobile asset management/field inspection software for a large project in South Africa. It will be used by the South African government to assess property taxes.

Properties will be inspected, data will be collected on a mobile handheld device and the data will be synchronized to an enterprise database. The software application that will be used is MobileDataforce's PointSync. It will be integrated with GPS and mapping software so the exact location of all property assessments can be identified and documented.

Manitoba Hydro Selects MobileDataforce Software

We do a lot of business in the electrical utility industry. This previous blog article identified many of the mobile utility projects we have delivered. This week we gained a new customer in Canada called Manitoba Hydro. They selected MobileDataforce as their mobile software platform for field inspections. They listed over 17 inspections that they want to mobilize (convert from paper to mobile handheld data collection).

The solution will involve using rugged PDAs in the field, MobileDataforce software for the mobile inspection application and synchronization to an enterprise database.

Clinical Research Company Selects MobileDataforce

MobileDataforce just won the contract to develop a large clinical research solution for stroke victims. This project involves healthcare providers using handheld PDAs and PDA software from MobileDataforce to monitor treatment programs and the clinical results over a number of years.

MobileDataforce is becoming more and more involved in the healthcare field. We have recently delivered solutions for remotely monitoring young patients, mobile asset management in hospitals, safety inspections of hospitals and now clinical research.

The clinical research project involves using handheld pdas for data collection, software from MobileDataforce, and synchronization with an enterprise database.

Ease of use, flexibility, and quick application development were reasons given for MobileDataforce winning the award.