Going Mobile Global

In the past few hours I have either spoken or emailed with partners or project teams in the following locations:

1. Germany
2. Australia
3. Hong Kong
4. Dublin, Ireland
5. Belfast, Ireland
6. UK
7. The Netherlands
8. Canada
9. USA
10. South Africa

The internet is enabling businesses to expand as never before. The internet provides low cost communication globally. Online marketing allows you to meet companies around the world. Online project management tools enable the management of remote projects. Video conferencing let's you look your team leaders and customers in the eyes across the Atlantic, Pacific or any other ocean or sea. Wire transfers allow us all to get a paycheck. Digital products like software can be distributed across the internet - kind of like a digital fedex service.

Now consider MobileDataforce's mobile software platform - PointSync. A person can be conducting a quality assurance inspection of a food processing plant in Melbourne, Australia and with a click of a button on a mobile handheld computer, the information can be immediately synchronized to a database in New York city for viewing by managers. The internet makes this communication both inexpensive and a reality for most of our deployments these days.

MobileDataforce and Large International Deployments

MobileDataforce has been involved in several good sized international deployments of mobile handheld computer solutions lately. These kind of implementations need careful management and planning. Here are a few points to consider and plan for:

1. First of all the customer must have dedicated staff assigned to the roll-out. It can't be done ad hoc.
2. If at all possible have the deployment teams onsite at the pilot location.
3. Pilot and beta programs need documented issue reporting paths. Everyone involved must know how to report issues, and how they are to get resolved.
4. Don't roll-out to large numbers in the first round. Test...roll-out...test...roll-out...there is a nice pattern here. Minimize the impact of inevitable issues in the early stages.
5. Use PointSync Manager to deploy updates to the field. PointSync can publish updates to the end user transparently. This reduces end user errors and self-inflicted injuries.
6. Often it is helpful to load the mobile application onto each handheld device before the initial roll-out. Minimize the variables that can go wrong in the field. Keep it simple for the new users. We often load our mobile applications to an SD or Mini SD card and then simply insert the card into each new device and load.
7. Keep the user interface on the mobile application as close to the paper process as possible to minimize the training time required. If there is a certain process flow that your field users are familiar and comfortable with, then keep your mobile application as close to it as is reasonable.
8. Mandate the use of a mobile application, don't give the field user the option of paper. Learning takes time and is often annoying - make sure the end user knows there is no going back to paper...so start learning it.

Even a Sales Guy Can Build a Mobile Application

Even a sales guy can create bar code scanning applications for use in route deliveries to grocery stores! I was walking down the hallway in our office on Monday and Mark was proudly showing off an application he had developed for the Symbol MC70 bar code scanner. One of his clients delivers products to grocery stores and wanted a route delivery application using this handheld device. So what did Mark do? He (a sales guy) developed one for them! This just proves that MobileDataforce has nearly accomplished our dream. Ok, ok, ok...he didn't quite get it production ready, but he got the mobile application running.

Our dream has always been to develop a rapid application development environment- PointSync, that could be used by the business folks to develop mobile applications. Every month we are adding new features and functionalities to our mobile applications to make them simplier to use and faster to implement.

Route delivery applications often consist of the following parts:

1. Inventory
2. Delivery
3. Merchandising
4. Planograms
5. Promotion
6. More

Planograms are one of the most interesting components to me. Here is the definition of a planogram:

• The placement of merchandise that is arriving to the store can be planned out on paper by using a Planogram before the products actually arrive to the store. A planogram is a retailer's drawing (blueprint) which visually communicates how merchandise and props physically fit onto a store fixture or window to allow for proper visibility and price point options. The retailer can plan to mix the new products with current items or initiate entirely new displays. If you have more than one store this is an excellent way to communicate to your staff how you would like displays executed.
  

I would like to add some more to the description of planograms - Here at MobileDataforce one of our recent route delivery application projects included a design of the shelf space plus a color code to signal what task needed to be done for that shelf space and product. This was all done on a handheld computer using MobileDataforce's PointSync. Talk about efficiency. The delivery person would walk into a store, enter the store code/street address and a detailed task list would be produced instructing him/her on what needed to be done with each product and shelf space in that particular store location.

Remote Audio Training on Mobile Handheld PDAs

My software engineers added some very cool new features to PointSync last week. The feature I found most intriguing was the ability to add audio files to business logic and button actions. Now a field service technician can request audio instructions (remote training help) on what information needs to be associated with a field on their mobile application. Here is an example:

Field service technician - "hummmmm....how do I answer this question about parts used on my work order?"

Press the Audio file button next to the field - "parts used refers to the parts you pulled out of inventory to use on a customer's repair job."

Field service technician - "Now I understand"

You can also use these audio files in data validation alerts. For example:

Audio File - "BEEP! The answer must be a number between 14-99"

For multi-language purposes - you can include audio instructions in multiple languages.

These are just a few of the cool things my software engineers are doing in the dimly lit back room in the glow of their monitors.

Another Software Company Selects MobileDataforce

Cartegraph has selected MobileDataforce to mobilize several more modules of their popular government focused asset management suite. In June I wrote a blog article on our initial work together. The results of this mobilization effort will be that local city, county and state governments can more efficiently and accurately management their assets, field inspections, work orders, inventory and public safety responsibilities.

MobileDataforce South Africa - Mobile Solutions in ZA

This year MobileDataforce has experienced record levels of mobile software solution sales in South Africa. We are starting a large government sponsored inspection project that will involve hundreds of handheld computers and inspectors next week.

Mobilizing asset management is one of the most common requests we receive here at MobileDataforce. Companies and government agencies want to identify and inventory their assets, track where they are located at any given time, the condition of their assets, the maintenance records of their assets, and the use of their assets. Often these assets are spread over a large region and it takes a mobile handheld asset management system to efficiently monitor and document them.

Canyon County - Building Inspection ROI

This week my sales team was working with a small county government on designing a mobile handheld building inspection application. The projected cost savings from converting from a paper based inspection system to a mobile handheld computer based inspection system was $85,000 in the first year. This is a huge savings for a small government agency.

We see similar ROIs from mobilizing government agencies' around the world. You can reference this blog article for more information on ROIs from mobile applications.

Melbourne PointSync Training - Sept. 28th & 29th

Dave Wasden, VP of Product Management at MobileDataforce will be in Melbourne, Australia conducting a 2-day training class, September 28th & 29th, on how to develop full end-to-end mobile solutions for use on handheld computers.

This class includes the following:

1. How to architect and design mobile applications
2. How to develop PDA and Industrial handheld mobile database-centric applications
3. How to build business logic and data validations into your mobile applications
4. How to synchronize mobile handheld software applications data
5. How to integrate mobile data to an enterprise database

Please contact Andy Noble if you would like to attend.

Maryland Mobile Technology Seminar

On November 1st I will be speaking at the Maryland Mobile Technology seminar in Baltimore. This will be the third event in this series and we meet a lot of new people with very unique and interesting mobile project needs.

This week I spoke at the Utah Mobile Technology conference and it was great fun. These are educational events where generally 6 mobile industry veterans share knowledge and experiences in how to architect, design, develop and implement mobile software and hardware solutions.

Let me know if you would be interested in having one of these seminars in your region.

MobileDataforce's European Partner Summit

On October 17th I will be speaking at our European Partner Summit in The Netherlands. MobileDataforce has a number of very interesting new mobile software solution updates and new developments that we will be discussing with our European partners. We will also be discussing mobility trends, mobile solutions and how to provide our customers with the best possible services and support.

GPS, GIS and Handheld PDA Software Solutions

GPS is everywhere! More and more often customers are asking that their mobile handheld computer solutions included integrated GPS. Work orders, vehicle tracking, asset tracking, and route delivery projects now often require it. Recently on my trip to Australia, a company asked that their sales force automation project include GPS data capture. They want to make sure their sales staff are visiting their customers as reported.

Many companies want the added documentation that capturing a time/date stamp with a GPS coordinate gives them. They apply this to any work done at that location.

On engineering and construction projects - it is often requested that geological tests' (water, soil, compaction, etc) locations be captured with a GPS coordinate, to make re-testing easier.

On vehicle tracking projects - our customers often want to know the exact location of their vehicle (company asset) at any time. Why? So they can re-route the delivery truck when needed, optimize the route, or predict delivery times for customers. Sometimes, 2 delivery trucks need to meet up and exchange cargo. If the central database at the company office can see the location of all of their vehicles in real time, it makes it easier to have trucks meet up at convenient locations.

Using a RAD tool like MobileDataforce's PointSync, it is easy to capture a GPS location within any mobile application.

Rugged Handheld Computers

On almost a daily basis my sales team gets asked what handheld computers does MobileDataforce support. This is a fairly easy question to answer because PointSync supports all Win CE, Windows, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows for Tablet PCs operating systems and the devices that use them. Using PointSync - you can build once and support all of these different operating systems.

Once you have configured your mobile application using a RAD tool like PointSync, you will then configure the application's screen size and GUI to match the screen space of the handheld, laptop or Tablet PC that you need.

This is a powerful feature. Many times supervisors may have laptops, but the work crew in the field may have a ruggedized handheld. Both need access to the same enterprise data, but on different size screens.

We often deliver solutions using the following handheld devices, although we are not limited to them:

Psion Teklogix
Symbol Technologies
Intermec Technologies
TDS Recons
Trimble

Utah Mobile Technology Conference

Tomorrow we are conducting an educational event in Salt Lake City for government agencies and local companies that are interested in mobile technology. This is our second event and these are usually very well attended and a lot of fun.

Sessions include:

• Panel discussions on subjects related to mobile projects, mobile technology and mobile strategies will be covered in detail.
• Latest advances in ruggedized computers
• Latest advances in PDA phones
• Latest advances in mobile enterprise software solutions
• Latest government mobility projects and technologies.

Reviewing the list of registered attendees I note IT folks from city, county and state agencies. I see a few from local facilities management companies, labs, transportation agencies, department of environment and many others. This will be a lot of fun.

If any of you would like an educational event on mobile technology in your neighborhood please let me know.

Handheld PDA Applications & Business Processes

Replacing paper forms and paper-based business processes is a big part of the work we do here at MobileDataforce. However, people don't always realize that moving from paper to mobile applications can provide a whole lot more than simply an electronic version of a paper form.

Business processes and workflow can be designed into your mobile application to provide the following benefits:

1. If/then statements assigned to data fields - if the answer is YES then the application jumps to page 7, if NO the application jumps to page 2. An example - if your roof is made of tile, then jump to page 5 and answer questions concerning tile roofs.
2. If greater than statement - example, if the answer is greater than 5 (b>5) the application can jump to a different page and ask a different set of questions. This is often used in handheld computer based inspections and quality assurance applications. For example, the condition of the building's paint is rated from 1-10, 1 being bad, 10 being good. If the answer is 2 - then this represents a bad condition that can be configured to initiate or jump to a work order and scheduling page.
3. User Login - if you login as a supervisor - you get visibility into pages that the work crew does not see.

These are just 3 of the hundreds of different combinations and ways you can build business processes and workflow into a mobile form or application. For more information and sample code please read Dave Wasden's blog article on this subject. Additional benefits - new hired staff will learn faster and be more efficient because the application is directing them through the proper steps to complete an application accurately. Automating business processes allow you to scale your work and ensure business processes are followed.

ROI for Enterprise Mobile Solutions

It has been quite some time since I wrote about the subject of mobility project ROIs (return on investment). I last addressed this issue in a January article so let me provide an update on it.

Mobility ROIs often come from the following:

1. Reduce time required to re-type data from a paper form to a computer application
2. Reduce driving/delivery time to turn in paper forms to the office
3. Reduce fuel expenses from driving to the office to deliver paper forms
4. Reduce typing errors when re-keying data
5. Reduce shipping expenses if you are posting documents to the office
6. Reduce time on phones trying to understand the author's handwriting on paper forms
7. Reduce delays caused from waiting for paper forms to be submitted and re-typed
8. Reduce time wasted on incomplete paper forms (missing information)
9. Reduce time wasted on phone calls dispatching new work/service orders
10. Reduce field training time - mobile software can instruct the user on correct methods
11. Reduce time wasted on correcting wrong or invalid data (wrong customer numbers, etc)
12. Reduce fuel expenses from inefficient service order routing and dispatching
13. Reduce time invested in invoice disputes - show time/date stamp & GPS location of work
14. Reduce staff workload and staff expense - re-typing and communicating with field
15. Speed up customer invoicing, and collect cash faster
16. Save data directly to a central database (that is backed-up) for safe keeping
17. Save data directly to a central database for immediate visibility by management
18. Route optimization saves fuel, improves productivity and saves time.
19. Take before and after digital photos of work to prove time, location and work
20. Improve customer service with faster more efficient work dispatch
21. Improve customer service by checking inventory levels remotely
22. Improve customer service by checking shipping status remotely
23. Improve dispatch and productivity with real time work order status updates

As this list identifies - there are a great many reasons to mobilize. In summary, improved efficiencies, improved customer service, improved productivity, improved cash flow, reduced errors and expenses. This equates to better business.

MobileDataforce Delivers Mobile Solutions to Large Enterprises

MobileDataforce is doing very well. We are succeeding at winning large mobility projects around the world including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, UK, The Netherlands, Canada and in the USA. Why are large companies trusting MobileDataforce (a relatively small company) to deliver these mission critical applications?

MobileDataforce - with 6 years of experience delivering mobile solutions, is one of the most experienced veterans of this industry. We have some of the smartest and most experienced mobile software developers and project managers in the world, and we have invested over 24 man-years of development into our PointSync solution. Our strategy from day 1 has been to create RADs-ME applications (rapid application development solutions for mobile environments) that would help IT departments, Systems Integrators, and my own services teams deliver powerful mobile solutions quickly and affordably. We want our customers to be receiving their ROIs in as short an amount of time as possible. This required us to develop applications and frameworks (that we call PointSync) that allow the user to develop a wide variety of different mobile applications for a wide variety of industries quickly and effectively.

MobileDataforce also partners with the best. We have more experience than any other company at developing and delivering RADs-ME applications, but not in developing mobile relational databases. In order to have the fastest, and most powerful mobile databases in the world embedded within PointSync - we have partnered with Sybase/iAnywhere to deliver them as part of the PointSync solution.

Sybase/iAnywhere has a $2 Billion market cap, and has been building enterprise database solutions since 1984. They have thousands of employees, offices around the world, and over 10 million licenses of their mobile database called Ultralite distributed around the world. Sybase is the world's leader in mobile databases and synchronization technologies. We partnered with Sybase in order to offer our clients the fastest mobile application development environment, with the most powerful and proven mobile relational database technologies. The combination of MobileDataforce's and Sybase's mobile technologies provides our customers with the most experienced, secure, scalable and proven solutions in the industry.

PointSync enables our customers to quickly create powerful mobile database applications, using the best technologies from the best software companies in the industry. Here are a few of our large enterprise customers:

National Park Service
Department of Environmental Quality
Department of Agriculture
Department of Fish and Game
Micro Beef
Exxon
Cartegraph
Unilever
Fulton Hogan
US Air Force
Alabama Power
Idaho Transportation Department
Rail Crew Express
New York Power Authority
Gillette
Washington Group International

P.S. we also have a large number of small customers that have 5-25 mobile users as well. We keep our software prices low enough that even small companies can earn a good ROI in a few months.

Mobilizing Business Processes for Handheld Computers

I often get asked if we have experience delivering mobile solutions for a specific industry and a specific company's unique business process. For example - ACME Air Conditioning Ltd wants to know if we can deliver an ACME mobile work order solution. This is a fair question, since everyone wants to work with a company that has experience, however it is also important to understand what is unique about your business process and what is not. I will explain in a moment.

Let's first discuss a few definitions:

• Mobilizing - replacing paper forms with mobile applications on a mobile handheld computer, or taking an existing software application that runs only on desktop or laptop computers and configuring it to operate on a mobile handheld device such as a Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC, or a Win CE device.
• Business Process - It is the steps or tasks that are involved in doing a business function.

Now let's review a work order business process. This business process is used by many different industries including:

• Sign Installers
• Government Agencies
• HVAC
• Building maintenance
• Elevator Maintenance
• Manufacturing operation
• etc.

A work order often has the same common components across many industries:

• Identify the service technician's name/ID
• Time/Date
• Customer
• Warranty information, equipment description
• Work/job location
• Service assignment/task
• Description of work completed
• Parts used
• Status of work
• Technician closes work/service order or selects a follow-up task
• Total charges
• Technician and/or customer signs the work order

A work order looks quite similar all over the world no matter what the company, industry or geographical location. So developing and customizing a mobile work order for a company is relatively simple.

Now let's consider the data synchronization process. The movement of data between a handheld computer and an enterprise database is also quite similar across most business processes.

Handheld computer application==>synchronization server==>enterprise database

Then back enterprise database==>synchronization server==>handheld computer application.

The path the data follows is nearly the same no matter the business process. So our synchronization technology can easily support ACME Air Conditioning Ltd's requirements with little or no customization.

The mobile application is where one needs to create customized configurations and features. However these features in some form or another are used by nearly all mobile applications. I covered this in another blog article. Features include the user interfaces, business logic, validations, support for special handheld device features (barcode, RFID, GPS, etc), mobile printing and customized logos/branding. This is all done using a RADs-ME application (such as MobileDataforce's PointSync Developer). PointSync Developer enables the user to configure these features and functions with point and click selections. Every organization, every solution, and every geographical region of the world requires these same features. So none of these application requirements are unique to a business process or industry - every mobile application requires them.

So the important question is not if we have experience working with ACME Air Condition work orders, but rather do we have experience developing work order business processes in general, and can our software application provide all the functionality, flexibility, security, and synchronization technologies required to quickly configure your mobile application at a cost effective price.

To summarize -

1. Business processes (such as work orders) often are very similar across many different industries around the world. Therefore experience developing a work order business process - prepares you for supporting many different work order formats in many different industries.
2. The flow of data (synchronization) between a handheld computer and the enterprise database is also quite similar around the world, and across industries.
3. The features and functionality required in most mobile applications are also very similar across industries, business processes and geographies.
4. The most important questions a company needs to ask are - Does a particular mobile software solution provide the flexibility and functionality required, at a cost effective price, and does the vendor have experience mobilizing your specific business process?

Asset Management, PDA Handhelds & Village Governments

We sent Eric Freed, one of our senior PSO team members, out to West Dundee, IL to implement a mobile asset management solution for the village of West Dundee. It turns out that one of the village officials is also a member of the local fire department. When Eric needed a place to stay overnight, they volunteered an empty room in the brand new fire station.

Eric insisted that the alarm going off three times during the night was not too bad, but there were no mints on his pillow and the beds were not turned down. He also recommends wearing pants when sliding down the fire pole.

The solution that we implemented involved using Trimble ruggedized handheld computers, MobileDataforce's PointSync, and Cartegraph's asset management software called SignView.

Mobile Handheld Applications & Marketing in Canada

Marketing is an interesting phenomenon. Why do some geographical areas suddenly generate a lot of sales opportunities, when prior months they were silent? Ontario, Canada is suddenly on fire. We are receiving all kinds of phone calls and emails from companies in Ontario this month interested in MobileDataforce's mobile solutions. I shrug my shoulders and am thankful.

Perhaps with the hint of autumn in the air, companies are back to thinking about how to improve their remote business processes. As field services teams complete their seasonal work and return to the office with suggestions for improving their field data collection processes, IT teams call MobileDataforce asking for recommendations.

If a PDA phone can be used to keep remote and mobile workers updated, why can't those same devices communicate with their enterprise databases? THEY CAN! Perhaps thoughts like this motivate Canadians to call in September!

Coming Back for More - Mobile Applications

In the world of software and services, the best compliment a customer can give is to come back for more. In the last month, these existing customers, have requested additional products and services from MobileDataforce:

• Pepsi MidAmerica
• Unilever
• St. Gobain
• Cartegraph
• Idaho Department of Agriculture
• City of Los Angeles
• Teph Seal
• Micro Beef

There were many more, but these are fresh on my mind. I want to thank all of our customers for your continuing confidence and business!

Electrical Utilities & Handheld PDAs - New Zealand

This morning I was reviewing the sales inquiries that we have received from both Australia and New Zealand recently, and noticed a company that provides contract services to the electrical utilities industry. MobileDataforce has a great deal of experience in this area as detailed in the following articles: meter maintenance, underground cable laying, electrical pole inspections and mobile electrical utility inspections.

Our PointSync software application enables IT departments and IT consultants to rapidly develop and customize inspection applications for utilities and their contractors in an affordable manner.

RAD Tools for Mobile Application Development in Australia

RADs-ME - rapid application development for mobile environments. That is the definition of MobileDataforce's PointSync software. MobileDataforce has just set up an Australian based support, development and sales center in our North Sydney office.

We have been supporting our ANZ customers from Europe and North America for the past few years, but we recognized that that was less than ideal. Now our support and services teams are available for onsite visits, trainings and support throughout ANZ.

PointSync enables our customers to build their own mobile applications without programming or coding, or have their favorite IT consultant develop it. They can configure their applications, the user interface, business logic and the integration with back office databases from within PointSync. This flexibility and ease of use has made PointSync popular around the world.

PointSync allows companies to rapidly develop and deploy customized/bespoke mobile applications specific to their unique business processes at an affordable price.

Our MobileDataforce Australia team is now available to help you understand how to mobilize your unique business processes. Please feel free to contact us to explore your mobility needs!

Australian Sales

Mobile Application Development Training - Sydney

The tall basketball player from Boise, also known as MobileDataforce's VP of Product Management, Dave Wasden is going to be conducting training classes on mobile application development and enterprise mobility deployments in Sydney in September.

Please let Andy Noble know if you would like to participate. His contact information can be found here under contact information for ANZ.

The classes will be focused on how to use MobileDataforce's PointSync Suite, to quickly and cost effectively develop and deploy a wide variety of different mobile applications.

Road Building, Asset Management, PDA Handhelds & Rented Street Signs

Ever since John Roudebush has joined our team and our board of directors, I pay attention to street signs. I snapped this photo on my recent trip to Melbourne, Australia. I was there helping set up our new sales and support center. Why do I pay attention to street signs you may ask...let me explain.

John spent his entire career in the highway services/roadway building business. He joined our board because he absolutely believes that companies with mobile workforces need mobile handheld solutions to run remote projects efficiently. John explains how his work crews required project data on the job site - data that was only available on paper back at the office. In addition, operations managers in the office, were always seeking data from remote project sites. How much work got done today...are we on schedule....when do we need more materials delivered... In his career this was always done by inefficient paper forms that were often delayed for days and weeks.

Here is an situation he sited - construction companies often rent safety and street signs for use on road building/maintenance projects. These are mobile assets that are often lost and misplaced. The company renting these signs need barcoded or RFID enabled tags on these signs so accurate inventory and accounting of the location of these assets can be known and managed.

Yet another story - he remembers a sign companies never returning for signs and how eventually the grass and weeds simply grew over these assets as they decayed.

Additional examples - road building companies often make a significant amount of their profit by meeting or exceeding quality standards, and by meeting project deadlines. This requires real time data from the project being sent to the project managers and business managers to ensure the right management and resources are being dedicated to the project to hit these numbers. If there is a problem, and it is found early, it can be quickly corrected so as to minimize impact on the quality and schedules. If the data is delayed, trapped on a paper form on a truck's seat, and nobody has visibility to it, then the damage can be great.

Fire Control Panels, M2M, Mobile Solutions & Australia

Flying home last week from Sydney, Australia I had about 18 hours to kill. My seat mate for this trip owns a company in Portugal that develops, sells and distributes fire control panels. The kind of control panel that detects fire in a specific room, automatically shuts fire doors, stops elevators, takes over control of the ventilation system (denies air to the rooms with fire, ventilates the hallways to allow visibility to those escaping the fire), turns on the sprinklers and alerts the fire department. These systems are complex and must be tested regularly.

The problem - it takes a long time to go up the elevator to the 14th floor, down the hall, unlock suite 1467, enter fire zone 82 and test the fire detector, then return to the control panel in the basement to see if it worked, reset the fire panel and then return to the 14th floor to test the next fire zone.

My seat mate was asking if handheld computers with GPRS/GSM (PDA phones) might be the answer. They not only need to record all the test results (which is currently done on paper), but they would like to be able to review the results of the test and reset the fire panel without leaving their inspection location. Hummmm....It is easy to use PointSync to create all the inspection applications on the handheld and to integrate this data with a backoffice database system using GPRS, but how would we control and reset the fire panel?

Machine-to-Machine (m2m) SMS messages are often used to control other devices. Our software partners Sybase/iAnywhere have designed a way to send a message to a hibernating PDA phone, wake it up and have it synchronize with the enterprise database. So the technology to control another piece of machinery certainly exists.

The fire panel would need a radio device that could receive SMS messages that are programmed to command it to perform various functions and then acknowledge the results to the sender. This is very doable. I hope we can get this project, it would challenge my engineers and stimulate their creativity.

Australian Hospital Systems and Asset Management

Another meeting our MobileDataforce Australia sales team had last week was with a large private hospital system in Melbourne. They have the need to manage their hospital assets using mobile handheld computers that are barcode enabled. By assets, I mean hospital equipment of all kinds. They need to know what medical equipment is in inventory, the location and condition of this equipment.

Today the process of asset management is done using paper forms that are later entered into an asset management database. This is far too inefficient for the hospital and they are seeking a way to make this process streamlined and faster.

MobileDataforce Australia will recommend using PointSync to quickly develop a mobile client that will integrate with their existing asset management application.

Melbourne Building Safety Inspections Using Handheld Computers

In Melbourne, Australia last week our MobileDataforce Australia team met with a company that does building inspections for commercial properties. They inspect buildings to ensure they are compliant with fire and safety regulations. Today, this data is recorded on reams of paper forms which is not only inefficient in the field, but requires all kinds of work back at the office to re-enter into a computer system. It is not just the process of collecting data, but the effort to research past noncompliance issues that take up a lot time.

That is the problem - the solution is to use MobileDataforce's PointSync to create a customized mobile application that enables all relevant data to be collected directly to a handheld computer that can synchronize automatically with your backoffice database. This eliminates hours of time each day. In addition, the handheld computer application can validate the data, remind the user what the appropriate answers are, ensure all data gets filled out and guides the user through the various inspection processes.

Sales Force Automation in Australia & MobileDataforce

While I was in Australia last week, my MobileDataforce Australia sales team and I met with one of our Melbourne based customer called St. Gobain. St. Gobain is a large multi-national company headquartered out of France, and with an office in Australia. Their IT staff is using PointSync to develop a bespoke/custom sales force automation application to help track daily customer and prospect visits and to document their calls and sales opportunity notes. St. Gobain supplies their customers with a large variety of chemicals and resins.

Sales force automation is a common and popular mobilization process here at MobileDataforce. We are engaged in at least 3 of these now. Some are being developed by internal IT staff, others are being done by MobileDataforce on behalf of our customers.

New Zealand Cattle Management & Handheld Computers

In Sydney, Australia last week, Andy Noble (MobileDataforce Australia's MD) and I met with Vani Saradhi from Psion Teklogix. Vani has been working on a large cattle management project in New Zealand that involves using over 1,000 Workabout Pro handheld computers.

It was an interesting discussion since we are also working on cattle management applications here in the USA. I wrote about our cattle management activities in an earlier article. We also met with a large multi-national holding company in Australia that owns large cattle feedlots. We are discussing our experiences with them as well.

As you can see in the picture to the right, much to my delight, there are Starbuck's Coffee shops in Sydney as well.

Warehouse Management and Inventory Application on Handheld Computers

We delivered a mobile warehouse and inventory application for use on Intermec handheld computers this week to Pepsi MidAmerica. It was developed using MobileDataforce's PointSync Suite. It was designed for use on handheld computers using barcode scanning technologies. Pallets of Pepsi products are brought to the warehouse, unloaded, scanned into the warehouse management system, stocked and redistributed to local retail stores.

This is the second application we have delivered to Pepsi MidAmerica in the past few months. PointSync can be used to develop a wide variety of mobile applications - warehouse management, sales force automation, field force automation, inspections, asset management, vehicle tracking applications and much more.

Mobile Quality Assurance in Australia's Alligator Country

We sent our Melbourne based sales engineer Pratheep, into the tropics of northern Australia this week. He flew 5 hours north of Sydney into alligator country to help CSR implement a mobile handheld quality assurance application using MobileDataforce's software for their sugar processing plants. After a successful implementation, I understand he made it back mostly intact.

MobileDataforce's Australian Expansion

I spent the last 10 days in Australia working with Andy Noble to open up our MobileDataforce Australia office in Sydney. Please note the good looking MobileDataforce shirt. We conducted a total of 12 sales presentations during that time. Australia is an amazing place, and I am excited at the opportunity to invest in the development of this market and to provide our customers with local sales, support and training.

David Wasden, our VP of Product Management, is heading down under in a few weeks to conduct PointSync training classes for a number of our partners and customers to help them learn how to use PointSync to develop a wide variety of mobile applications for their clients.

Department of Environmental Quality & Handheld Solutions

MobileDataforce is working with the Department of Environmental Quality for the state of Idaho. They are developing their first application to inspect fuel tanks. They are using PointSync to develop these applications internally. We love this! We are primarily a software company that supports our IT customers and SI partners and we love seeing the applications that our customers develop on their own using PointSync.

Orthotics, Medical Systems and Mobile Handheld Solutions

We are currently working on a project proposal for a company that provides mobile services to nursing homes, hospitals and patients in their homes. This company provides orthotics (braces), prosthetics (artificial limbs), dibetic shoes and other home based medical equipment. The majority of their work is done in mobile environments.

They have a medical billing system, an accounts payable system, patient SOAP notes solution and an inventory system in their offices, but they want to be able to access data and collect data remotely at the point of service/work...so they contacted us at MobileDataforce. We are now working with them to document and prioritize their requirements for a mobile solution.

We have completed numerous projects in the healthcare industry that are similar to this one. We developed a full remote patient monitoring system that I discussed in an earlier article. We have developed applications related to compliance with health and welfare departments. We recently delivered a mobile solution to the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy that is discussed in this recent article.

National Park Services & Handheld PDAs

Our customer, the National Park Service, has come back for more handheld licenses of our Intercue Mobility Suite. I first wrote about their solution and project in a February blog article. They are using handheld solutions to inventory and maintain archeological sites in the Southwest.

Parking Garages & Parking Tickets on Handheld PDAs

I love walking into the office on a Monday morning and having orders for mobile solutions waiting. It is a great way to start off a week. This morning we had an order for a company that manages parking garages and parking meters for municipal governments primarily on the east coast and in the south. They want the ability to monitor parking meters, issue citations and record other relevant information about cars in their parking garages. They want to be able to write citations and print them out on a mobile printer.

We will be using MobileDataforce's PointSync software as the mobile platform to develop this application and synchronize the data to a central database.

Chickens & Handheld Computer Solutions

I received an email this week from a very large multi-national company requesting our help to develop a solution to monitor chickens and their egg production. Seems they manufacture chicken feed and want to test the chickens, and how effective various foods and ingredients are. You can never predict in advance the wide variety of business processes people want to mobilize.

This solution would actually be vary similar to the animal tracking solution I described in an earlier blog article. It involves individually identifying the chickens/animals (leg band), identifying their location (bar code their pens) and then adding production, health, and other relevant data to the mobile application. The researchers walk down the row of pens, bar code scan the pen, enter the chicken ID and then collect the data. This information would then be synchronized with a central database server for analysis.

Buy vs. Building Mobile Solutions for Handhelds

I had a conversation this week concerning the issue of buy vs. building mobile software solutions. I have previously written about this subject in a blog article in January and again in May, however this issue comes up regularly so let's spend some more time on it.

Developing a mobile solution is a major challenge for most companies. Why? Let's identify some of the key components of a mobile solution:

1. If you have never created mobile applications, there is a steep learning curve to understand the mobility architecture, development environments, synchronization rules, integration processes etc. A lot of mobile middleware development is just plain tedious, expensive and risky.
2. Are you going to develop for just 1 kind of handheld computer or many? There are many different screen sizes, buttons, accessories, etc. If you want to support many different kinds of handhelds and their unique add-on components - expect a couple of years of development.
3. How do you develop a solution that will work equally well on multiple operating systems such as Tablet PC, PDA Smart Phones, Pocket PCs and/or laptops? What if your business user wants you to support laptops, PDAs and Tablet PCs with the same mobile application?
4. How do you develop and manage a synchronization server? Have you ever contemplated how difficult this might be?
5. How do you add database integration to your synchronization? How do you do this without messing up the production servers?
6. How do you add data validation to your mobile solutions?
7. How are you going to manage secure communications between your mobile application and your central database?
8. How do you build in mobile printing support?
9. How do you manage the deployment of mobile devices and track all the users and mobile applications?
10. Who is going to write all the help menus, user documentation, etc., if you develop in-house?
11. How do you add support for new hardware add-ons such as bar code scanners, RFID readers, GPS, digital cameras, printers to your application?
12. When Microsoft releases the next version of Windows Mobile 6.0, are you going to re-write your application to support the new hardware? You will be required to since all new handheld devices are sold with the latest OS.

I am a big advocate of internal development projects, but only if you have a RAD tool (rapid application development) for this purpose. MobileDataforce has the PointSync Suite which already has most of the features you want already developed and ready for you to configure for your specific requirements. It is rarely worth a company's time and money to re-create, design and develop that which is already available for $5,400.

Timesheets on Handheld PDAs

We are currently working on a project to supply a large international engineering firm with a mobile solution that will enable managers to review and approve their staff's timesheets. This is important because many of the managers frequently travel and need to approve timesheets while sitting in an airport.

This solution will be developed using MobileDataforce's PointSync, Palm Treo's and a backend database application used internally for time tracking.

Pepsi Mid-America & Inventory Management

One of our long time customers, Pepsi Mid-America, has started their second mobile application project with us this week. Their first project was completed using our simple data collection application called Intercue Mobility Suite, but their second application is going to be developed using our advanced PointSync Suite for bi-directional database synchronization.

The application is an mobile inventory management solution. Inbound and outbound products will be scanned and wirelessly updated in the central inventory database.

Asset Management, PDA Handhelds & Oil Rigs

We are currently working on a project that requires a handheld PDA based application to manage temporary assets that are moving through a supply yard on their way to and from oil rigs.

What is the problem we are solving? Many of the assets, are not owned by the oil company, so are not tracked in their standard ERP/Asset Management software. This might include transient or rented equipment. This is a big problem. How is a manager supposed to manage, what they don't know they have?

The solution - a database specifically designed to track transient/rented equipment and materials - with a mobile handheld application used to check-in, and check-out equipment and materials in the yard. When equipment is delivered to the yard without an asset tag or number, the Supply Depot manager uses the digital camera on the PDA to snap a picture, then uses the integrated GPS to capture the GPS coordinates of its storage location and then synchronizes the data from the handheld to the "transient" inventory database in the office.

Here is a typical use of this system -

Oil Rig Caller - "Have you received my widget?"
Suppy Depot Manager - "I have received many widgets, which widget do you seek and does it have an asset number in the system so I can look it up?"
Oil Rig Caller - "No, I rented the widget and it was supposed to be delivered yesterday to the yard, and I need it tomorrow."
Supply Depot Manager - "Ah...a transient widget...let me check my Transient Asset Management system for all widgets that arrived in the yard and were "checked-in. I see 4 widgets were checked-in yesterday. What does it look like (the digital image helps here)?"
Oil Rig Caller - "Large red widget with yellow floatations on each side."
Supply Depot Manager - "Ah yes, it arrived yesterday, and it is in the southeast corner of the yard (GPS helps here). I will load it on the next supply run and you will get it tomorrow morning."

This application uses MobileDataforce's PointSync for the mobile handheld application. PointSync supports field data collection, bar code, RFID, digital image and GPS integration.

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.