40 Reasons to Convert from Paper Processes to Mobile Applications on Smart Phones and Handheld Computers

This article describes the value that mobile software applications on handheld computers, Smart Phones and PDAs can provide businesses:

1. Eliminate time spent in the re-typing data collected in the field.
2. Reduce time spent on the phone dispatching service tickets, rather dispatch direct from your office computer to the mobile handheld computer in the field.
3. Send driving directions in the mobile work order to save driving time and fuel costs.
4. Save driving time by wirelessly synchronizing work orders with the office.
5. Reduce fuel costs by minimizing the need to drive back and forth to the office to deliver paper work.
6. Provide better customer service by accessing their account information via wireless connectivity on your handheld computer.
7. Improve the efficiency of field data collection by using barcode scanners or RFID readers for rapid asset tracking.
8. Improve the quality of work by providing real-time management visibility to work being done in the field.
9. Create and schedule service tickets direct from the field. Reduces the need for an administrative intermediary.
10. Immediate invoicing for faster collections and better cash management by synchronizing with the office accounting system or by using a mobile printer and credit card swipe machine on the handheld computer.
11. Proof of work – GPS audit trail of work with date and time stamp documents location and time of work. Reduces invoicing disputes.
12. Reduce introductions of human errors with automated business processes and systems integration. Move electronic data from the field to your database applications without human intervention.
13. Ensure complete data is sent from the field – incomplete data wastes time tracking down later.
14. Avoid handwriting and translation errors by pre-populating electronic form information.
15. Validate answers on mobile handheld PDA forms – to ensure data accuracy.
16. Take digital images to document work and avoid invoicing disputes.
17. Push data to the handheld and avoid time communicating information on the phone and writing on note pads.
18. GPS tracking for reduced travel time and lower fuel consumption.
19. Compute and analyze data on the handheld in the field – programmed analytics can help field users make quicker and better decisions.
20. Automated business processes - your mobile application can be configured to perform all kinds of automated business functions, queries, computations, analytics and many more time consuming features automatically based on data input or buttons pushed.
21. Enforce business processes for efficiency and best practices - mobile software solutions can be configured to ensure the field user follows the appropriate business processes.
22. Avoid lost data —capture data immediately and sync to headquarters.
23. Avoid undocumented inventory usage and unbilled time due to forgetfulness. Enforce real time data entry at point of work.
24. Require clock in and clock out at jobsites to document the accuracy of work/time estimates.
25. Train new service technicians and inspectors with audio memos or video clips.
26. Capture digital signature for proof-of-delivery and proof of work on handheld computers.
27. Query for available mobile inventory in nearby work vans to save travel time, inventory and fuel cost.
28. Use product and services information on handheld computers to up-sell.
29. Query latest shipping status and/or inventory levels via handheld computer while onsite with customer.
30. Automatically capture date and time stamps on your mobile handheld computer to document work and inspections times to limit liability and invoice disputes.
31. Use mobile technologies as a competitive advantage and show instant visibility to work, shipping status, schedules, inventory and account status.
32. Demonstrate to potential customers the competitive advantages of including GPS, time and date stamps, digital images, audio memos and more to document work and synchronize with the office using your handheld computer.
33. Download product warranty information to the handheld computer for review and presentation at the point of work.
34. Using rugged handhelds are often easier to carry around at job sites and are more durable than using laptops—lower ownership costs.
35. Mobile handheld computers with barcode scanners capture data quicker than typing on a laptop.
36. Combine your phone, GPS device, laptop, digital camera, paper forms and barcode scanner all on one mobile handheld device to save money, weight and support costs.
37. Combine job estimates, inspections, work orders, mobile inventory, time sheets all on one mobile application and one synchronization platform to mobilize and automate the entire business.
38. Scale your business by lowering administrative costs and the administrative work required to run the business.
39. Improve profits by analyzing real-time data collection on handhelds to understand the amount of time each task takes—so better scheduling and estimates can be implemented.
40. Push data to the handheld and avoid time communicating information on the phone.

How do you select the right handheld computer or Smart Phone?  This article lists 54 questions that will help you identify the right kind.

If you would like to discuss any of these topics in more detail, or to discuss your mobile project or application requirements please contact us.

48 Questions to Help You Select the Best Mobile Handheld Computers

There are a large number of very good handheld computers, PDAs, Tablet PCs, laptops and Smart Phones to select from, however, the key is to research the business purposes and the environment in which the solution will be used before making a selection.

1. What environment will you be working in - is it hot, cold, wet or dusty?
2. Are there explosive vapors or explosive powders?
3. Is it a clean office environment, or a muddy and rugged outdoors environment?
4. Is the user in and out of vehicles all day?
5. Is your software application focused exclusively on bar code scanning, RFID reading, GPS, or do you need a multi-purpose data collection device?
6. Will the hardware configuration ever need to be changed? Some handhelds can be configured at will; others are locked and can only be used with the original configuration.
7. Will the device be used as a primary phone, or is it focused on data collection?
8. What hardware requirements does your mobile application require?
9. Will the battery last long enough to complete your daily work between charges? Do you need back-up batteries? Can you use batteries purchased at the local market, or are they vendor specific?
10. What is your budget? What does the value of using a handheld computer justify spending?
11. Do you have enough budget to purchase or develop the mobile software and hardware you need?
12. Does your budget only allow for low cost consumer devices?
13. How many replacements(of a consumer device) does it take to equal the cost of a ruggedized handheld?
14. How do you replace broken devices? Can you get a replacement service in 24 hours, or must you wait a week?
15. What kind of support contracts and warranties are available?
16. How long will your new handheld computer be supported, serviced and manufactured by the vendor? Is it near end of life and being discounted for a reason?
17. Can you upgrade the operating system when Microsoft releases a new version of their mobile operating system?
18. Can you use standard laptop data cards in the handheld, or do you need to pay for high priced vendor specific cards?
19. Can you view the screen effectively in the sunlight?
20. Does the bar code scanner work effectively in real-world environment? Some scanners cannot scan effectively through glass or plastic.
21. Is the size and weight of the handheld appropriate for the user and environment?
22. Can your handheld computer support all the add-ons you require at the same time? Some devices can only support a specific number of add-on components so you are forced to choose. Some cannot support both a GPS and a data card at the same time. Some devices cannot support both a bar code scanner and a GPS add-on. This is an important consideration.
23. Do you need only a touch screen and navigation pad, a number pad or a full QWERTY keyboard? This is very important for user acceptance.
24. Is the handheld device also going to be used as a phone? Is a 2 pound industrial grade handheld really a usable phone?
25. Does your low cost consumer grade PDA need a rugged case like the ones Otterbox sells?
26. If you only have a budget for a low cost device, does it support the battery life and add-on components you require?
27. How will the device be transported around a job site? Will it strap to a belt, swing from a shoulder strap, sit in a holster or be mounted to the dashboard of your truck? Does your device support your chosen method?
28. Where is the closest inventory of extra handheld computers? Where is the closest repair depot?
29. Will your vendor loan you a device on trial?
30. Can you rent the handheld if you only need it for a short-term project?
31. Does your vendor take trade-ins on your old handheld computers?
32. Can you get the same exact handheld, under a different brand name for less?
33. How will your handheld computer send data back to the office? Cradle sync, WiFi, bluetooth, wireless data card, GPRS/GSM, CDMA?
34. What size screen do you need? Some devices like the Jett-Eye have a "landscape view" others a "portrait view" many have different sized screens. What do you require?
35. Do you need an integrated digital camera? Do you need a low or high resolution camera and does your device support it?
36. Does a refurbished device from Ryzex make better sense that a new device?
37. Where is your vendor's office? Are they in the neighborhood or on the other side of the planet? Does their location offer you the support and attention you deserve?
38. Does your handheld computer run on the same operating system that your mobile software solutions requires? I have had customers order Windows CE devices for their Windows Mobile application. It did not work.
39. Does your handheld computer come with a pistol grip or other straps that help you avoid dropping it?
40. Can you comfortably hold the device in your handheld and complete your work? Some devices have scanners on the side, on the end or underneath.
41. Can you effectively view the data you need? Some jobs simply require a full keyboard and a full screen for viewing large CAD files or Maps. Does your screen size match your requirements?
42. Where will you store the device when you use the washroom? One of my customers used Tablet PCs and they kept breaking when they slipped off of the sinks in the bathrooms.
43. Does the mobile device you select support the RFID reader you need for distance and accuracy?
44. Does the battery in the mobile handheld last long enough after you have added on all the additional hardware accessories? Each added radio uses more energy.
45. If you have dozens of handheld computers, how will you charge them all at the same time? Do you have a docking station that allows for all of your devices to both charge and synchronize at the same time?
46. Do you need wireless data plans, or does batch synchronziation after each shift work?
47. What wireless carrier and data plan provides the best service and cost for you? Does that wireless carrier support your mobile device?
48. Does the wireless carrier have sufficient coverage for your workers?

If you would like to discuss this topic in more detail please contact us.

Mobile Application Development Strategies here in Australia

The mobile application framework on the mobile handheld computer, Smart Phone or PDA can be thought of as a mini-EAI application (enterprise application integration platform). In the world of SAP they have NetWeaver for integrating all of the various applications together. NetWeaver is described as an integrated technology platform. Many different mobile software applications are found on a typical mobile device and they all need to be integrated together as well including:

• Radios - Bluetooth, wifi, RFID, GPS, Phone
• Data collectors - RFID, barcode scanners, digital images, voice memos, GPS, credit card swipers, mobile applications and forms
• Databases, synchronization technologies
• OS with downloadable applications

All of these various applications need to be integrated together using some kind of mobile integration technology platform. The OS can take care of many of the simple features and functionality, but a database driven integration platform for the mobile device is required if you are going to create various application layers that are all integrated into one downloadable mobile software application that can combine all of the necessary application functionality into one synchronization platform that is integrated with your back-office business applications.

Mobile applications have many unique requirements. Among these requirements are:

• GUI that can be resized quickly based upon the mobile device used
• Data collection fields and forms
• Mobile application workflow engine and validation features
• Data validation features
• Framework for pulling in data from third-party data collection hardware and software applications (barcode scanners, RFID, GPS, voice memos, credit card swipers, databases, etc)
• Mobile database (small databases optimized for mobile devices)
• Synchronization technology on the mobile device and on a central server

Mobile software application developers will want to find a good development toolkit for efficiently creating mobile applications. These toolkits can assist in quickly creating:

• Application GUIs
• Mobile databases
• Synchronization scripts
• Business Process Workflows
• Integration with third party data collection applications
• Tools for interacting with various button configurations on mobile devices
• Data validation features
• etc.

In addition to the basics listed above, it would also be very useful to have the following:

• Mobile application workflow engine (as described in this article)
• A mobile software kit based on your back-office ERP or database

Wouldn't it be nice to bring up a "work order ticket" on your Oracle or SAP system and immediately replicate the data requirements and valid data rules on your mobile device database? Today, this is a long and painful exercise. Each field in the SAP or Oracle database for that specific application would have to be analyzed to determine what is a valid data entry. The validation rules, would need to be individually documented and recreated on the mobile application database manually. An ERP centric mobile application toolkit would quickly transfer those data validation requirements to the mobile application that would be collecting the data and synchronizing back to the office.

If you have not developed industrial strength mobile applications before, it may be good to work with some experienced mobile application developers on the first few.  If you are in Australia, you can contact us to discuss your mobile application requirements here. There are strategies that experienced mobile application developers employ that can save you much time and pain.

SAP and Mobile Software Application Workflows in the Field

The way business processes are designed, implemented and standardized within a company can often mean the difference between success and failure. If often takes years of trial and error, and sometimes flashes of brilliance to come up with just the right business process that will mean success and competitive advantages.

Once the perfect business process is proven it needs to be implemented and automated. Why automated? Because humans are forgetful and have even been known to be from time to time lazy. They want to cut corners and avoid that which is tiresome. Automation enforces and manages the perfect business process.

For years software vendors and ERP developers like SAP have developed applications that help design workflows and workflow engines to run them. These provide the technology infrastructure within the enterprise to automate these business processes and to ensure they are followed, however, once an employee exits the building and drives away in a company van to perform a task remotely, the automated business process breaks down. Suddenly, the business processes that you have spent years perfecting are useless. The employee has broken the "connection" and walked out the door to freedom.

Even today, most mobile field service workers leave the building with a clipboard and a stack of paper service tickets or work orders. How they perform their work, in what order and the processes they utilize in the field are now unsupervised and up for interpretation. The field service technicians often don't much care for the business processes designed by the teams of MBAs in suits at the office. They have their own preferences and opinions about how things should be done, and in remote jobsites who is going to argue?

Many large companies have up to 40% of their employees working remotely and/or in the field on jobsites. How can the SAP or other ERP Business Process Expert design and implement business processes that can be utilized and enforced in mobile and remote locations? This is a challenge worth resolving.

Think about it, a company pays tens of millions of dollars implementing SAP internally and designing business processes and workflows to operate their enterprise. Yet for many services based businesses the money is earned outside the office at remote locations. The location where the customer interaction takes place and where the money is made is often devoid of best in class business process automation.

Mobile applications that need to synchronize with ERPs, should implement mobile workflow support. This requires a client server architecture whereby the mobile client software understands that a workflow or event manager is associated with a particular process and the server also understands that it is both producing and consuming data with the mobile device that is part of an event or workflow. Let me provide a scenario.

A service technician has a ruggded PDA or other mobile device on his belt. He receives an alert that he needs to be dispatched to a jobsite. This initiates a business process with a workflow associated with it. A series of tasks that make up the dispatch and completion of a service ticket are now initiated. The tasks may include:

1. Dispatch receives a service call
2. This initiates a series of tasks including estimating the availability and analyzing the location of all service technicians in the area.
3. Once the nearest available service technician is identified a service dispatch can be sent
4. Service technician confirms availability and accepts the job
5. Least cost and fastest routing information is sent
6. Service technician arrives at the jobsite and pushes a button on his mobile device annoucing his arrival.
7. Arrival message synchronizes with the server workflow or event manager notifying dispatch of his location on site.
8. The workflow may include an inspection, detailed findings, proposed solution, repair and collection of the fee
9. Any parts needed will be automatically deducted from the service vehicle's inventory
10. The workflow can also include sales and marketing activities such as promoting an Annual Service plan or equipment upgrade to the customer
11. The repair is complete, the customer's digital signature is captured and dispatch is notified
12. The service technician is available for another job

In this scenario, the mobile client application using a workflow engine that interacts with the server side application steps the service technician through the various tasks included in the business process. These steps can be directions in the form of alerts, messages, next steps, data fields that require input, and feedback from the dispatch office. Each step of the workflow required input from the service technician to confirm that the step had been completed and this information was in turn synchronized with the server side workflow engine. This enables the best practices supported by the company to be practiced and supervised in the field.

SAP has a solution called Event Manager. It is designed to manage activities happening across a geographically dispersed supply chain. It requires data input via B2B and EDI data communications. Similarly, mobile applications can feed data into a centralized workflow or event management solution that helps support and ensure best practices across remote jobsites.

A workflow engine and a mobile client version of a mobile workflow engine is required by companies that want to standardize business processes in the field where interactions with customers take place and where revenue is earned.

To discuss this subject in more detail or other mobile applications we have implemented in Australia please visit our website or contact us.

Mobile Software Applications - 58 Questions the IT Helpdesk Needs to Know

Often the focus of a mobile software project is on gathering the functional requirements, designing, developing and deploying the mobile solution, but little or no advanced focus is given to the question of how to support it once it is deployed. The following list contains many of the questions your IT helpdesk and support department will want to know:

1. Who does the field worker call if there is a mobile device problem?
2. Who does the field worker call if their mobile application is not synchronizing?
3. Who trains new employees on how to use the mobile application?
4. If there is a mobile software problem, who fixes it - IT, consultant, contractor, or your systems integrator?  How do you get in contact with them?
5. Who does the field worker call if the mobile application needs edited or upgraded?
6. If the user downloads a new version of the mobile operating system and the mobile application doesn't work, who will repair it?  How do you prevent mobile users from downloading new software applications that might break the system?
7. Who defines the business process you are mobilizing? They may need to approve any changes to the business process.
8. Who controls the security of the device? How do you set-up a new user to securely access the enterprise database? What kinds of security rules must the field user follow? Do different users have different security profiles? Is there a standard set of rules for mobile devices across the enterprise?
9. Who controls access to the enterprise database application (a DBA)?
10. Will the Database Administrator allow you to synchronize data directly to their enterprise database application, or do they want a "staging database" or API layer to review all data before it is loaded to the enteprise database application. They will likely be involved in any future changes to the mobile application.
11. How many different enterprise database applications are synchronizing with a mobile device? If there is a sync problem, how do you know what database applications may be impacted?
12. If you hire an additional field worker, how do you order an additional mobile device? Whose budget covers this? Who is the vendor?  What support plan or insurance plan should be included?
13. Who decides if the new mobile device needs to be ruggedized or a consumer grade? What level of ruggedness is required for the specific user?
14. Do different job functions require different devices, carriers and wireless data service plans?
15. Who decides what brand of mobile devices are going to be the company standard?
16. Where do you purchase your mobile devices if one breaks or you need to add one to your inventory? Do you have a corporate discount or volume discount?
17. How do you control the variable costs of using a data plan from a local wireless carrier? What happens if the costs of the data services gets out of control? Who pays for it?
18. Are the mobile devices or the mobile software solutions under warranty?
19. Is there a yearly support contract IT needs to know about? How much? Whose budget?
20. What is the account number the warranty is under?
21. How do you set-up a new data plan with your wireless carrier? Who does that in the company? What is the account number so you can add subscribers? Whose budget pays for it?
22. What happens when Microsoft releases a new Windows Mobile operating system and you can only purchase mobile devices with the new OS on them? Who is going to upgrade your mobile software solutions so they work with the new OS?
23. What happens when the field engineer tromps off across 2 miles of muddy field to work at a construction site, but the battery on his handheld computer is not fully charged and it dies about 10 minutes after he gets there? What is the backup battery plan?
24. What happens when text messages, photos, videos, music, and 97 saved solitaire games claims all the memory on the PDA and the Construction application becomes either too slow or unreliable because of low memory?
25. How do you know when your mobile workers are synchronizing the latest information? You don't want mobile workers going days without synchronizing their device.
26. When you send an updated software application to your mobile workers, how do you know who is using the new application and who is still on the old?
27. How do you disable synchronization on a lost mobile device?
28. How do you kill and/or protect your data on the mobile device if it is lost or stolen?
29. How do you keep track of which workers are using which mobile devices? If there is an operating system update, or firmware update, how do you know who needs it?
30. What is the process for bringing mobile handhelds into the IT department for repairs and upgrades?  Is there a central location, or should various locations be scheduled on specific dates.
31. If you are taking care of many different mobile field workers and many different mobile devices with a variety of operating systems and screen sizes, how do you track who gets what?
32. If you have a project manager that requires visibility to more data than other workers, how do you manage different views on the handheld computer?
33. Some mobile projects require different levels of security, for different levels of data visibility. How would you manage and track that?
34. Some applications require barcode, RFID, GPS, digital camera and other specialized data collection accessories, while others don't. How does the IT Helpdesk track the brand, version and other details of these accessories?
35. If a dump truck backs over your supervisor's $1800 ruggedized computer and crushes it into hundreds of unidentifiable pieces, how do you get a replacement out to the supervisor with the exact application and data that is required?
36. If a mobile device needs repaired - what is the process for keeping your field workers operating without it? Do you have a stock of spare mobile devices?
37. How do you deploy new mobile applications to your 1,300 mobile device users? Must they bring all their devices back to the IT department, or can you publish new applications directly to the handheld computer?
38. How do you support the mobile device, when the user has limited computer knowledge and is sitting on the top of a utility pole? What tools can the IT Helpdesk use to help diagnose problems?
39. How do you recognize a defective mobile device that is being shared by 12 different mobile workers? Do you have a method of identifying which problems are being reported on a particular device or are you logging support calls only by users?
40. What is your process for dispatching work orders to service technicians when they are disconnected or out of range of cellular and wireless networks? A process needs to be defined.
41. What is your synchronization plan for each mobile worker? Can they sync in the morning and evening at their office desk, or do they need to sync every 5 minutes or in real-time?
42. What is the synchronization plan for a service technician that rarely has wireless network access? Does it justify a satellite up-link? (Sears Service Technicians use both)
43. How do you know when information was successfully synchronized with a mobile device in the field? Can you see and determine the success of the synchronization from the IT Helpdesk?
44. What is an acceptable synchronization time? Is it 20 seconds, 2 minutes, 20 minutes? Does the IT Helpdesk know what times are acceptable so they can consider this when configuring a new user?
45. How much data can be synchronized in a given period of time on the chosen connectivity option? Is that an acceptable speed for the task at hand?
46. Who determines the hardware requirements that support the mobile application and desired synchronization speeds?
47. When a new mobile software application is developed, who tests its operating speed on different devices, processors, memory levels and connectivity options to determine what is acceptable and what is not?
48. When you are updating or reconfiguring an enterprise database, how do you know what mobile applications and mobile users will be impacted by these changes? How do you manage this update process?
49. How does the IT Helpdesk know which one of the 17 mobile applications on the handheld computer is having a synchronization problem?
50. If you are supporting 174 work crews and their mobile devices around the globe, how do you know where they are located, and who is responsible for them?
51. How does the IT Helpdesk know if a mobile device is using a cradle, modem, bluetooth, wireless, USB, satellite or Cellular connection to synchronize? The IT Helpdesk really wants to know before they begin working on the issue.
52. What wireless carrier, technology and through-put speed is the mobile device using? Is it GPRS, GSM, CDMA, Edge or some other network configuration?
53. Do you need to stagger the synchronization times?  One of my clients had a problem with 300 mobile workers downloading large product catalogs all at the same time each month.  The first Monday of the month.  This caused a bottleneck and slow downloading time.
54. What do you do with old and retired mobile handheld devices? Companies like Ryzex buy back old handheld mobile devices and recycle them.
55. What rugged or semi-rugged cases are required to protect the mobile device?
56. What add on assessories are supported on the mobile device?  Ear pieces, GPS, add-on RFID, barcode scanners?  Who supports these and where do you order replacements?
57. Does the same mobile application work on rugged mobile handhelds as mobile consumer devices?  What employees get the different levels of rugged devices?
58. Do you have a corporate account with a mobile device reseller that will repair all of the different mobile devices or do you work with many different vendors with different support and warranty plans. 

These questions are very important and need to be answered upfront.  If you would like to discuss this subject in more detail please email.