Interesting New Projects

It is never dull here at MobileDataforce. Every day has its own set of interesting new projects. Here are some of the latest business processes and projects we are reviewing or mobilizing:

• Time sheets
• Pet vaccination tracking
• Tracking medicine shipping to Africa
• Concrete testing
• Government housing inspection projects
• Subway system switch inspections
• Tracking condom distribution to clinics
• Beverage distribution and promotion system
• Clinical studies on sever spinal injuries
• Electronic Patient diaries for Hemophiliac patients
• ATM repair and maintenance
• Heating ventilation and air condition work orders
• Electric company's work order system
• Oxygen delivery
• Propane delivery
• Medical supply delivery
• Much more...

MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform is used by companies around the world to mobilize a wide variety of business processes.

Wal-Mart and Mobile Handheld Solutions - Symbol MC50

I was shopping at Wal-Mart last night. OK!!! I needed food and it was there. As I am prone to do...I stopped a Wal-Mart employee who was walking by with a Symbol MC50 in her hand and asked how she was using it. She said their new system allows her to approve or disapprove any issues at the cash register while working anywhere in the building. She simply punches in here ID on the transaction in question and selects here options to approve or disapprove. It saves management the time and exercise of running from the back room to the front cash register all day long. I wonder how this anti-exercise technology effects the manager in question?

The process described above does have some interesting lessons. How often do field service technicians have questions, or need approval to purchase items for a project? Perhaps they need a part, filter, tool etc. How much time is wasted trying to track down the operations manager on the golf course just to get a simple approval. Wal-Mart provides another useful process that involves handheld computers.

MobileDataforce provides a mobile software development platform for mobilizing all kinds of business processes.

Appforge Users - What are the Choices?

MobileDataforce has had dozens of calls from Appforge users looking for new and different options for mobile application development. We generally present them with the following options:

1. Use .NET to develop mobile applications and a mobile application platform


2. Use a "rapid application development solution for mobile environments" like MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform.

MobileDataforce® PointSync is a complete mobility platform, used to rapidly design, develop and deploy business critical mobile applications to the field force. The PointSync® Mobility Platform is an enterprise class solution architected to provide database centric applications with full bi-directional synchronization and security for use on handheld computers, Smart Phones, Tablet PCs and Laptops.

It really depends on if your interest is a cool IT development project, or if you simply want the mobile application done so you deploy and start using it. If your interest is really the completed project, not the development experience, then using the PointSync Mobility Platform is likely going to get you deployed in the field in a fraction of the time and with a lot less cost and effort.

If you would like a personal demonstration of the PointSync Mobility Platform click here.

Otterbox & HP iPAQ Drop Test

Question - What does MobileDataforce do with old HP iPAQs?

Answer - We place them in a variety of rugged Otterbox cases and drop them to see if they will break.

Details: We dropped the HP iPAQ many times from 8 feet. We used 2 different Otterboxs and we could not break the iPAQ inside. We then used a rugged iPAQ case from HP. The rugged case shattered, but not the iPAQ. So if you had a large number of HP cases, the iPAQ would be fine.

Enteprise Mobile Solutions Report

Aberdeen Group reports that 80% of survey respondents are planning for increases in PDAs with wireless access and more complex devices with data applications and network connectivity. These new devices require management of the full life cycle from sourcing, procurement, connectivity assistance, applications support, security, data back-up, device replacement, through retirement.

In an earlier blog article I wrote in detail about the support requirements of enterprise mobile solutions. Companies simply need to understand that mobile devices and wireless networks often come with a new and fresh set of support considerations.

iAnywhere / Sybase has invested heavily into developing enterprise solutions for managing mobile devices called Afaria.

Faster and Faster Wireless Networks

In this article T-Mobile and Vodafone announce faster mobile data service offerings that will be available later this year. What does this mean? Larger amounts of data in the form of maps, photos, audio files, video files and VoIP will be able to be sent at faster speeds. This has a lot of relevance for companies dispatching work orders, CAD files, blue prints, Maps, etc.

Visitors will be able to test HSDPA service at data speeds up to 7.2M bps (bits per second) and HSUPA at speeds up to 1.45M bps at the T-Mobile and Vodafone booths. That compares with the operators' current 3.6M bps HSDPA and 1M bps HSUPA.

Around the globe, enterprise users of mobile data service seek higher speeds to send and fetch large PowerPoint presentations and e-mail attachments as well as for using company intranet services more effectively.

T-Mobile plans to offer 7.2M bps HSDPA service later this year, according to Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann.

Vodafone, which is currently testing 7.2M bps HSDPA in a handful of cities, plans to launch commercial services in several large metropolitan areas in the coming markets, a company spokeswoman said.

51 Questions the IT Department Wants Answered when Supporting Mobile Solutions

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 focus is given to the question of how to support it once it is deployed.

Here are some of the support issues to consider:

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 hires on how to use the mobile application?
4. If there is a mobile software problem, who fixes it - IT, consultant, contractor, systems integrator, software provider or your cousin Howie?
5. Who does the field worker call if the mobile application needs edited?
6. Who defines the business process you are mobilizing? They may need to approve any changes to the business process.
7. 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?
8. Who controls access to the enterprise database application (a DBA)?
9. 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 enterprise database application. They will likely be involved in any future changes to the mobile application.
10. How many different enterprise database applications are synchronizing with a mobile device? If there is a sync problem, how do you know what database application may be impacted?
11. If you hire an additional field worker, how do you order an additional mobile device? Whose budget covers this?
12. Who decides if the new mobile device needs to be ruggedized or a consumer grade? What level of ruggedness is required?
13. Do different job functions require different devices, carriers and wireless data service plans?
14. Who decides what brand of mobile devices are going to the company standard?
15. 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?
16. 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?
17. Are the mobile devices or the mobile software solutions under warranty?
18. Is there a yearly support contract IT needs to know about? How much? Whose budget?
19. What is the account number the warranty is under?
20. 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?
21. 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?
22. 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?
23. What happens when text messages, 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?
24. 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.
25. 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?
26. How do you disable synchronization on a lost mobile device?
27. How do you kill and/or protect your data on the mobile device if it is lost or stolen?
28. 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?
29. 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 know who gets what?
30. 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?
31. Some mobile projects require different levels of security, for different levels of data visibility. How would you manage and track that?
32. 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?
33. 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?
34. 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?
35. 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?
36. 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?
37. 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?
38. 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.
39. 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?
40. 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)
41. How do you know when information was successfully synchronized with a mobile device in the field? Are you depending on Wilbert to know what the word synchronization means, or can you see determine the success of the synchronization from the IT Helpdesk?
42. 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?
43. 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?
44. Who determines the hardware requirements that support the mobile application and desired synchronization speeds?
45. 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?
46. 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?
47. How does the IT Helpdesk know which one of the 17 mobile applications on the handheld computer is having a synchronization problem?
48. 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? How do you know the devices are being sold on eBay?
49. 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.
50. What wireless carrier, technology and through-put speed is the mobile device using? Is it GPRS, GSM, CDMA, Edge or some other network configuration?
51. What do you do with old and retired mobile handheld devices? Companies like Ryzex buy back old handheld mobile devices and recycle them.
    

These are just a few of the support issues that companies must consider once their mobile applications are deployed. There are several companies that have designed software applications specifically for this purpose. iAnywhere / Sybase's market leading Afaria application is designed for managing and supporting mobile devices. MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform has mobile application support designed into its PointSync Manager.

Ryzex Visit in Bellingham, Washington

Last week I had the opportunity of visiting Ryzex in beautiful Bellingham, WA. Ryzex is a very interesting company that sells new, used and refurbished handheld computers. Their business model supports the purchase of old and used handheld computers from their clients, and upgrading them with new hardware. They also have a rental program for companies needing short-term data collection devices.

As I walked through their facilities I saw workstations where engineers were repairing devices, disassembling devices and cleaning used devices. I saw a warehouse full of handheld computer parts and add-on components. It was a very interesting tour and I left impressed with the scope of their services and offerings. They sell and service a wide range of handheld computers including Psion Teklogix, Symbol, Intermec and others.

My interest in all of these handheld devices of course is that they require software in order to be of any use. MobileDataforce develops all kinds of applications for mobile handheld computers and it is important for us to understand all the different technologies, plug-ins and add-on components and how we can best support them.