Visibility - Mobile Software on PDAs & Handheld Computers

My PSO (professional services organization) team has been assisting several organizations around the world this month on projects with a common theme - visibility. Let me explain:

Managers are often responsible for field work in locations where they are not physically present. They are personally accountable for the work delivered, but often have limited visibility into it. This is ALWAYS a challenge and a big risk.

In the last few days we have been working on mobile solutions that provide the following benefits:

• Help a large Paintless Dent Repair franchiser track the quality of work through mobile and onsite customer surveys, work orders and inspections
• Track the shipping and delivery of medicine throughout Africa and South America using mobile handheld computers that synchronize to a central database
• Help a construction manager document construction project inspections for many projects in different geographies, log each issue, assign a contractor to fix the work, reinspect and document
• Help a pharmaceutical company monitor their customers and any change of conditions in the USA and Canada
• Help a service company track their work orders, the time each service ticket takes to resolve, and the location of every service technician
• Help a shuttle service dispatch vans and track pick-ups and deliveries

Each of these examples demonstrate how companies that have work locations distributed over wide geographic areas can have better visibility into the work being done in the field.

Here are some of the tools that mobile handheld computers provide to help remote managers better track the work:

• GPS - vehicle and technician tracking
• Date and time stamps integrated with GPS to show the time a vehicle or technician was at a specific location
• GPS/Date & Time Stamp/Connected to Work Order or service ticket to provide evidence of work completed at a location and time
• Onsite customer survey - get real-time customer feedback on the quality of work performed so issues can be resolved immediately
• Digital images of before, during and after work performed. Photographic evidence associated with digital signatures, customer feedback and GPS coordinates are powerful tools for remote managers
• Inspections - upload and synchronize inspection data to the remote manager. The remote manager can then assign people/organizations to fix issues discovered on the inspection and monitor the repairs. This enables remote managers to effectively have "eyes and ears" at the jobsite and manage resolutions.

In summary, the collection of field data through human input on mobile handheld computers, plus technology like GPS, digital photography, mobile synchronization, digital signatures, mobile forms and shared websites to show real-time reports enable talented and experienced managers to effectively manage their areas of responsibilities remotely. This reduces risk, promotes field accountability, quality work and peace of mind for the managers and their companies. The ability to use and scale the talent and experience of your best managers over more projects located in more areas is a huge asset.

These are the kinds of mobile solutions MobileDataforce helps companies design, develop, deploy and support worldwide every day. If you would like to brainstorm about how a mobile solution might help your project or company please email us or call 208-384-1200.

Building Businesses with PDAs and Mobile Software Solutions

I have written a great deal on the value of specific mobile solutions like the following:

• Mobile Work/Service Orders
• Mobile Inspections
• Mobile Job Estimates
• Mobile Asset Tracking
• Mobile Delivery Solutions

Today I want to focus on some key problems businesses face, and how mobile solutions can help solve these problems. When a company expands beyond the capabilities of the owner/manager, new employees or contractors must be added. This can often introduce the following kinds of problems:

• Inexperienced workers
• Unreliable workers
• Irresponsible workers
• Uncommitted workers
• Forgetful workers
• Thieves and felons on the payroll

These problems can lead to the following set of issues:

• Unhappy customers
• Cost overruns
• Incomplete and/or incorrect paperwork
• Inaccurate job estimates
• Work quality issues
• Slow work production
• Lost tools and equipment
• Management headaches

Believe it or not - many of these issues can be improved and corrected by using mobile software applications on handheld computers to help ensure the best work in the field. Handheld computers can help the owner/manager keep better tabs on the work and equipment in the field, ensure completed and correct paperwork, monitor customer satisfaction, and get real time notification if the job is taking longer than anticipated.

For more information on mobile solutions that can help in these areas please visit our website.

38 Reasons to Mobilize Your Business

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 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
    Push data to the handheld and avoid time communicating information on the phone.
17. GPS tracking for reduced travel time and lower fuel consumption.
18. Compute and analyze data on the handheld in the field – programmed analytics can help field users make quicker and better decisions.
19. 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.
20. Enforce business processes for efficiency and best practices - mobile software solutions can be configured to ensure the field user follows the appropriate business processes.
21. Avoid lost data —capture data immediately and sync to headquarters.
22. Avoid undocumented inventory usage and unbilled time due to forgetfulness. Enforce real time data entry at point of work.
23. Require clock in and clock out at jobsites to document the accuracy of work/time estimates.
24. Train new service technicians and inspectors with audio memos or video clips.
25. Capture digital signature for proof-of-delivery and proof of work on handheld computers.
26. Query for available inventory in nearby work vans to save travel time, inventory and fuel cost.
27. Use product and services information on handheld computers to up-sell.
28. Query latest shipping status and/or inventory levels via handheld computer while onsite with customer.
29. Document work and inspections time and dates to limit liability and disputes
    Use mobile technologies as a competitive advantage and show instant visibility to work.
30. Demonstrate to potential customers the 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.
31. Download product warranty information to the handheld computer for review at point of work.
32. Using rugged handhelds are often easier to carry around at job sites and are more durable than using laptops—lower ownership costs.
33. Mobile handheld computers with barcode scanners capture data quicker than typing on a laptop.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. Scale your business by lowering administrative costs and the administrative work required to run the business.
37. 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.
38. Push data to the handheld and avoid time communicating information on the phone.
    
    

Using Mobile Software Applications & Handheld Computers for Inspections

I often get asked what markets we focus on with our mobile software applications. My first reaction is to say only the markets that have money, but that is not true...we are particular...we prefer Euros now days! The real answer is that inspection services is very big for us.



In the inspections services market nearly every customer has unique data collection requirements. They can not simply go to Office Depot and find a handheld PDA software application that meets their unique inspection service needs. What is required is the ability to cost effectively customize a mobile inspection solution in a relatively short period of time. We developed the PointSync Mobility Platform for that purpose.



Most inspections follow a common process. From a high level software technology perspective an inspection looks like this:

1. Create and upload an electronic inspection form to a handheld computer
2. Capture data
3. Synchronize data and integrate data with the office database application

When you drill down a bit deeper it looks like:

1. Development tools for creating electronic inspection forms quickly


2. Add pick lists and drop down menus of items to inspect (to speed up inspections)


3. Add the measuring scale for inspections (i.e. excellent/good/fair/poor)


4. Add data validation to ensure quality data is capture


5. Add business rules to the handheld inspection form (i.e. the answer is invalid if it says the VW can carry 76 passengers)


6. Configure connectivity preferences (i.e. wireless, wifi, cable, satellite, etc.)


7. Configure the synchronization process


8. Configure the security settings


9. Configure integration of data with the designated database


10. Manage application updates and versions


11. Manage mobile users


12. Manage a large variety of unique mobile applications


13. Manage mobile devices

Two of the key words above are "Configure" and "Manage". You don't want to be required to program or code these items. It takes far too long and is far too expensive. You need a rapid application development tool for mobile inspections. You want to be able to design, develop and deploy new custom inspections quickly and cost effectively.

Some of our biggest mobile inspection customers are electrical utilities, food processing companies, electrical contractors, government agencies, construction engineering firms, etc. The common theme is a huge amount of data needs to flow easily and cost effectively between the field and the office over handheld computers, laptops or Tablet PCs.

If you would like to brainstorm about how to mobilize your inspection processes please contact us.

Electric & Water Utilities and Mobile Inspection Software

In the past week MobileDataforce has been contacted by over 20 electrical and water utilities. It seems mobile inspection software from MobileDataforce fills a significant need for them. Here are just a few of the inspections and other mobile applications that are common in the electrical industry:

Power Plant Inspections
Asset Management - Conditional Assessment
Meter Repair & Maintenance
Line & Pole Inspections
Stray Voltage Inspections
Health and Safety Inspections
Pole Inspections
Weld Tracking
Construction Management
Health & Safety
Facilities Management
Substation Inspections
GIS and mobile applications

Mobile Inspections in City Government

MobileDataforce has worked with a lot of municipal governments on mobilizing inspections. Here is a list of the departments in a typical city that conduct regular inspections:

• City Engineering


• City Land Use


• City Forestry


• City Historic Development


• City "Right-of-Way"


• City Traffic Engineers


• City Building Inspectors


• City Fire Marshall


• City Electrical Inspectors


• City Mechanical Inspectors


• City Plumbing Inspectors

Many of these departments may have multiple inspections they must perform. In the Fire Marshall department alone they have quite the selection:

• Fire Alarm


• Cooking Equipment


• Wall Rating


• Wall Penetrations


• Above Ceiling


• Exit and Emergency Lights


• Sprinklers


• Panic Hardware


• Standpipe


• Emergency Extinguishers


• Many more...

These departments and their associated inspections represent a lot of field data collection activities and internal office data entry. It is easy to see why MobileDataforce provides a lot of mobile inspection software to these agencies and departments.

Mobile Inspection Software

Mobile inspection software solutions are the topic of the week. Why? Many of MobileDataforce's largest global customers are in the inspection services business. In addition, rarely are inspections done in an office cubicle. They are most often completed somewhere away from the office and often out-of-doors. My engineering team has been developing and enhancing the PointSync Mobility Platform for many years specifically for companies that have a need to use a wide variety of different inspection applications and other mobile applications in the field.



The image in the upper right corner of this blog - is a screen shot of the PointSync Developer. This is the application companies use to develop each customized inspection. Once the mobile application is designed, developed and deployed the work can begin.

Because the inspection services industry covers such a wide variety of inspections, MobileDataforce created a mobile inspection platform to support the requirements for quickly changing them. Here is a list of a few of the common inspection applications:

• Building Inspections
• Power Pole Inspections
• Substation Inspections
• Stray Voltage Inspections
• Power Generation Plant Inspections
• Pipeline Inspections
• Health & Safety Inspections
• Scaffold Inspections
• Mold Inspections
• Fire Safety Inspections
• Conditional Assessment Inspections
• Auto Inspections
• End of lease vehicle inspections
• Quality Assurance Inspections
• etc...

The list is endless. No one would buy a separate mobile application for each of the thousands of different possible inspections. Companies want an mobile inspection platform that can support all of these possible scenarios. That solution is the PointSync Mobility Platform for Inspections.

Canyon County Idaho Selects MobileDataforce for Mobile Building Inspection Solution

Canyon County Idaho has selected MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform to mobilize their Building Inspection processes. In 2006 Canyon County experienced rapid growth and record breaking building inspection requirements. In order to meet the high demand, they sought a method to streamline their building inspection processes through mobilization. The result of this search is that MobileDataforce was selected to both develop and implement a mobilized building inspection process for Canyon County.

MobileDataforce and The Journal of The American Society of Safety Engineers

I was sent an interesting article today from the Journal of The American Society of Safety Engineers. It is called Best Practices - Audits & Inspections:Improving Efficiency with Technology By Rob Retzlaff. I wonder if all the members of this society carry sanitizing solution with them at their conferences?

The most interesting part of the article is it identifies MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform as a key software solution for "improving efficiency" when it comes to inspections and audits.