The Law of Mobility

The Law of Mobility states that the value of any product or service increases with its mobility. Improvements typically realized from a mobile solution include a reduction of paper, streamlining of non-value added and redundant processes, an increase in overall productivity, elimination of manual processes, reduced labor costs and overtime, and increased quality and reliability of information. ~Russell McGuire, The Power of Mobility

Russell McGuire has provided us with a concise description of the value of mobile applications. Here are 39 detailed reasons to mobilize your business.

Mobilizing business processes enables you to gain visibility into work done in the field, helps to ensure quality work, enables you to reduce administrative work and invoice for field services quicker.

Chain of Custody & Mobile Handheld PDAs

MobileDataforce is currently working on a very important mobile software project for implementation in Africa. It involves the transportation and delivery of AIDs medicine. The project enables the organization to track and validate that the medicine that is intended for a specific location actually arrives at that location. In one of the most recent mobility projects we delivered - the transportation of the medicine required a total of 8 signatures to be captured at the various supply depots along the way. These signatures were from the individuals accountable for verifying the correct medicine, in the correct amounts had arrived and been forwarded.

The organizations responsible for transporting and delivering the medicine is looking at standard consumer grade PDA phones using Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS. They will wirelessly sync the chain-of-custody information back to a database in North America for accountability and auditing.

Mobile Software Applications in Africa

Who would have thought it? MobileDataforce is working on a long list of very large mobile software application projects in Africa. In my original business plan for MobileDataforce, I must admit that the continent of African did not play a significant role in my 5 year plan.

Much of our work in Africa revolves around mobilizing government projects, water delivery, medicine delivery, logistics and inspections. A lot of these projects originate in Europe or North America but extend to Africa.

The mobile software application industry is certainly very exciting and ever changing. It is fasinating how new opportunities pop-up in unexpected industries and geographies on nearly a daily basis.

Managing Remote Locations & Franchises with Handheld PDAs

One of my marketing team members, Matt Jantz, has been working with a number of franchise companies that are interested in mobile handheld PDA solutions. He compiled the following list of reasons why a company with franchises or remote locations may want to mobilize their business processes.

1. Streamline business process with immediate data transference from handheld devices to main office


2. Save money, administration costs and time by going paperless


3. Ensure business processes are being carried out correctly by franchisees and their employees


4. Protect franchise name and reputation by ensuring processes are being completed to franchise standards


5. Improve time and cost efficiencies by eliminating data interpretation and entry into home database


6. Improve customer service by providing customers with prompt billing and service information


7. Receive payment for service faster by getting payment on site (mobile credit card processing and or using mobile printers) or sending customer invoices and billing faster


8. Ensure that employees are recording necessary customer and job information correctly on site with the use of data integrity features: data will not be sent to home office until required fields are complete


9. Track sales at every location to ensure the franchising company gets their agreed upon percentage of sales from franchisees


10. Ensure delivery and receipt of equipment and supplies by tracking them from origin to final destination


11. Use handheld devices for onsite reference and training to help new associates learn the process and maintain the franchise reputation


12. Allow field technicians to locate parts necessary for given jobs, retrieve pricing information, and provide accurate repair estimates


13. Gain a technological competitive advantage over competition, which can be leveraged to smite competition and retain franchisees

MobileDataforce has delivered many world class mobile solutions for companies that have franchise models.

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.
    
    

iPAQ Handheld PDAs Everywhere

Our office is covered with many HP iPAQ handheld PDAs today. They are getting installed with a mobile supply chain logistics application that is being used to track supplies heading to various clinics in Africa that treat Aids patients. My PSO (professional services organization) team developed this custom mobile application to our customer's specifications and is now helping install all of the mobile applications on the PDAs in preparation for use in the field.

Our customer selected the iPAQ 694o with an Otterbox as a protective cover.

New Palm Treo 500v

Palm has released a new version of the popular Treo series - Palm Treo 500v. It sounds like it will be available in Europe in October and available from Vodafone. It will be using Windows Mobile 6.0. I think the Palm OS may be going away soon.

The Palm Treo 500v and the Palm 750w (available in the USA from AT&T) are good examples of "convergent" devices. Devices that can handle both your work and your play. For companies like MobileDataforce, devices like these mean more business owners, managers and field technicians will be using mobile devices capable of handling mobile field service applications. Good job Palm!

MobileDataforce in Singapore

MobileDataforce expands into Singapore with NetCob Technologies Pte Ltd partnership.

Netcob IT Consultancy Services

We provide professional IT consultancy services to various organizations, including MNCs, government agencies and regional SMEs. Our service covers:
- Enterprise Solutions such as ERP, CRM and EDMS;
- Infrastructure and networking solutions;
- Radio Frequency Identification;
- Security Solutions;
- Enterprise CAD/GIS strategy;

MobileDataforce Australia Launches New Website

Our team in Australia has launched a new MobileDataforce website for our customers and business partners down under. We are involved in some very interesting projects in Australia and in New Zealand.

iPAQ 900 Series Business Messenger

Have you seen the new mobile device line up by HP? They have some interesting new Windows Mobile devices. The device shown in this image is the iPAQ Business Messenger. Here is a description.

MobileDataforce provides software for developing a wide variety of mobile business applications and data collection solutions on handheld computers. We love PDA phones running Windows Mobile OS. This PDA phone has a keyboard for data entry and the connectivity to synchronize data from just about anywhere in the world that has wireless network coverage.

Pipeline Construction & Inspection and Handheld Computers

We are working with a large civil engineering firm on a 500 mile pipeline construction project. The engineering firm is using the PointSync Mobility Platform to do environmental impact data collection in the field. If there is a negative environmental impact, then remedial plans and efforts must be implemented. They first collect data on a location before the pipeline is installed, and later conduct follow-up data collection once the pipeline has been constructed to monitor the impact on the environment.