Global Warming & Mobile Handheld PDAs

MobileDataforce is seeing more and greater effects from global warming and energy issues on our business. In our case, the effects are positive for our business. We have a growing reputation as a preferred provider of mobile solutions for large services companies that work on utility and government contracts. My mobility experts in our professional services organization can quickly and cost effectively deliver just about any custom mobile software application that is required by utilities and government agencies. Here are some examples of current projects we are working on that are related to global warming and energy issues:

• Energy efficiency inspection and service ticket applications for utilities
• Water efficiency inspection applications and service ticket applications
• Disaster & Damage inspection and repair estimate applications
• Public housing inspections in the Benelux
• Housing Inspections in the UK
• Canyon County Building Inspection application

Many of these projects are motivated by the need to conserve energy. In the case of both the mobile energy efficiency and water efficiency applications the purpose is to reduce the use of these two scarce resources.

The building applications and housing inspection applications are focused on compliance with government regulations. These include energy efficiency levels and environmentally sound practices.

We are asked more and more to help with inspection applications that can be used to quickly estimate damage from storms and bad weather.

Our customers are generally the company that is contracted to provide these services. Since these projects are often won through a competitive bid process, each service company is seeking ways to be more efficient so they can provide more services for less and keep a satisfactory profit margin.

Energy Efficiency & Handheld PDAs and Mobile Software Solutions

Our team in the UK has been working on various large mobile energy and water efficiency inspection applications for the last year. MobileDataforce is now being approached in the USA by a number of electrical and water utilities seeking our help developing mobile software applications that can be used for home inspections to determine where both electricity and water can be saved.

Yesterday, I received a flyer from our local electrical utility asking for homeowners to subscribe to a service that allows the electrical utility to inspect their air conditioning units, and then apply a piece of monitoring equipment that allows the utility to regulate the use of the unit during peak times in the summer. I am not necessarily comfortable with a outside entity running my air conditioning unit from a distance, but I understand their need to start taking steps to better manage the use of electricity for conservation purposes.

The bottom line - they need MobileDataforce's mobile handheld inspection software for energy efficiency inspections, and our mobile work order software for dispatching field service technicians. We have a lot of experience in this area and it provides a great service to our communities.

Work Orders on Mobile Handheld PDAs

Many owner's of small services companies ask me how a paper based work order or service request document can be condensed to fit on a small handheld computer screen. Good question! Let me explain some of the ways the team at MobileDataforce would layout the screens in an easy to use manner.

Most service or work order documents are divided into common sections:

1. Date, Service Technician name, service ticket number
2. Customer Name, address, phone number
3. Reason for Today's Call
4. Work Performed and description
5. Identify equipment that was serviced
6. Cost of work performed
7. Cost of parts used
8. Status of Work (complete, incomplete, outstanding)
9. Payment information
10. Customer and Service Technician signatures

We use the ability to pre-load the mobile work order application with all the dispatched customer information from the office. Most of the data the service technician enters into the mobile application can be done using:

• Check boxes
• Pick lists
• Radio buttons
• Pull down menus with multiple choice
• Digital signature capture
• Pre-determined labor rates
• Pre-determined parts' pricing
• etc

We are able to automatically compute the cost of labor and parts and you can even swipe a credit card from many of the handheld PDAs.

What is the value of mobilizing a work order or service request service?

• Faster dispatch from the office
• Pre-populated work orders synchronized to the handheld PDA
• Less data to fill out on work orders
• Instant invoicing for work complete
• Faster collections
• Complete and accurate work orders synchronized back to the work order or accounting system in the office
• Less admin work in the office
• Less dispatch work in the office

The benefits list is very long. If you would like to discuss your business requirements with a mobile solutions expert, please contact MobileDataforce by email or by visiting http://www.mobiledataforce.com/.

Here is another article on mobilizing work orders/service requests using handheld computers.

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

Inspections on Handheld PDAs

Across the globe MobileDataforce's mobile inspection solutions are used in a wide variety of situations and environments. Let me list a few:

• Food Processing Plants


• Bridge construction


• Residential water usage


• Vehicle inspections for resale


• End-of-lease auto inspections


• Mold inspections


• Roof inspections


• Heavy equipment auctions


• Street sign inspections


• many more...

Yesterday I was involved in learning all about the following:

• Eddy Current Inspections
• Non-destructive Testing
• Tube Plugging Tests
• Corrosion Tests
• Ultrasonic Testing
• Concrete Testing
• Soil & Water Testing
• Leak Testing

Our PointSync Mobility Platform is the foundation for all of these inspections. It is a software platform that supports quickly designing, developing and deploying a wide variety of mobile inspections in a quick and cost effective manner.