Thinking About Going Mobile With Your Organization

Has your organization gone mobile yet? If not, chances are you’ve been thinking about it, possibly feeling overwhelmed by all of the different devices you’ll have to cater to, or not knowing where to start with your mobile strategy in order to keep your employees informed, communicative, and efficient. From cell phones, smartphones, tablets to e-readers and everything in between, it probably comes as no surprise to you that in order to succeed with an internal mobile solution for your business, you need a clear strategy.

Establishing the mobile strategy that will work for your
Because every business is different, it doesn’t make sense to target the same mobile devices for everyone, so the first and most important question to address when forming your mobile strategy is this:

What is the best mobile device to target for your organization?
Chances are, the answer to this question may not be immediately obvious or cut and dry. Let’s look at the different aspects that contribute to the different mobile device options.

Mobile Device Portabilityr
It’s important to realize that the word ‘mobile’ doesn’t automatically mean something is portable in all situations. Sure, you can carry your laptop to a local cafe in a backpack, but a laptop doesn’t make as much sense if you’re on scaffolding on a construction site, climbing an electric pole or delivering the mail.
It’s important to think of where your field technicians will spend most of their time working with the mobile system: are they inside an office, or outside in the rain? Driving a van or digging underground? Handheld devices are more portable than laptops and tablets, so if your priorities are maximum portability and minimum size, a handheld device becomes a primary choice.

Real-time Updatesr
Is your company one that briefs in the morning and then moves forward with the day, or do you need to be able to dispatch tasks throughout the day in real-time, or a bit of both? If you answered ‘both’, then a combined system could be a perfect mobile strategy for you.
A combined system performs real-time optimization with accurate monitoring tools so that you can improve decision making based on real-time reports, sending and receiving updates as they happen. This back-and-forth communication is known as drip feed.
To properly implement drip feed communications into your mobile strategy, you need to not only supply mobile software that’s designed for this type of monitoring and communication, but devices and a network that support it.
Luckily, some of the most common devices in use today are designed to work in real-time: cell phones, smartphones and PDAs and tablets that run on a cellular network as well as wi-fi. These devices never ‘sleep’, still receiving phone calls, meeting alerts and emails even when they’re idle. A laptop, however, can’t be as ‘alert‘ and responsive at all times. If it’s in standby mode, you may never know that something in the schedule has changed.

Because of this limitation for laptops as mobile devices, you could configure your laptop to never enter standby, but it makes much more sense to incorporate your laptops appropriately into an overall drip feed mobile strategy that relies most heavily on handheld devices.

Application Requirements
Perhaps your organization uses applications to track time, location, project status or other completion reports. Transitioning these capabilities to a more mobile environment allows for real-time updating and effortless time tracking, making your organization much more efficient.
A WAP application running on a cell-phone may even be enough for this purpose. Due to the nature of the working environment, your organization may require offline capabilities or a more advanced application enabling you to do things like viewing customer history, fault description, required parts, files, attachments etc. In these situations, handheld devices are an ideal choice, but for many organizations even that is not enough: you may need to store assets information on multiple layered maps, create complicated documents, or manage massive time sheets holding complex daily activities reports.
In these instances, handheld devices’ limitations make themselves known with a less than ideal user experience. Given these complications, for the means of simpler tasks like modifying the timesheets, presenting tasks, running satellite navigators, email, etc. – handheld devices are a perfect match, but if this is just the tip of the iceberg for your organization – you may consider using heavier equipment such as UMPC, tablets or laptops.
Additional Considerations for your mobile strategyr
In addition to considering mobile devices themselves, you’ll want to consider components of this equipment that could impact usability and functionality.
Keyboard: If your technicians need to regularly be typing more than a short email or text message throughout the day, handheld devices can make this taxing and actually cause inefficiency. Speech-to-text software is improving, which can help in certain situations. You may also want to consider if a touch screen would be beneficial, as outlined below.

Touch screen: Some businesses will need a touch screen for the sake of signature capturing, maps redlining etc. Keep in mind that not all the handheld devices come with a touch screen, but many do. Tablet PCs and devices like the iPad have particularly responsive and high resolution touch screens, which allow users to type emails as well as integrate more touch-related tasks like signature capturing. Other Accessories: Do you use bar-code scanners or RFID? Many industry hand-held devices now come built in with those types of scanners, making for seamless ordering processes and other mobile communications. Having so much functionality packed into one device like a smartphone eliminates the need for keeping track of disparate devices.

Battery Life: This is something to keep in mind, making sure that you have proper charging capabilities in the event that you’re on the road and using your mobile devices heavily. Even with the strongest battery – a laptop will not stand against a handheld device. Be sure to have charging capabilities in a vehicle, or other battery backup procedures in place to prevent potential data loss or hang-ups in daily tasks.

Test Software and Hardware Together: Usability is not strictly related to software. Devices vary so widely in both their software UI and their hardware components. For some users, a d-pad is preferable over a joystick, or a keyboard is preferable over a touch screen. Some devices come with more hardware buttons than others and some companies (e.g. Psion Teklogix) have the ability to define custom hardware buttons per customer. It all comes down to the needs of your organization and the employees that will be using the device(s) you choose.

Whatever you decide – it’s important to test the devices with the mobile application in real conditions in the field. Let your technicians give their feedback as you build your mobile strategy. Remember that as always, the success of the entire project depends also on the satisfaction of your employees.