Mobile Data
- Details
- Created on 19 June 2008
- Written by Administrator
"Mobile Data" is much misunderstood. The phrase is commonly associated with modern portable computer systems - handheld computers, PDAs etc. The IT industry, particularly in the Field Sales and Field Service disciplines, is promoting Mobile Data as the new manna. But we have had mobile data for hundreds of years. The humble shopping list is mobile data - a piece of paper we take with us to remind us of what to buy. In the case of a Field Service Engineer it is a list of jobs to do today, and probably lives on the passenger seat of his van. For the Field Sales Person it is a list of the appointments for the day, and some files of information about his prospect's requirements.
If I say that to a Mobile Data salesman he will tell me that it's no use - the data is static, it must be updated in real-time, when the person is out and about doing their job. Very true, and not the point. The humble piece of paper has been updated in the field for decades. Field-based staff have either telephoned the office after each call, or been equipped with private radios in their vehicles or, more recently, mobile phones. When the office wants to update or modify the workload they merely speak to the person in the field, who scribbles the changes onto his paper list, and the information is updated. So, many of the arguments for Mobile Data as a technology are rather hollow - it doesn't of itself improve productivity or reduce cost or deliver any other material benefits. However when we link it into other systems, using radio data communication, either over a private radio network or via the mobile telephone networks, the business case starts to stack up.
The first benefit to be realised is the simple cost of communication. Someone in the office phoning a colleague on the road takes time - maybe 10 man-minutes between the two players. If many update calls are needed then the cost mounts rapidly. A computer in the office updating a computer in the field costs almost nothing, and is virtually instant, so for frequently updated information the cost of communication savings may be massive.
The second is timeliness of information. If the mobile computer can be used to transmit information back to the head office, which is almost universally the case now, the delays we encounter in receiving information from field-based staff can be eliminated. The salesman can update the results of his appointment in real-time, we can know the weeks sales figures as they develop, day by day, hour by hour, instead of waiting for the weekly report to come in. Similarly with Field Service, we can know when the engineers starts his journey to the customer, when he arrives, when he completes the job, whether the problem is fixed or requires a revisit, what parts have been used, and what further parts may be required - all before the engineer has left the customer's premises. If a second visit is required it can be scheduled, and the required parts despatched, the same day, allowing the engineer to complete resolution of the customer's problem the following day. This timeliness of information gives us management control - we can react and respond to situations as they develop, instead of being on the back foot, after the event, when the customer is already irate due to delays in resolving his issue. We can update the engineer's van stock each day, allowing us to keep lower quantities of more diverse spares lines on the van, improving first-time fix rate while reducing inventory holdings. The benefits of timeliness are myriad.
The third benefit is access to information. The field-based person can only carry so much; he cannot carry paper information about everything. Within the mobile computer he can carry much more - it may store many service manuals, or current stock information so the salesman knows what lines are available to sell. This information can be updated daily, or in real-time. The mobile computer may also be used to directly query the main systems at the office - for instance to check on the status of an order, or to search for information about other customers in the area who may be cold-called because the last sales appointment was a no show. The ability to access more information is key to improved productivity - all field-based workers need information from time to time, and the more easily and quickly we can provide it, the greater the productivity we enable them to deliver.
So these are the benefits of mobile data - Communication Cost, Timeliness of Information, and Breadth of Information. In order to achieve them it is a prerequisite that the mobile computer must be wirelessly connected to the main systems in the office, and those systems must be design to work with mobile devices - a disconnected mobile computer is at best of marginal benefit, and frequently nothing more than an expensive paperweight - another burdensome asset for the field-based person to carry and protect.
