Unless you've been living in a hole you know Hurricane Sandy ravished much of the north eastern seaboard. Particularly ravaged by Sandy were New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. One of my customers, Certified Electrical (http://www.cei-ny.com) not only weathered the storm but are now involved in the largest inspection endeavor they've undertaken.
Before power can safely be turned every building has to be inspected in the Suffolk County, NY area. Anthony Ceriello owner of Certified Electrical told me, "There are over 20,000 homes in the immediate area that have to be inspected before electricity can be turned on. All of our guys are scrambling to complete these inspections amidst taking care of their own homes. Getting fuel to drive around town is a challenge and with a Noreaster bearing down on us the urgency is even more critical."
The ability to conduct inspections with a mobile device has been critical to inspecting every home. With limited or no cellular coverage, working independent of a connection has been essential to the inspection process. Inspections are created on the fly using a tablet device and ZenTouch as inspectors literally go house to house. "The devastation is unbelieveable! The extreme environment we are working under is incredible.", commented Anthony.
Tentants are understandably anxious to get power restored as over 3.5 million have been without power since Hurricane Sandy hit October 29th . Once inspections are completed tenants receive a certificate, printed on special county approved green paper, authorizing power to be restored. This mobile generated certificate serves as the golden ticket to a warm sanctuary while rebuilding a home and community.
Field Service Assistant app for "Spreading the Good Word"
Field Service Assistant app for "Spreading the Good Word"
This afternoon I took a few moments to explore the web and app stores for new field service mobile apps that have come on to the market. During my search I stumbled upon an app called Field Service Assistant . Thinking it was a field service app I clicked on the link. To my surprise it actually turned out to be an iPhone app to help Jehovah's Witnesses track their missionary efforts. Curious I browsed through the various screenshots that gave an overview of the apps capabilities. I was impressed by the number of items they can track with their app. Here is a brief list
Volunteer time
Number of Books
Number of Brochures
Number of Magazines
Revisits including quantity of visits and contact information
Total Service Hours
Email reports
User Management
Sharing
Notes
Multiple language support
I was reminded again how mobility is permeating every aspect of our lives from business, travel, entertainment, shopping and even religion. It seems the only limit is our imagination, creativity and innovation.
Millions of smartphones have invaded the workplace in recent years — and millions more are on the way. But it’s not the devices themselves that deserve so much of the chatter surrounding “BYOD.” Yes, legions of workers have made their smartphones and tablets integral parts of both their professional and personal lives. But for CIOs and CEOs, it isn’t the device they’re bringing that matters at all — it’s the invaluable data streams that course through them when they’re on the job.
Everyone can discuss and debate which device, what platform, which apps — but at a higher level, the end-game is all about the data. Forward-thinking technology managers are looking to get access to actionable mobility data to drive business, not just distribute phones. After all, the devices are simply the empty conduits of that data. And the data holds the keys to streamlining communication, tracking user behavior, managing costs and a host of other key business functions.
Smart Mobile Management
With the proliferation of smartphones and ease of access to data, companies are managing BYOD policies whether they want to admit it or not. Some are implementing new processes to get on top of all that data and put it to work. Others aren’t yet up to speed — and are increasingly prone to leaving their organizations vulnerable to security breaches, out-of-control spending and behavior, and unclear (or nonexistent) employee communication policies.
Smart mobility management means having the tools and technology to securely manage the constant data exchanges between your mobile workforce, back-end systems and inventory, assets, customer services, and more. The process needs to consider personal privacy, ease of adoption, and effective management of company data. Where can mobility data make a difference to the bottom line? Naturally, it varies from industry to industry. In just one sector — field service — here’s what mobility data is helping enable:
Improved visibility to work assigned to field service crews, which fosters reduced fuel costs, travel times, and first-time fix rates.
Improved job assignments based on immediate availability, current location, or skill set.
Increased productivity due to more efficient planning of resources.
Improved inventory control with real-time visibility into parts on hand.
Increased collection rates with mobile invoicing at the time of service.
Improved customer interactions, with access to historical data that enables sales professional to follow up on services offered.
New companion strategies to BYOD, including Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM), are evolving to help companies manage their data.These solutions provide ways to distribute applications and data to approved employee devices, corporate- or personally owned, while providing tools to support them in the field. Companies can set data encryption criteria, establish role-based access to data, and set parameters for deleting data or decommissioning a device from the system.
Ultimately, BYOD and companion mobility strategies are all about empowering your business and employees by securely delivering the right data, at the right time, to the right employee and device. More: How to Safeguard Your Mobile Devices Against Security Breaches and Outages.
Image used under Creative Commons by Flickr user TIC Colombia.
This morning I took a look at a great report from Aberdeen (Aberdeen Group Field Service 2011: Mobility and the Extension of the Service Enterprise)
Here are a few interesting stats gleaned fromt he report with some of my thoughts:
Average workforce utilization is only 57% This means your field service techs are idle or non-productive an average of 43% of the time. Statistically most companies report the majority of idle time is spent driving back and forth between the office or waiting for their next service appointment. The conclusion is field service solutions provide an opportunity to decrease fuel cost as well as increase work force utilization.
Companies that implemented mobile field service management solutions increased workforce utilization to 76% That's a 19% jump in utilization. This is accomplished through better planning, better scheduling and ensuring the service tech has the information, tools and parts needed for every job. What would a 19% increase in utilization do to your bottom line?
Companies that implemented mobile field service solutions gained a higher first time fixed rate - 82% versus 65%. This naturally leads to higher customer satisfaction rates. On the service side mobile field service solutions are enabling managers to assign the right technician, pre-load service vans with right parts, schedule service calls, etc.. An interesting note, in Aberdeen's report companies reported that 47% of the return visits are due to not having the right part on-hand.
I am seeing similar trends in my own business. One of my customers recently reported an 18% increase in their conversion rate from Estimate to Work Orders by using the "Call Back" feature in ZenTouch.
Field service management tools like ZenTouch provide access to information that enable service teams to improve work order assignment, lower operational costs, provide a better customer experience via reduction of repeat visits, provide real-time data for better communication between customers and the service desk and more. This doesn't even account for the impact direct integration with backend systems like QuickBooks or Sage are having on the accounting side of the business.
As you may have heard Google has officially entered the mobile workforce space with the launch of Google Maps Coordinate. If you haven't heard Google Maps Coordinate is a mobile workforce tracking system that efficiently allows dispatchers to deploy jobs to their service techs and even track them while in the field.
Google Maps Coordinate offers tight integration with Google Maps as you would expect makes assigning jobs to a technician based on his location very simple and appealing to service managers. Assigning and sending jobs to field service techs is an easy task for dispatchers. Service jobs are time stamped and techs even have the option to accept or reject jobs based on their current on-site status. With an introductory price of only $15 per user Google Maps Coordinate seems like a nice solution for service companies.
Sounds pretty good, Right? What's the downside?
Google Maps Coordinate only works on Android. If your team currently uses iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or any other web enabled SmartPhone you are out of luck.
Google Maps Coordinate only offers real-time work force dispatching and tracking. Yes, it provides great insight as to where you service team members are now but you are not provided any true scheduling capabilities. From the service techs perspective he only sees active jobs that are assigned to him enabling him to only focus on the jobs at hand.
Integration into QuickBooks, Sage or other accounting systems is non-existent at this point. Given Google's influence I'm sure this will come in future versions. But for now there is no way to streamline and expedite the invoicing processes.
Reporting - While Google Maps Coordinates provides information about a specific job there are now report functionalities that show you trends within your business; what service tasks are most common, which service tasks are most profitable, etc.
Clearly Google Maps Coordinate is Google's first step into providing a cloud based mobile workforce management solution. I expect it to evolve quickly. But based on the service companies I've talked to it does not meet the needs of a field service organization that is dispatching, managing multiple schedules, managing preventative maintenance schedules, managing inventory, conducting data analytics on service call times, evaluating service margins and profitability and integrating with their back end systems.
If you are looking for a real-time tracking and dispatching solution Google Maps Coordinate could be right tool for you. It certainly gives small to medium-sized service business a competitive tool to help them more dynamically manage their service crews and respond quicker to service calls placed by customers.
This week I had a great meeting with a new customer that is looking to build a really cool enterprise mobile application for the lighting industry. Meeting with them was refreshing as they obviously had invested serious time thinking through the mobile application, end-user requirements, backend integration and reporting requirements. This is unusual in that most of the customers come to with an idea for a mobile app but haven't really through through the business application.
My experience with them motivated me to share some enterprise mobility guidelines we walk through with our customers.
First Question: What is your goal in "Going Mobile"? Or better yet, WHY go mobile?
Obvious as this questions seems, it is the foundation of your success. But many companies are on their 2nd, 3rd even 4th mobile implementation because they didn't understand the "why" of going mobile. If a customer understands the "why" of going mobile their success rate increase exponentially. Some example goals and the "whys" brought to us to date
Improve responsiveness to customers. This is really a goal. It's a result of good systems. Why do you want to improve responsiveness to customers? Have you struggled in this area? Have you identified the bottlenecks? What does it mean if you are successful?
Providing mobile access to existing applications in the field to improve field worker productivity When I hear this I ask, "why is it important for field workers to have this data?" Does it enable the customer to make a decision now? Does it enable the field worker to guide decisions of the customer? Does it enable the service tech to offer the service now?
Improve operational efficiencies both in the field and back end Again this is a goal. What is the cause of operational inefficiencies? Where are the bottlenecks? If I can eliminate those bottlenecks how does this affect serving my customers? How does it improve invoicing cycles? What reports now become available to help managers/sales people more effectively drive business.
Expedite the invoicing process The why on this is clear as every business wants to keep cash flow moving in a positive direction so they can grow their business.
Proof of service completion and acceptance Why? - A business wants to confidently demonstrate service was completed or accepted.
Once you understand the "whys" of going mobile you can can establish the goals that will help you determine the right mobile strategy. Most companies today deploy mobile applications in opportunistic business silos. While this approach can serve as a proving ground for mobile solutions it also can create a situation where mobile solutions become limited in scope, disjointed, invite technology disparity and are not scalable.
Businesses need to consider the overall mobility requirements within an organization and develop a long-term strategy that supports these goals then develop rollout strategies and pilots that align with the long-term strategy. Businesses tend to initially evaluate mobile solutions from the perspective of the field worker. But mobility needs assessments need to consider the entire business process and infrastructure considering every component including:
Customer experience; Do customers interact with the device? A customer might review a service ticket or to provide a digital signature
Field worker: what is the business process in the field? What data is required to help the technician or customer make a decision? Is mobile printing required? GPS -Do you need to know where your workers are or do they need help finding customer locations
What kind of PDA device? Smartphone? Rugged PDA? Customer and field worker needs will drive device selection
Back end integration: what accounting or corporate database systems need to be integrated with?
Management and Executive Management: Considerations may inclue reporting, management evaluation and / or approval processes
IT Support - what is required from the IT department? What device and connectivity standards have been set?
Security policies
I find companies are on track when they've carefully considered these areas as well as come conclusions on the following:
They have identified specific business processes that will significantly benefit mobile technology and why those are important
Individual or departmental mobile projects are implemented with the overall business goals in mind. "Smaller" mobile projects can integrate with the enterprise mobile management, infrastructure and security policies.
Common software, cloud based solutions or middleware mobile solutions are implemented across the organization.
Implementation of device policies whether they be BYOD or corporate sponsored are clear and enforceable
Projects are managed and supported according to clearly defined policies
I'll take a look at deciding which mobile applications to deploy in part 2 of this article.
Forbes has a great article about how Nordstrom and Home Depot have adopted mobile POS devices enabling employees to check out customers anywhere in the store. Employees at Apple's retail stores have been armed with mobile iTouch devices for several years that enable employees to scan a barcode and check out a customer immediately. Companies like Nordstrom and Home Depot are seeing increased sales because they can expedite purchases as the customer is trying on clothes, makeup, cordless drills or circular saws. No more waiting in line "thinking" about your purchase. Using Mobile POS employees can capture the buying moment and reap the benefits for the retailers.
Some interesting tidbits
Nordstrom's first quarter sales increased 15.3% since implementing Mobile POS devices.
The average number of items sold per sale increased
The average sales price per sale increased
I am seeing similar trends in the adoption of mobile work order systems like ZenTouch in the service Industry.
Driving business with Mobile Work Orders
With a mobile work order system on an iPhone, Android or Rugged PDA service technicians have full access to services, parts and prices to quickly create an estimate or service ticket for a customer. One customer reported he has seen a 17% increase in service techs availability to take additional service calls just by implementing a mobile work order system. Spread that across 8 technicians - that's a big impact on our business.
Another customer reports, "Customers seem to trust a digital system that breaks down costs for services and parts rather than watching me rifle through a stack of papers. I can present a complete service ticket, review the recommended services, add or delete items and allow them to approve service immediately." In the event a customer decides to wait to initiate a service call to talk with their wife/husband, review finances, check their calendar, etc. a technician or estimator can save the estimate and schedule a call back with the customer. Now all estimates and work orders are accessible via a mobile device with a simple search. Technicians can access past estimates and immediately revisit the estimate, email it to the customer or convert it to a work order on the spot.
Clearly efficiency gains are being recognized on both ends of the spectrum by implementing Mobile POS or Mobile Work Order Systems. These efficiencies are enabling retailers like Nordstrom and Home Depot to drive business at the point of interaction. Service industry leaders are experiencing identical results. By improving the customer experience the decision to buy is expedited and mobile enabled businesses are reaping the benefits.
For the past couple of months I have demonstrated ZenTouch to service professionals from a myriad of industries; electricians, installers, auto dent repairers, carpet cleaners, plumbers and others. I have found some trends that are enlightening, but today I wanted to focus on one - the adoption of the iPad especially in light of the launch of iPad 3 yesterday.
Clipboard similarities to the iPad are facilitating user adoption
After a careful review of the presentations done in the last 6 weeks, 80% of attendees reported that they plan on using the iPad or Android tablet.
This actually surprised me as I suspected many of the attendees would prefer the Android, iPhone or Rugged PDA form factor. This unexpected decision trend caused me to wonder, "Why is the iPad form factor so much more popular?"
Yes, it's easy to say people like having more screen real estate but there has to be a more compelling driver. Then it hit me, no matter the service industry from physicians to service techs everyone uses a clipboard.
We are so in-grained with collecting and annotating data using a clipboard that the physical similarities of the iPad or Android to a clipboard make it easy, even comfortable, to pick up an iPad and go to work.
The clipboard form factor is so universal that transitioning to an iPad is a natural. Plus, when you consider how "flipping" through pages using a finger swipe parallels flipping through pages on a clipboard the physical metaphor is further enhanced.
The adoption of the Android tablet has been far less significant. I think part of the Android's adoption troubles it is both too big and to0 small at the same time. It doesn't really fit the clipboard metaphor that has made the iPad an easier transition for all business and service sectors. But I digress.
Let's look at a two industry sectors
Physicians/Dentist
Think of the last time you went to the doctor, dentist or other care-giver, they handed you a clipboard with a number of forms to fill out. That same medical form on iPad is just as easy if not easier. I recently visited with a physical therapist who is looking to pre-load a patient's information on an iPad form. The front desk attendant can hand the iPad to the patient who then quickly verifies or updates previous medical information.
Previously doctors accessed paper medical records on a clipboard rifling through a stack of papers. Now, using an iPad, not only can they access a patient's record they can review historical trends, drill into past treatments, compare and evaluate current conditions to provide medical treatment based on real-time data and historical data. The medical records become a living document updated each time a patient receives treatment.
New advances are also making the communication with the physician and patient easier. Physicians can display a patients x-rays, pull up anatomical diagrams to explain medical conditions, and more. There are some amazing medical iPad apps on the market. Here is an example:
The power this gives to the physician and patient is amazing.
Service technicians ranging from HVAC Techs, Plumbers to Auto Dent Repairs all carry a clipboard. Tasks range from looking up part numbers, checking off service items, filling out the work order, collecting payment information and getting final sign off.
Now with systems like ZenTouch, a cloud base mobile work order system by Zenware, service techs are using their iPad "clipboard" to create estimates, process assigned work orders, add parts and services on the fly, access customer information, review previous service work, manage service crews and have information sync directly into QuickBooks.
The clipboard form factor is so universal that transitioning to an iPad or Android Tablet is a natural transition. Especially if you can couple the familiarity of a clipboard style device with intelligent business, medical or service apps that drive business, significantly improves processes and provide better service to your customers.
Here are a few areas that smart iPad Apps like ZenTouch are improving service business processes
Easy and immediate access to prior service information
Integrated service or pricing lists allow the technician to focus on service instead of pricing
Immediate invoice for faster collections
Proof of work
Create, schedule and dispatch future service tickets right in the field
Reduce and even eliminate human errors with automated business process
Avoid handwriting and note translation errors
Compute service work totals automatically
Collect and record payments at the time of service
Services industries from all sectors are rapidly adopting enterprise mobile solutions. I see a significantly higher move towards the iPad as the device form factor of choice. Doug Drink Water in his recent blog "The 8 industries and professions most rapidly impacted by tablets" highlights the impact tablets of various service industries. Notice that all of these industries historically collected data on a clipboard.
Enterprise mobility is impacting all business sectors. Question is, are you still clinging to that old clipboard and business processes or leading the pack with a simple transition?
I have been pondering the power of data visualization and mobility since reading Kevin Benedict's most recent blog "More on Mobility and 4D Field Services". In his article Kevin makes a key point and ask a critical question, "The data can provide us with real-time "situational awareness," but can we understand it and use it to make better decisions for our businesses?
As they say “a picture is worth a 1000 words", data
visualization is the same.
Presenting real time data in a visualization layer
provides REAL meaning to job status or progress. Presenting data in an easily understood and actionable format enables decision makers to act NOW
instead of struggling to interpret the data and then respond in in damage control mode.
We often think of only acting on critical "red
flagged" data. This reactionary model negatively impacts our customers and business. Whereas if we can associate visual cues to help us immediately understand a situation the greater our opportunity to quickly and properly respond.
In Kevin's example he used yellow circles to visually identify languishing jobs. A simple example of this is a stoplight. We all understand the metaphor; red - stop, yellow - slow down (or punch it), green - go. What happens to your decision making capabilities if you carry this some color or other iconic metaphor into your applications?
Zenware implemented this type of data visualization in a recent mobile application developed for the natural gas industry. At a glance technicians can identify service calls that require immediate or semi-immediate attention based on color. Graphical "color-cut" representation of the tank enable technicians to immediately understand the product mix contained within the tank. Armed with this data, technicians are able to make quicker decisions based on situational import as well as data content.
Data Visualization provides immediate interpretation of data "screenshot property of Zenware"
By providing visual clarity to the data, service techs and managers can proactively respond and manage service
issues before their status moves from “yellow” to “red”. Businesses that are implementing these types of mobile
strategies are gaining a gain competitive edge due to their ability to
dynamically respond to customer needs before they even know there is a potential
problems. Armed with better tools to interpret and act on data they are providing better perceived and real service
to their customers.
Millions of smartphones have invaded the workplace in recent years — and millions more are on the way. But it’s not the devices themselves that deserve so much of the chatter surrounding “
