Enterprise Mobility World

Safeguarding competency standards

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:38:00 +0000

The key to protecting staff and safeguarding against liability is actually quite simple. Implementing a managed workflow using mobile technology is a proven method of minimising the risk of non-compliance. Role-specific workflows can be followed via a user-friendly enterprise mobile application, which also frees people from the burden of paperwork. Not only can this reduce the risk of non-compliance, but it also provides a greater level of traceability with real-time information to demonstrate works have been carried out correctly.

A managed workflow on a mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet can incorporate risk assessment procedures in a way which prevents fieldworkers from continuing before these are completed. A vehicle inspection is one example of this, whereby a start of day function instructs staff to carry out a risk assessment, before continuing their day’s work. Once completed the risk assessment information is passed back to central office systems in real-time. The same can be done for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and tool checks, making certain that fieldworkers are correctly kitted out to carry out their tasks safely.

Implementing a workflow management system enables businesses to closely control how fieldworkers follow processes, by programming a specific order of work so that a consistent sequence is adhered to across the workforce. Because a high proportion of UK adults own a smartphone (70 per cent according to Deloitte), there is also an opportunity to ensure sub-contractors adhere to the same workflow as the regular workforce. The company’s mobile app can be quickly uploaded on to their mobile devices at low cost, with all business information kept securely within the app. Using mobile technology, asset-specific appraisals or regular inspection processes (any compliance documentation can also be generated) can be implemented, empowering workers with information on their mobile device which enables them to be more efficient and effective.

With in-built GPS tracking, modern mobile devices can be harnessed to improve lone worker monitoring. A mobile app captures lone worker location using GPS and sends it back to the central server whilst they work. This also monitors movement using sensors to detect any unusual lack of activity which may indicate that something is wrong. If there is no movement, the device vibrates and the user can confirm that they are OK, with an option to press an SOS button to call for help. The launch of the first sim free smartwatch by Samsung adds another element to this capability and overall process compliance, because of the practicality of being attached to the fieldworker at all times.

Among many other things, mobile devices become an empowerment tool and digital information source, particularly in environments where paperwork would not be practical. To test knowledge in a fun way, some companies share quizzes and tool box tips via their mobile apps to the workforce. Minimising the potential for competency breaches and safeguarding staff begins with business processes. Ensuring these are consistent, that there is clear visibility of the mobile workforce and empowering staff with information are key to best practice.

Internet of Things and Asset Monitoring: The unrealised potential

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:35:00 +0000

Gartner predicts that there will be 2.32 billion connected devices this year, and 31 billion by 2020. The exponential rise of internet connected devices such as switches and sensors, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), creates an exciting opportunity to achieve a new level of business insight and perform predictive analytics by harnessing new data feeds.

Using IoT, businesses can take asset performance management to a new level; the overarching result being a significant reduction of the financial impact of asset failure. In fact, it can prevent asset failure by pre-empting it, and allowing businesses to intervene beforehand, potentially eliminating the associated downtime costs. IoT enables asset condition monitoring, predictive and preventative forecasting, and reliability-centred maintenance to be undertaken on remotely deployed assets. Harnessing real-time feeds from IoT sensors on remote equipment, a rules engine will predict imminent failure then automatically dispatch a service engineer with the right parts to fix the issue.

Integrating IoT within business IT systems can represent a dramatic shift from a largely reactive approach to asset management, to a completely proactive one, For example; equipment failure today is a comparatively drawn out process, worsened by the difficulty in accurately identifying the causative issue upfront. A customer will contact the call centre to report a fault with their heating system, the operative enters this information into the service management system, then an engineer is allocated. In a modern mobile-enabled world the job data is pushed out to the engineer’s mobile device, who travels to site to complete the job, logging the parts used.

IoT offers a highly streamlined alternative, which sees the engineer dispatched directly to the asset via an enterprise mobile application. The IoT sensor data is sent back in the real time to a cloud-based application monitoring key indicators such as temperature, vibration and current usage, information which is then processed in real time through the rules engine, to constantly determine the current condition of the heating system. Should it be found to be either faulty or working out of known tolerance, a service call to repair the fault or a preventative maintenance call is automatically scheduled in the workforce management system.

But whilst IoT has huge potential to transform businesses, a step change is needed first in the way in which data is treated in their IT systems. The status quo for the majority of businesses has their data isolated in disparate systems, preventing a true understanding of assets, processes and people. In joining together all of their important data, businesses can really begin to benefit from the IoT revolution. The enabling technology for integrating IoT into processes exists today and is just waiting to be harnessed, the challenge for businesses is to join up their data silos through the implementation of a unified IT system, so that they can begin to transform their processes and gain a competitive edge.

The Changing Tide: Mobile devices for all in Utilities

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:29:00 +0000

Today’s mobile technology landscape is laying the groundwork for utilities companies to empower fieldworkers in ways never thought possible. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets has seen rapid innovation from OEMs seeking to secure market share, leading to the availability of high specification devices at very low cost. Now that a large proportion of us are well accustomed to using mobile technology- 70 per cent of UK adults own a smartphone (Deloitte) – conditions are ideal for a rise in adoption by utilities.

Water resistant and increasingly ruggedised consumer mobile devices practically come as standard, almost removing the need to deploy expensive rugged devices. Set at a low price point, enterprise-ready smartphones and tablets have led to a paradigm shift in the business case for deployment making the case for deployment to any employee that spends more than 20% of their working week out of the office. Increasingly the roll out of consumer devices is being extended beyond equipping just white collar staff for email and intranet purposes, right through to the mobile workforce to enhance field-based processes.

Not only have devices transformed the business case, but the capital outlay for systems and integration has reduced and become simpler, meaning less costly as back end software has matured. Enterprise mobility solutions can now be configured to exact requirements rather than developed, minimising time to deployment and expenditure. The latest back office systems, be they ERP, CRM or service management, offer web services and standard customer interfaces which have made integration and data transfer between disparate systems easy and scalable.

Security is of course a key consideration when it comes to linking back office systems with fieldworker devices. If fieldworkers are solely accessing company data through an enterprise mobile app, information is safely contained therein. If the device is opened up for company emails, bit locker encryption and basic perimeter security (use of a pin passcode) are a must. Go one step further by introducing a MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution wrapper which controls exactly what the user can access and download.

More and more utilities businesses are taking advantage of these new mobilisation opportunities and achieving a competitive edge. Holistic fieldworker visibility, increased productivity, huge efficiency savings and better customer experience are some of the benefits which have been achieved in a short timeframe by tech-savvy companies.

Amey’s Severn Trent Water division migrated to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and at the same time replaced its rugged mobile devices with Windows Lumia smartphones, creating a unified and consistent system between both back office staff and fieldworkers. UKDN Waterflow rolled out an effective scheme which incentivises staff to look after their smartphones with the offer to own it after the 18 month write down period to reduce breakages. Severn Trent Services has transformed communications through its adoption of smartphones for field technicians, fully integrated in real time with its new universal back office system, empowering control centre staff to focus on customer service.

The smartphone and tablet revolution is starting to enable utilities companies to transform all of their processes, from fieldworker to back office, with a low upfront investment and sophisticated yet easy to integrate management systems.

What does 2015 promise for mobile technology?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:51:00 +0000

2014 has been an interesting year for the Smartphone, as despite nearly 1.94 billion devices being sold worldwide, this only represents an annual growth of 10%. However the majority of new sales have been in emerging markets with a growth of around 30%. Potentially, this creates a challenge for the handset manufacturers to find the “next big thing”. So what’s in store for mobile technology in 2015? Here’s what we think what will be hot and what will not, in 2015.

Plateauing of Smartphones
Does everyone who wants a Smartphone already have one? The projected sales figures certainly point this way, with the anticipation that smartphone sales will slow to around 10 % for 2015 in the UK. This will challenge the Smartphone manufacturers to look at other areas for growth within new technologies.

This leads nicely on to my next prediction around wearable devices.

Popularity of wearable technology
Smartwatches made the news in a big way in 2014, with most of the major mobile phone and health and fitness OEM’s announcing wearable devices. We think 2015 will see Smartwatches gaining traction not only in the consumer space but also in the business community. In Q3 2014 nearly 5 million smart and wearable bands were shipped, representing a 37% increase on the previous quarter. This is according to Canalys, with Motorola’s Moto 360 being the most successful, in Q3 accounting for 15% of the Smartwatch market.

Samsung remained the market leader in 2014 and potentially their success will continue into 2015, but they could face a challenge from Apple. We predict that this year there will be a significant growth in thin wearables of around 40%, as new and exciting devices are launched. This figure could be higher if the OEM’s follow Samsung’s lead by creating devices similar to their latest Gear S. This is the first mainstream Smartwatch with 3G connectivity, so it can be used independently of a Smartphone.

Wearables uptake in the business community
Towards the end of 2014 we noticed that the business community started to take an interest in wearables as a replacement for a Smartphone. The potential has been seen for lone worker protection, time and attendance logging, queue busting, stock checking, and more. The Smartwatch, in the right environment, is a more appropriate platform than a Smartphone or a Tablet device as it is unobtrusive and allows the user to have both hands free. We predict that in 2015, businesses around the globe will embrace wearable technology and start to deploy it in significant numbers for operational based tasks.

Emergence of soft-sim
Replacing the traditional SIM in a mobile phone with a software equivalent has been a bone of contention with the mobile networks for several years. For the consumer there are significant benefits, by simply permitting roaming from say Vodafone to O2 to solve coverage issues.
Apple, despite being the first to introduce a soft-sim derivative in their iPads, have yet to secure ubiquitous sign up from all the mobile networks. In the UK only EE have agreed to sign up; long term this makes sense, however with push back from the mobile networks concerned about revenue losses, it will be a number of years before consumer based airtime contracts will allow local roaming and change.

Nevertheless, we predict that 2015 will see the mobile networks at last collaborating to solve specific issues around M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity by introducing soft-sim low usage data tariffs for connected devices.

IoT is a massive growth area and these devices require wireless connectivity, yet this can be problematical, for example installing a Smartmeter in a specific location currently may mean choosing a physical sim and installing it in the device. With a soft-sim, this process is simplified and should the local conditions change making the chosen network unusable (due to tree growth or other new obstructions blocking the signal), then the network can be changed with no manual intervention needed.

Welcome ruggedised consumer devices
Traditional rugged devices as currently used by gas meter readers and parcel delivery services, are expensive, heavy, cumbersome and with small screens. Additionally, they tend to fall behind the innovation curve. In 2014 we saw a small number of low cost innovative rugged consumer devices come to the market that were a fraction of the cost of the traditional rugged devices. To bolster diminishing growth in Smartphone sales to a saturated market, 2015 will see the introduction of a number of rugged innovative devices that will challenge the traditional “rugged” PDA OEM’s such as Symbol, Honeywell and Intermec.

With a price point circa £350 as opposed to £1,000 per unit, the cost savings are significant – especially when you consider the vastly superior performance they offer against the old rugged devices. These devices such as the Samsung Tab Active tend to have bigger screens which are readable in daylight. With a camera developed to read bar codes, ultra-fast processing and being waterproof and droppable, they withstand the toughest working environments. Add to this an intuitive interface, which is updateable and scaleable, and the case for adoption is an easy one.

2015 is going to be an exciting year for mobile technology and the above represents just a drop in the ocean.

Changing Times: The Samsung Gear S Smartwatch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 13:30:00 +0000

During just a few of years we have witnessed a number of wearable devices hitting the high street. The health and fitness market has enjoyed the most success so far, with devices such as the Fitbit, Nike’s FuelBand and Garmin’s Vivofit, used on a daily basis by around two million fitness focused individuals in the UK. In 2013, the smartwatch began to gather momentum with Samsung, Sony and Qualcomm all launching multifunction watches as complementary devices to their smartphones aimed at the high-end consumer market.

As the name suggests smartwatches do much more than tell the time; supporting mobile apps, media players, cameras, fitness tracking and heart rate monitors. They also have an on-board accelerometer, altimeter, and compass; as well as use Bluetooth connectivity to connect to a smartphone in order to display text messages and caller ID.

One to watch for enterprise use?
So with all this rich functionality, coupled with their practical advantages, will smartwatches be used in the corporate space? The short answer is no. Whilst being capable of delivering business applications, smartwatches ultimately depend on having a complementary smartphone to deliver the wireless connectivity, which weakens the business case.
However, this could all be about to change following a recent announcement by Samsung, unveiling what it says will deliver the ‘most advanced wearable experience yet’: The Samsung Gear S, the first smartwatch to introduce 3G connectivity, available from October 2014.

3G connectivity is just the tip of the iceberg. Samsung’s new wearable offering is the first of its kind to contain a 2” curved Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. It’s powerful too, with its 1GHz dual-core CPU and 512MB of RAM. It features 4GB of built-in memory, 2G/3G, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS/GLONASS, and USB 2.0.

It comes with built-in accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, heart rate monitor, ambient light and UV sensors, and a barometer. It is IP67 certified for water and dust resistance. By today’s standards, the Gear S measurements wouldn't look out of place next to a standard watch, at 39.8 x 58.3 x 12.5mm. Its 300mAh battery will power two days of typical usage.
The Gear S comes complete with a range of apps from social networking, calendars and applications which function with or without a smartphone. It also includes useful turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation provided by HERE.

To top off this long list of impressive capabilities, the Gear S enables users to seamlessly make and receive calls directly from their wrist (an optional Bluetooth enabled neck accessory can also be used for receiving calls). It allows users to instantly reply to incoming messages using the onscreen keyboard, or utilize enhanced S voice functionality to ensure tasks can be completed immediately.

Potential future use cases
With more enhanced multi-sensors, built-in GPS, and robust S Health features, the Samsung Gear S is the perfect health and fitness companion. Applications such as Nike+ Running allow users to track their runs and stay motivated while on the move, without having to take their smartphone. Taking this functionality into the healthcare space would be a natural progression.

In the domiciliary care sector, the heart rate monitor and accelerometer could be put to good use for monitoring elderly or at risk people. Any concerning changes in movement or BPM could be rapidly identified, with the relevant clinicians, care workers, relatives and even ambulance service then alerted. Needless to say, saving precious time in emergency situations, should they arise, dramatically improves healthcare outcomes and ultimately saves lives.

More specifically, the Gear S has sensors which could be applied to great effect in caring for patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s Syndrome. Sensors within the smartwatch could detect trips or falls, again automatically alerting relevant parties so that a quick response can be put into action. The GPS in the smartwatch could also be used to monitor the whereabouts of the individual, notifying carers if they stray too far beyond their normal domain; offering peace of mind and less dependency on others. A panic button could even be introduced.

There are numerous use cases that would suit next generation smartwatches, from the simple to the more sophisticated, including time and attendance monitoring, process compliance and health and safety, in a whole range of industry sectors. Equipped with this kind of enterprise-friendly capability, provided the price point is right, we will begin to see take up of smartwatches gradually increase in the corporate space, as the business case changes. Not ones to fall behind the curve, TBS have developed an extension to our TaskMaster enterprise mobility platform for future support of smartwatch technologies.

Future social homes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:11:00 +0000

Social housing providers are facing reductions in their budgets while demand for accommodation rises, but changes to the benefits system threaten to undermine their flow of rental income. When Universal Credit is fully rolled-out by 2017, all benefits claimants will get a lump sum of all their entitlements directly into their bank account, rather than a proportion (formerly called housing benefit) being paid directly to the landlord - increasing the likelihood of arrears building up.

Further pressure is mounting up. An aging population means an immediate and growing demand for sheltered housing and the provision of care for the elderly; for which the funds must be raised. The rising cost of energy is also taking its toll, meaning tenants are finding it increasingly difficult to keep on top of all of their outgoings, including rent payments.

Against this adverse backdrop, with only traditional processes and disparate legacy systems at their disposal, can social housing providers rise to this complex set of challenges?

The future for social housing?

To investigate innovative solutions to these problems, a team of students from University College London produced the UK Future Living Project document earlier this year, as part of their studies in Software Systems Engineering, Financial Systems Engineering and Computer Science. The multi-stakeholder project, encompassing Microsoft, HACT (Housing Association’s Charitable Trust) and TBS Enterprise Mobility (among others), looked at how technology could be cost-effectively adopted in order to address key issues for social housing providers.

Overcoming the many complex challenges facing the social housing sector presented a scope too wide to address properly in one project, so the students focused in on two key aims. The first was to improve energy efficiency within homes, thereby minimising tenants’ bills and decreasing losses in rent payments for the housing provider. The second was to look at the range of incompatible legacy systems, disparate databases and differing working practices, as these were identified as having a stifling effect on the growth of the social housing sector.

UK Housing Associations already utilise advice-led marketing campaigns to help tenants better manage their energy consumption, to varying levels of success. But the fact remains that energy price rises are far outpacing increases in wages and benefits. According to the latest government statistics published in June 2014, 2.28m English households are living in fuel poverty, which is 1 in 10 properties. This figure is expected to rise to 2.33m by the end of the year. These struggling households are on average £443 short of meeting their annual gas and electricity bills, leaving the elderly and young children at particular risk.

New homes now need to meet high energy efficiency standards, but bringing old social housing stock in line with this would be expensive and involve significant disruption to tenants, making it unviable. The challenge for the UCL team was to come up with a new, low cost approach, that could be fitted to properties quickly without the need for wires and cables, thus having minimal impact on residents.

The proposed solution

By harnessing enabling technologies; the cloud, business intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), the students were able to devise such a solution, with minimal expenditure. Using a series of, battery-powered sensors and switches connected via low-power Zigby wireless technology to a central control box, the solution would monitor temperature and movement in each room, while sensors attached externally would detect outside temperature. Together, these sensors would allow the heating to be set automatically by the central control box based on pre-determined temperatures depending on whether the room was occupied and empty.

According to the World Health Organisation 18°c is a suitable indoor living temperature for healthy individuals, (appropriately dressed) a minimum of 16°c for those with respiratory problems or allergies, and a minimum of 20°c for the sick, disabled, very old or very young.

With this in mind, tenants are able to set the appropriate temperature for ‘occupied’ rooms or zones. When not occupied rooms are set to ambient, a lower temperature, in order to minimise unnecessary energy consumption. The motion sensors would detect movement in the ‘ambient’ zone, and adjust the temperature to ‘occupied’, and vice-versa. By monitoring the temperature outside, the system further adjusts accordingly to allow for hot weather, to optimise the energy used by the heating system

The students calculated that a substantial 30 per cent saving on energy bills could be made by minimising unnecessary energy use, without jeopardising the warmth, and health, of tenants. Part of the solution provided a web portal for tenants to check and monitor their energy consumption, informing them of their usage patterns to get a better understanding of how any further savings could be made.

The control box itself is fitted near the boiler for convenience, so it can be checked on the same annual basis with no additional cost. Running on a battery which lasts up to 14 months, it requires little upkeep. Any faults in the system are automatically reported via the cloud, so that a job can be raised for the area engineer.

The bigger picture

The solution stores all this data in the Cloud, giving social housing providers an incredible opportunity to gain insights from across their housing stock using data analytics tools. One use would be to provide proactive, targeted information about energy usage to individual tenants. It could also be used to analyse patterns in the ways in which we live and use our homes. This information would enable better housing, optimally designed with energy efficiency in mind. Aside from energy efficiency, the data could be used to identify unusual behaviour which may signify a vulnerable resident having difficulties, or anti-social behaviour, or even subletting, with a trigger to instigate an appropriate response from the landlord.

Armed with this centralised mass of information, the housing providers would also be in a strong position to negotiate a better deal on the cost of energy to the whole of their housing stock, savings which could then be passed onto tenants. They would also be able to categorise the energy efficiency of different groups of housing stock, which types of properties would benefit most from better insulation, for example, and those which are performing well.

The UCL Future Living Project suggested a comprehensive solution, which incorporated the mobile workforce management platform, TaskMaster. Planned and reactive maintenance to heating systems and the UCL’s solution, would be integrated with the data captured by the control boxes in tenants’ homes, creating a more streamlined and intelligent system. Using the TaskMaster mobile app on a smartphone, engineers would be able to view their day’s jobs, with no need to collect and drop off paperwork at the office. The engineer inputs job completion information and captures the tenant’s signature on the app, data which is wirelessly fed back into the central office system.

By supporting the engineer to work more efficiently, not only does TaskMaster reduce labour and travel costs, but can increase the lifespan of heating systems by ensuring annual maintenance and safety checks aren’t missed, and that any system faults are responded to quickly and effectively. The scope for harnessing the TaskMaster platform within this project goes far beyond the maintenance of heating systems though. For example, it could be used in a social care scenario, whereby vulnerable residents can be monitored; a reduction in the normal frequency of movement around their property could trigger an alert, informing a carer or doctor for example.

From concept to reality

This project has demonstrated the very real possibilities for housing providers to adopt low cost, enabling technology to tackle some of the major crises that we face. Looking at the detail of the UCL Future Living Project leaves no doubt that the business case and practicalities of deploying a similar solution is strong, and one which we cannot afford to ignore. What’s at stake here is quality of life for thousands of social housing tenants.

This new approach - driven by innovation and drawing on the UK’s great talent pool - to overcome the deeply engrained challenges facing housing providers in the public sector, turns on a bright light in a dark tunnel. Innovation is not only central to success, it is now crucial to survive in a time when budgets are tightening and every penny spent is under scrutiny.

The next stage for the project is to run a pilot over several months on a range of housing from new build to old 1930s properties. This pilot will provide a whole wealth of data to fine tune the solution and provide a production system fit to roll out to the UK’s social housing stock.

Mobile technology will ‘transform fleets in 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:09:00 +0000

Here is a recent article published in Fleet news with content from me

Fleets are expected to take advantage of low-cost mobile technology in an effort to achieve further efficiencies.

That’s the view of Steve Reynolds, managing director of TBS Enterprise Mobility. He told Fleet News: “2014 will be the year of smartphones and tablets for fleet management.

“The decreasing cost and increasing durability of consumer devices will drive a shift in the industry from paper-based to automated processes.”

The latest data suggests that 61% of the UK adult population now owns a smartphone and, with this high proportion of the workforce well accustomed to using consumer devices in their personal lives, Reynolds says it has never been easier to deploy mobile enterprise applications.
“More and more, blue collar and task-oriented staff are coming to expect to carry out their work supported by user-friendly consumer devices,” he said.
Following in the footsteps of smartphones, tablets will play an increasing role in field-based processes – with their low price point of around £150 making them a viable consideration for businesses.
Global sales of consumer devices are predicted to reach 1.7 billion in 2014.

“These factors combined will see a sharp rise in the enterprise adoption of smartphones and tablets in 2014, transforming fleet management,” predicted Reynolds.

However, it’s not just the hardware which a growing number of fleets will embrace. Mobile apps and ‘gamification’ could drive efficiencies, helping fleets cut costs.

Reynolds, who is also president of the mobile data association, said: “There are currently around two million mobile apps available to download.

“During 2014, we will see the use of apps aimed at improving driver behaviour and fuel efficiency grow in the fleet sector.

“Although many vehicles come with efficiency features built in, ultimately the driver is in control of their habits at the wheel, which is why apps can be a catalyst for behavioural change.”

Health and fitness apps demonstrate how gamification techniques can be very effective in bringing about positive behavioural changes and help people to reach goals using their own steam.

Apps which focus on making efficient and safe driving behaviour fun are already available. The Automatic app works by plugging a bluetooth-enabled dongle into the vehicle’s data port, paired with the smartphone.

“The app monitors and scores driver behaviour by making use of the sensors and accelerometer in the smartphone and information from the engine management system,” said Reynolds.

“This information is then compared with other drivers in similar cars that have driven the same journey segments and placed in a good driving league table; fostering a fun, competitive attitude towards better driving.”

Apps such as this demonstrate an affordable and effective way of improving fuel efficiency, minimising wear and tear, and encouraging responsible driving across an entire fleet.

Reynolds also expects to see collaborative connected satellite navigation apps emerge.

These will use cloud technologies in order to intelligently disperse drivers over different routes, to encourage an even spread of traffic flow.

Information captured by the app can then be fed back from the smartphone into central office systems, giving clearer visibility of drivers.

“With consumer device adoption for fleet management set to rise, enterprise integration of apps will increase, enabling businesses to create even greater levels of efficiency,” added Reynolds.

Mobile Predictions for 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 15:50:00 +0000

2013 was a bumper year here in the UK for mobile technology. Not just for smartphones, with 61 per cent of adults now owning them, or even tablet computers, which sold close to a staggering 13 million in the UK, but we’ve been a part of a fundamental change – entering a new paradigm in the way that we live, work and play, all because of mobile technology.

In particular for the corporate space, where cost effective enabling technologies have increased their foothold, business cases have been transformed, and workforce mobilisation on the up and up.

My annual look ahead was spot on for 2013, but with it being such an eventful 12 months for mobile technology, could this year be as interesting? I think so. Here are some predictions for 2014.

Predictions

The Internet of Things

The world is now very much a connected place, with an average of eight connected devices in many households, ranging from computers, to games consoles, tablet devices and televisions. Gartner expects the number of these IoT devices to reach 31 billion by 2020, while others suggest this is a conservative estimate. In 2014, we can expect to see more aggressive adoption of IoT to take hold, enabled by the Cloud, and proliferated by low power Bluetooth and smartphone connectivity.

The health and fitness market is already harnessing IoT to great effect, with increasingly popular wearable connected devices able to record and monitor your performance whilst for example, cycling; in real-time on your smartphone, paired via a low-power Bluetooth signal.

Over the next 12 months, IoT devices will begin to percolate into a variety of markets, extending to household appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers and even heating systems. Connected sensors and switches fitted to these everyday items will enable us to control them remotely using our smartphones or tablets, with any faults automatically detected and reported.

A surge of B2C apps

More and more businesses are mobilising their internal operations using smartphones and tablets, facilitating flexible working and providing access to productivity apps. This year, increasingly businesses will look to launch B2C apps, recognising the importance of consumer devices as a vital way of connecting with customers wherever they are.

In a mobile era, being ready to tap into the consumer’s ability to immediately purchase products and services regardless of where or when that may be, represents a vast opportunity for businesses, and a historical shift in spending habits.

With the number of adults who own a smartphone expected to rise to 81 per cent by the end of 2014, and the number of mobile app users globally predicted to rise to 4.4 billion by the end of 2017, the time to look seriously at introducing a B2C app has arrived. Following in the footsteps of the big names in retail, 2014 will see a sharp rise in the number of businesses developing apps aimed at retaining and attracting an increasingly tech-savvy customer base, before their competitors wade in to the market.

Tablets get established in the corporate space

Towards the end of 2013 the entry price for a tablet computer dropped dramatically, with powerful, sophisticated and high quality devices retailing for as little as £100 in the run up to Christmas. Meanwhile, Indian company Datawind launched a basic seven inch tablet into the UK market for the princely sum of just £29 in December; a device which was originally designed to bridge the digital divide by breaking the price barrier for the poorest communities in its country.

Last year sales of tablets in the UK were up 50 per cent on 2012. During 2014, there will be a further 30 – 40 per cent growth in the tablet market, a proportion of which will be driven by rising adoption in the corporate space. The low price point of tablets helped tip the financial balance in favour of an ever widening range of enterprise deployments; the quick efficiency savings on offer far out weighing the initial costs. Growing numbers of fieldworkers will be equipped with tablets, in some cases in addition to a smartphone to carry out a range of tasks. Some zero-hours contractors and minimum wage staff will also likely have access to tablets in the workplace.

Level playing field for 4G

4G global subscribers shot up from 62m in 2012 to 150m less than 12 months later. The UK has been behind the curve with 4G coverage, with EE launching its offering here in mid-2013. Vodafone and O2 are set to play catch-up this year and this increased competition means EE’s monopoly days on 4G are numbered.

Being the only network provider to offer 4G has up until very recently given EE the freedom to set tariffs with unrealistically low monthly data allowances, leaving customers surprised to find they have exceeded their limits quickly. In 2014 however, we can expect to see the introduction of appropriate fair usage agreements as the network providers battle for market share, which is welcome news for the consumer and will encourage the uptake of 4G services.

The Cloud comes of age

Cloud as a service stabilised during 2013, making it a more obvious option for corporate data storage. High levels of security, increased competition between providers and the introduction of Service Level Agreements mean Cloud adoption by businesses will rise significantly during the coming 12 months. A wide range of businesses will utilise the Cloud as a disposable tool for springing up vast cathedrals of data and running fast analytics projects. Increased confidence in the security of the Cloud, coupled with its low cost, will also see it being harnessed on an ongoing basis for business centric functions.

Buy, rather than Bring, Your Own Device

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a well established acronym in the business lexicon, even to the extent as to eclipse other models for mobile device adoption in the enterprise. And as Mobile Device Management firms rely heavily on BYOD schemes, it is little wonder. But far from being a quick enterprise mobility fix, some businesses are learning the hard way that BYOD can store-up problems for later. A key challenge of BYOD has always been that of ensuring corporate data security, with businesses finding the only way to do this was by ‘locking-down’ personal devices, to the disillusionment of staff.

However, the widespread availability of inexpensive smartphones has seen a new model for enterprise deployment emerge. Some innovative businesses have rolled out Buy Your Own Device schemes, whereby workers can purchase a low cost device specifically for work purposes, which will give them secure access to relevant corporate data, as well as efficiency saving applications. This year, an increasing number of businesses will roll out Buy, instead of Bring, Your Own Device schemes as a way to mobilise their blue collar workers successfully.

Getting social

Smartphone users spend on average 115 minutes per week accessing social media via apps on their devices. The power of social media to reach out to huge audiences has increasing numbers of businesses embedding it within their marketing and communications strategies. 2014 will mark Facebook’s tenth birthday, whilst other well established platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn are not far behind. But we’ve only now begun to truly understand how to harness social media tools in a meaningful way which also avoids the many pitfalls.

Social media is of course conversational - a two-way dialogue with a community - making it a powerful tool for businesses, but one which can also see negative situations spiral out of control at breakneck speed. Following the fast demise of a brand’s reputation online because of an ill thought through tweet or status update only demonstrates how it’s all too easy to get things wrong and how damaging the consequences can be.

It may have taken the best part of a decade, but having learnt from the well documented mistakes of others, we’re at last in a position to take advantage of the great opportunities that social media provides for businesses. In 2014, we will see increasing numbers of businesses have the confidence and knowledge to start utilising a variety of social media platforms effectively.

Workforce Enablement Event for the Oil & Gas Sector

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Steve Reynolds, will be speaking at Microsoft’s ‘Driving Workforce Enablement Through IT Innovation Summit’; an exclusive event for the Oil & Gas industry.

Taking place on Wednesday 18 December 2013, at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel in Aberdeen, from 9am until 2.30pm, the event will showcase mobile applications and device solutions for mobile and field-based users.

Delegates will get the unique opportunity to learn about best practice and the business benefits of industry specific mobile solutions; through technology demos, case studies, and speaker sessions from industry experts and Microsoft’s senior executives. The programme includes:

• Chris Forrest, Microsoft UK Director of Manufacturing and Utilities and Director of Microsoft Scotland

• Dr. Pip Fox, Microsoft UK Energy and Utilities Industry Lead

• Steve Reynolds, Mobile Data Association

• Cross-industry Customer stories from ScottishPower, McCurrach and others

• Oil & Gas specific industry solution demos from Technology partners including TBS Mobility and others

• Mobile devices for the Boardroom, the Field and the Rig will also be available for demonstration

Basic Agenda

09:30 Welcome, Opening Session

09:40 Enabling Flexible Workstyles in Oil & Gas

10:00 Redefining Business Mobility - Steve Reynolds

10:30 Customer Presentation on mobile solutions in Industry

11:00 Break – Innovation Showcase

11:30 Customer Presentation on mobile solutions in Industry

12:30 Customer Presentation on mobile solutions in Industry

13:00 Mobility Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks

13:30 Lunch – Innovation Showcase and Networking

If you would like to register now, visit the website here and use Invitation Key: 9F501E or call 0870 166 6670 ref 1524

Steve will also be issuing personal invites to senior business and IT decisions makers within the Oil & Gas sector for ‘Driving Workforce Enablement Through IT Innovation Summit’.

Changing gear with vehicle technology

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Google’s driverless car took to the streets of America back in May 2012, first permitted in the state of Nevada, followed by Florida and then California. The UK is following suit, with the Government recently announcing that self-driving vehicles will be tested on public roads later this year.

The likes of Mercedes, Volvo and Nissan have also got on board with autonomous vehicles, all three having outlined their commitment to retailing self-driving vehicles by 2020.

Although it may be several years before we see self-driving cars on sale to the wider public, the sophistication and volume of in-vehicle technology is continuously increasing. Indeed, much of the technology that will be found in Volvo’s future self-driving cars will be available in its range of vehicles by the end of 2014.

Vehicle technology is making a huge impact now, transforming our relationship with driving, and bringing to bear new challenges and opportunities in the enterprise space.

Safer, greener, smarter

Efforts to bring autonomous vehicles to market are driven by the need to minimise accidents, carbon emissions and congestion, with a growing population and ubiquitous car ownership to contend with. However, well ahead of the era of self-driving cars, our smartphones are already capable of playing a key role in enabling us to tackle those crucial motoring issues.

There are an array of clever smartphone applications aimed at improving the driving experience, but emerging now are those which connect our smartphones with our vehicle’s computer system, thus enabling us to tap into the rich data therein.

Driving assistant app, Automatic, is a prime example of this. It connects your smartphone wirelessly with your vehicle’s computer, via the accompanying link which plugs easily into a vehicle data port. The app then tracks the way in which you drive, and generates a score based on fuel efficiency specific to the vehicle model. Accelerating too quickly and frequently braking hard will result in a lower score, as well as trigger immediate audio queues from the app. Sustaining a high score over the course of a year can result in a significant reduction in fuel consumption.

In addition, Automatic also helps to monitor the condition of the vehicle by providing details on any detected faults as they occur. It can also alert the emergency services and your family members if you are involved in a road incident.

What’s exciting about technology like Automatic, is that it is demonstrating the potential opportunities for businesses if they connect fieldworker smartphones - ubiquitous and in increasingly low cost - with their vehicles, whether they are part of the company fleet or privately owned.

Captured driving data can be integrated with a centralised workforce management system, enabling businesses to rationalise KPIs and analyse real-time intelligence surrounding overall fleet efficiency, as well as the performance of individuals in relation to their colleagues.

Adding value

Comparing today’s vehicles with those of ten years ago, it’s hard not to notice the stark contrast in relation to technology, and that’s in many basic models let alone those with the highest specifications. For example, a 2013 model Ford Fiesta 1.25 Zetec has eleven extra technical and safety features compared to its 1999 predecessor, illustrating that even cars at the lower end of the market now come kitted out with a wide array of advanced features.

So the amount of technology in vehicles is on the up – couple this with the multitude of options for new car buyers to choose from – and it creates a significant challenge for vehicle remarketing businesses in attaching accurate values to the myriad of makes and models on offer. The undervaluing of vehicles, due to the difficulty found in conducting accurate vehicle appraisals, is already resulting in substantial lost revenue.

However, leading vehicle remarketer British Car Auctions (BCA), provides a best practice example of how adopting mobile technology can alleviate those challenges and reveal innovative ways of optimising yield.

BCA uses PDAs and Smartphones with electronic workflows which incorporate image capture during the vehicle inspection process. This enables personnel to accurately identify any damage during vehicle inspection, with appraisal information immediately updated on central systems so that accurate valuations can be assigned. Through providing more detailed listings through its e-commerce site, BCA customers are able to make informed purchasing decisions, a differentiating factor for the company as a used vehicle supplier.

Using mobile technology enables BCA to capture information consistently and amass huge volumes of valuable data concerning the hundreds of thousands of vehicles which it deals with annually. This has enabled BCA to build accurate vehicle descriptions from across its business units based on granular level data.

BCA is a pioneer in the automotive industry for its innovative use of mobile devices and application of business intelligence, but technology provides yet more opportunities to gain a competitive advantage.

It may seem an unlikely example to cite in relation to the automotive industry, but supermarket loyalty cards demonstrate really well how to effectively harvest information on consumer spending habits and product preferences. By harnessing big data, vehicle vendors could work to personalise the customers’ experience, providing information on relevant makes and models, and enable them to strategically pinpoint the right times to approach potential buyers with offers, such as a few months before their finance or lease package ends.

The road to automation

There’s a great deal of noise emanating from the marketing machines of some of the major vehicle manufacturers, each one eager to take pole position in the driverless technology race. However, it’s worthwhile taking note of the voices offering a more grounded outlook on the future of driving.

Believe the hype, and we’ll be seeing driverless cars on our roads in just seven years, but other’s point to 2040 as more realistic date for widespread autonomous vehicle usage. That’s because before they replace our current vehicles, some key challenges must be addressed by the automotive industry, one of which is the elephant in the room – liability. If an accident were to occur, would the owner/passenger or manufacturer be held to account?

Accident liability is just one of many issues which will need to align before autonomous vehicles become commonplace, but the enabling technologies are emerging now. Some of those very same technologies, such as increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and the Cloud are opening up fresh opportunities for businesses in the automotive industries to generate new revenue streams, make substantial efficiency savings, and optimise their workforces. So whilst it maybe another 27 years before we’re sat in a driverless car on a regular basis, our relationships with vehicles are being redefined now.

Group Hudl

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 16:23:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again - the countdown to Christmas is on for the supermarkets. The big four have started vying for our custom this festive season with deals and offers galore on all manner of goods – from the food variety right through to toys and technology. And we’re certainly no strangers to supermarkets expanding beyond groceries and provisions, to introduce fashion lines, home ware, white goods and financial services to their stores. But this year, Tesco has become the first supermarket to launch an own-brand tablet computer.

The Hudl is a 7 inch android tablet, with HD screen, an impressive 9 hours of video battery life, 3MP camera, quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 16GB of storage (this can be boosted significantly with an SD card); which coupled with a surprisingly high-end look and feel, has earned it great praise in the media. Tesco’s Hudl retails at the low price of £119 (with various offers bringing the cost down even lower), in sharp contrast with the £249 commanded by the first generation iPad Mini (also 7 inch), and the £359 you’ll need to fork out for the more powerful iPad Air.

Of course, Hudl isn’t out to compete with top-end tablets such as the iPad Air in terms of the audience it’s intended to appeal to. Hudl is however, a high quality device which offers ample support for entertainment, web browsing, email and a multitude of apps via Google Play, in addition to user friendly parental control features; gearing it firmly towards the family market - ideal for the digital native through to the savvy silver surfer. With 4 million tablets expected to be sold from November through to Christmas, and household budgets squeezed, Tesco is well placed to cash in on seasonal demand.

Hudl isn’t the first discount tablet to come to market, however. Since the launch of the first tablet less than three years ago - the iPad - then costing around £400; high consumer demand has seen the release of a wide range of budget-end tablets. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, Lenovo’s IdeaTab, the Argos My Tablet, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD, all sitting around a similar price point to the Hudl.

With Hudl, Tesco has taken the discount tablet concept one step further, by using the device as a channel for its extensive range of products and services. Hudl’s built-in Tesco app, always available on the menu bar and home screen, makes it extremely simple to order your weekly groceries, order from Tesco Direct, stream movies from Tesco’s blinkbox, make Tesco Mobile your network provider, and even manage your finances with Tesco Banking. By extending its reach to a device rather than just an app, Tesco will maximise its revenue streams long after the initial sale of the tablet, potentially enabling it to make up for the near cost price of the device at retail.

With sophisticated tablets like the Hudl available at such low prices, the business case for deploying such technology to the workforce has been well and truly shaken up. Before, the cost of handing out expensive tablets for PIM functions has been prohibitive, but this is no longer the case. Many employees today, and particularly ‘Generation Y’ workers, expect to be able to work anywhere, anytime. Issuing personnel with a tablet to complete tasks and manage emails, improves productivity, caters to flexible working requirements and boosts morale. By using a customised business app on those devices, as illustrated by Tesco’s Hudl, businesses retain control and an element of visibility as well as being able to provide secure access to company information. With low-cost tablets like the Hudl widely available, the business benefits on offer more than justify the outlay.

Business isn’t the only place where deploying low-cost tablets can make sense. In the public sector, there are a long list of services where harnessing inexpensive devices can drive efficiencies, whilst saving money. For example, it would be more cost effective to give local authority or social housing tenants tablets with pre-installed customer care software, than to hand out printed welcome packs and a helpline number. Through their local authority app, tenants could easily manage their council tax bills, make rent payments, view the tenant’s handbook, learn about local public services or events, report nuisance behaviour, schedule repairs and maintenance jobs, access their records and so on. It follows that by using technology in this way, local authorities could see a wide range of benefits; from reductions in arrears to better support for vulnerable people in their homes, but the overriding effect would be to minimise the administrative and call centre burden.

Before we can unlock the potential of consumer technology - especially tablets - in the public sector, we need a change in perceptions. Much of the media has taken a dim view of public sector bodies rolling out tablets, without first scrutinising the business case. If efficiency and financial savings can be made by using tablets innovatively, then they must be considered as part of the solution to current economic challenges. With the use of tablets becoming increasingly prevalent, much like laptops, they will be viewed as an intrinsic part of our daily lives, rather than an entertainment gadget.

NFC at your service

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:54:00 +0000

Achieving greater efficiency is the perpetual aim of businesses in today’s challenging economic landscape. Efficiency in the workplace can be directly improved though the deployment of technology, but such is the pace of change that it is easy to miss when something with genuinely transformative potential emerges.

NFC (Near Field Communications) is that something, and is being innovatively harnessed by a handful of businesses in the ePOD, security and rail industries to effectively assist in process compliance, asset management and time and attendance monitoring; and could have a big impact in facilities management applications too.

How NFC works

NFC uses radio frequency to enable data to be sent between a mobile device and tags within short range of each other. NFC tags can be attached to an asset and store information relating to it, which can be read using an NFC enabled smartphone, meaning there is no need for barcode readers.

nfc-tags-smartphoneInformation can also be written into the tags, so that when an activity is completed and the details are updated by the user through a smartphone app, the refreshed details can be transferred back to the tag by simply tapping it with the mobile device. Storing asset information on an NFC tag means that there is no need to cross reference a central database to obtain the relevant records, thereby making processes much more efficient.

The tags come in various shapes and sizes, from labels to discs. The discs are the size of a 10 pence coin and made from robust polycarbonate. Neither the labels nor discs require power or a wireless connection, making them practical for use outdoors or in remote locations.

With all this going in NFC’s favour, it may be surprising to learn how inexpensive the technology actually is. The tags cost around 10 pence, and the chances are, if you have a smartphone it is probably NFC enabled.

Innovative use case

Now that the majority of smartphones available are NFC enabled as standard, the technology is increasingly being utilised across the consumer and business sectors. British Airways provides a good example of the potential of NFC to fulfil the efficiency shortcomings of the barcode in facilities management applications.

British Airways recently announced that it is trialling new luggage tags which house support for NFC ready to be rolled out next year. Using the BA application on their smartphones, passengers will be able tap their luggage tag, updating an e-ink display with their flight number, destination, tracking details, and a unique barcode.

This will eliminate the need for BA staff to key in passenger details, print off fiddly barcode labels and attach them to the traveller’s luggage. The result will be substantial efficiencies for BA, but also a much less stressful airport experience for customers.

How NFC could be adopted in facilities management

Understanding how this versatile technology can be harnessed successfully in facilities management scenarios just takes a little bit of imagination. Applied effectively as part of a wider mobility strategy, NFC can enable business to gain significant efficiencies, improve process compliance, and enhance data integrity.

For managing asset maintenance, fieldworkers can quickly find out the service status of a certain asset by tapping the attached tag with the smartphone. Information concerning whether work needs to be carried out and what specifically is required is transmitted from the tag to an enterprise mobility app; working to minimise missed services, job duplication and helping to maximise asset lifespan. The tag could even contain a URL link to an Operation and Maintenance manual. Once the work is completed, the user updates the app and taps the tag, which in turn updates the smartphone.

NFC can also be used to monitor time and attendance. On entering and exiting a facility, staff simply tap the appropriate tag with their NFC enabled smartphone, making fobs unnecessary.

NFC tags could be applied across multiple client sites for time and attendance monitoring, as well as be used to prove whether staff members have visited particular rooms. Cleaning staff, for example, could receive their task list for the day as they tap into a specific facility, record job completion through the app, which updates the tag as they leave, ready for the next person.

To ensure security personnel have carried out the correct parameter checks, NFC tags can be placed at check points which they will tap with their smartphone as they move round the site. Not only will this alert colleagues when security hasn’t checked in at a particular point, it can show where an individual was last and at what time, and provide the bigger picture as to whether an individual is keeping to schedule.

These efficiency-saving examples of NFC use cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The exciting part is that if you don’t already have this versatile technology on your current mobile device, in the near future you will and so will your workforce, as increasingly sophisticated smartphones become ubiquitous.

For a relatively low investment and a straight forward deployment, facilities management businesses will be able to harness NFC as part of their mobility strategy, taking advantage of the real-world benefits offered.

HTML5 or Native, that is the question

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:45:00 +0000

It’s difficult to miss the current media fanfare surrounding HTML5 - it promises to be the write-once-run-anywhere way to develop mobile apps. Cheaper and faster to develop than native, HTML5 is a tempting proposition for today’s fiscally pressurised corporate sector. However, look beyond the hype, and you may find HTML5 does not live up to expectations.

After its brief fling of less than a year with HTML5, LinkedIn recently announced that it is reverting back to fully native apps. And LinkedIn isn’t alone in refocusing its mobile strategy on native. Last September, Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerburg said that “betting completely on HTML5 is one of the, if not the biggest strategic mistake we've made”.

These are two high-profile examples, but many other organisations are following their lead either completely or partially abandoning HTML5 in favour of native. So businesses looking to invest in applications should be taking note: could you be forced to re-visit native app development less than 12 months after deploying HTML5?

HTML5 performance and interoperability challenges

HTML5 applications run solely in a web browser on your smartphone or tablet, so that once developed theoretically they shouldn’t need to be re-built for different Operating Systems (OS) or mobile devices. However, because the HTML5 standard has not yet been ratified, mobile web browser functionality can vary from device to device, meaning that what works on one device may not necessarily work on another.

This can cause performance issues that are irritating at best, and at worst, prohibitive for enterprise deployments. For example, some mobile browsers do not support offline caching, meaning any loss of connectivity results in a loss of data. In addition, due to the amount of time that a corporate app is used, memory can run low on HTML5 apps.

Much more than user experience

Being finely tuned to each device and OS means that native apps offer a much slicker, quicker user experience compared with HTML5, where performance is slow and varies from device to device.

However, achieving a good standard of user experience is crucial. If you are asking your staff to embrace a shift from long-standing paper-based processes to automated workflows on a mobile device, then you need to ensure that your app is easy to understand, fast, intuitive and rewarding to use.

Future proof?

An integral part of good user experience is making sure the app delivers specific functionality that enhances processes. But being device agnostic is actually counter-productive if you want to take advantage of the kind of sophisticated technologies that today’s smartphones and tablets benefit from. Unlike HTML5, using native enables you to innovatively leverage the rich features of the device such as the camera, NFC technology, microphone, GPS, accelerometer and Sat Nav, seamlessly incorporating them into processes.

For simpler app requirements though, like forms-based applications, HTML5 offers a viable, cost effective alternative to native, where sophisticated functionality is not necessary and user experience will be fit for purpose.

If your business uses a variety of mobile devices, you could consider a hybrid application, which combines the benefits of cross platform development with the flexibility of native. Although this sounds like a good deal, it does hold a major compromise - like HTML5, hybrid apps lack the speed and performance that you can only achieve with native.

App Security

In this era of big data, using a mobile application to capture powerful information is essential to the decision making process. The security of that data is often equally important, particularly in fieldworker scenarios where sensitive or valuable data is harvested and transferred. Although HTML5 can secure data whilst it is being downloaded or uploaded, it often slows the app down. Native apps will encrypt cached data, which HTML5 apps cannot. The bottom line is, if you need your business’s data to be safe on mobile devices, then it’ got to be native.

Getting it right first time

At first glance, the quick win advantages of HTML5 seem appealing for businesses looking to initiate a mobility strategy. But on closer inspection, the limitations of this relatively immature development platform are clear.

Although there is optimism about its potential in the long term, HTML5 will always remain the native application’s poorer relation unless the performance gap is plugged by a more mature development ecosystem. Before this happens, native will continue to be first to market with new mobile technologies, leaving HTML5 lagging behind.

Adopting HTML5 for the wrong reasons could prove an expensive experiment. So if you can’t compromise on performance, user experience, sophistication, security and flexibility, then native is still the only practical option for a future proof mobility strategy.

Driving the Fleet Industry Forward: Mobile Applications

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:28:00 +0000

The ever increasing sophistication of mobile technology is driving a revolution across the entire global workforce, with a third now thought to be on the road. Our smartphone or tablet acts as our mobile office, keeping us constantly connected not only with our colleagues, but also integrated in real-time with all of our businesses management systems; offering us a more flexible working environment.

The benefits of adopting mobile technology within enterprise are widely acknowledged, but to what extent can mobile applications really improve fleet operations in the current climate?

Rapid development in the mobile technology sector could not be in starker contrast with the flat lining economy. Low cost, high capability mobile applications and platforms, increasingly ones which are dedicated to business use. This is no coincidence - mobile technology for businesses is all about managing rising costs and improving operations. By adopting mobile technology, many fleet businesses are able to buck the depressed fiscal trend.

Fuelling lower fleet costs

All businesses are under extreme pressure to deliver efficiencies; faced with a stagnant economy and the rocketing price of fuel, so gaining efficiency by using less fuel is an obvious way of controlling costs.

In 2007, before the financial crisis struck, a service company with a fleet of 200 vehicles, averaging 40 miles per gallon, would have an annual fuel bill of around £5.9m. Taking into account the current price of fuel per litre, that bill will have shot up to £8.86m in 2013 – an eye watering rise of nearly £3m in just four years.

Using mobile technology to up fieldworker productivity can actually work to offset the increased fuel bill. For example, a field service company with 200 engineers who each perform five jobs per day at an average invoice of £150 each. A modest 10 per cent increase in productivity would raise an additional £75 per day, per engineer. Over 12 months, the field service company would have earned £3m, enough to off-set the rise in fuel expenditure.

The latest real-time scheduling technology can also significantly decrease the fuel bill. Dynamic scheduling tools constantly update individual workflows as changes occur, efficiently allocating appointments, and intelligently plotting routes with integrated sat-nav. The result is a reduction in customer revisits, double booked appointments, and an overall reduction in road miles; leading to an additional saving of £864,000.

Assessing the damage

The days of a buoyant used car market have long since gone and leasing companies are increasingly strict when it comes to invoicing for vehicle damage which goes beyond fair wear and tear. This spells yet another ballooning overhead for fleet owners.

Despite this, a recent survey found that almost a third of fleet managers still fail to carry out end-of-contract damage checks before returning vehicles to suppliers – resulting in nasty surprise bills. The average cost of undertaking remedial repairs is £300 per vehicle, which may explain fleet operators’ reluctance to implement proper de-fleet processes.

Leaving the responsibility of vehicle appraisals to suppliers clearly holds some appeal. After all, it’s one less process to oversee. However, having a clear picture of vehicle damage costs across your entire fleet, brings with it the opportunity to spot and troubleshoot negative patterns. The BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) recommends that vehicle appraisals are conducted 12 weeks prior to their return, allowing ample time for any damage to be rectified and resulting costs to be effectively managed.

Some fleets have already deployed mobile applications to assist in the vehicle appraisal process. Using tablets or smartphones, fleet staff can follow a step-by-step vehicle damage assessment process, ensuring nothing is missed. Some mobile solutions also utilise photography to make data capture easy and help generate more accurate repair estimates. All data captured can be integrated with central office systems, enabling you to monitor costs and damage more readily.

The future for fleet applications

Mobile technology is advancing at an unstoppable pace. In the automotive sector, research and development is fuelled by the need to reduce carbon emissions and cut congestion. Such is the speed of mobile innovation that vehicles come to market lagging several years behind in terms of technology.

Working closely with motor vehicle manufacturers, MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) is steering a concept known as Mobility Internet, which is set to revolutionise the in-car experience for drivers. Mobility Internet means all future vehicles will be wirelessly connected, enabling them to become an extension of your mobile device and its apps. This is already happening to an extent with voice command technology in vehicles, which synchronise with mobile devices, and will continue to play a key role in future with Internet Mobility.

The connected vehicle will also integrate other data from your mobile device, such as your calendar. This will enable the vehicle to be automatically navigated to an appointment address, at the appropriate time.

Due to the nature of mobile technology innovation, the smartphone will soon become a centre of vehicle technology, and applications dedicated to improving the motorist’s experience will quickly follow. Satellite Navigation is one driving tool which is already being developed with Mobility Internet in mind.

Not only can Sat Navs adjust routes to real-time congestion information, they will soon be able to co-ordinate with other drivers, so that traffic is diverted evenly across various alternative routes to mitigate traffic jams elsewhere. As voice recognition technology advances, drivers will be able to ask for the Sat Nav for more guidance to their destinations. Sat Navs, along with other creative apps, will also promote economic driving by monitoring individual driving behaviour.

Connected vehicles will be able to communicate with car parks to save time and stress for motorists. They will guide drivers to a car park local to their destination with available spaces. Upon leaving the car park, the smartphone app will automatically pay without the need for tickets. With 25 per cent of city traffic being drivers on the hunt for parking, a parking app would certainly help reduce unnecessary congestion.

Currently, there are collaborative traffic applications which provide a platform for people to share journey information with one another. Other driving tools which connect the smartphone and vehicle are also beginning to come to the fore. Automatic is an app that connects your smartphone and car wirelessly via a data port that taps into all the rich information collected by the vehicle’s existing computer system. Using this powerful information, it analyses driving efficiency in real-time and generates a score, offering tips on how to improve and reduce fuel consumption on your smartphone.

For fleet operators, future mobile technology can further enhance existing fleet management tools which help drive process adherence and ensure efficient scheduling. By automatically monitoring driver behaviour, Mobility Internet will save fuel; cutting carbon emissions, but also enforce safer driving within fleets.

Whatever the future holds for fleets, two things we can say for certain are that fuel prices will continue to rocket and innovations in the mobile technology arena will continue to facilitate efficiencies. The burden of rising costs means that resources in the fleet sector are becoming increasingly stretched, but traditional processes are quickly becoming inadequate under the strain. Mobile technology is offering the fleet sector a vital lifeline which can help it to fight back, but also differentiate companies from their competition.

Why Mobile is Driving BI

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:46:00 +0000

In February joined the NeutrinoBI contingent and jetted off to sunny Spain to speak at Gartner’s Business Intelligence (BI) & Analytics Summit in Barcelona. The NeutrinoBI team had invited me to speak at the event, and it was an opportunity not to be missed.

It was a chance to support our new partners and, importantly, share insights on what’s driving BI now – mobile data. And with 5.5 billion connected handsets in a global population of 7 billion, it should come as no surprise that the rapid uptake of smartphone and tablet devices is having a profound effect in the corporate space today.

The increasing sophistication of low cost mobile devices represents great opportunities for businesses to capture reliable, immediate data. The latest enterprise-ready smartphones are making it even easier for businesses in all industries take advantage of their rich data sources.

Global smartphone sales continue on their upward trajectory, and tablet shipments tell a similar story. This consumerisation of mobile technology is accelerating uptake in the world of business. Where previously smartphones and tablets were the preserve of the executive, today we see devices across the entire workforce spectrum, most notably for task-orientated personnel.

So how does this key in to BI? Data harvested by the mobile workforce is the critical link in the BI chain. It gives a new dimension to BI, driven by the accuracy and immediacy unique to real-time and, vitally, utilises the cloud to connect information from spreadsheets and existing management systems with information from fieldworkers.

Mobile also gives us access to new types of information, such as geographical and telematic data, adding further value and insight to BI.

Using BI tools which integrate mobile data, you can troubleshoot inefficiencies, identify fresh opportunities and make proactive decisions to ensure lean, robust business processes; all in matter of moments, not months. Being able to innovate and adapt with such unprecedented speed is a prized commodity at a time when economic stagnation is the new normal.

As mobile technology continues to flourish in the consumer and corporate spaces, so too will mobile data drive BI.

Mobile marches on into 2013 - the predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:26:00 +0000

So, the global economy has once again failed to live up to our hopes for modest growth in 2012, and this year the threat of a triple dip recession looms large. By contrast, the world's appetite for Smartphones and Tablets is insatiable, driving forward innovation in mobile technology at an unstoppable pace.

Such is the rapidity of change in the mobile technology industry; you can never be too sure what exciting developments lie around the corner. I'm happy to say that all but one of my predictions for last year were pretty accurate, it was my theory on increased Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) uptake which was a little off the mark.

The problem with BYOD is that it doesn't exactly do what it says on the tin. Because businesses need to be able to protect their network from viruses, malware, data leaks and so on, they will often lock down BYODs. But this means removing any personal apps, and the result is a mobile device that seems far from your own.

Predictions

Sharp rise of consumer device adoption in the enterprise
Over the past year we've seen an influx of highly sophisticated mobile devices flood the consumer space. But the latest generation of Smartphones and Tablets are making an increasingly strong business-case, with lean thinking organisations turning to them as a means to increase efficiencies without high levels of capital investment.

A compelling combination of power, reliability and low-cost will significantly hasten uptake of mobile devices to support fieldworker roles during 2013. Couple this with an innovative range of aftermarket rugged cases and device-based security; we will see a new versatility of enterprise-hardened mobile devices that meet the needs of blue collar workers right through to the executive management team.

Rugged devices challenged
Enterprise-hardened smartphone and tablets may be good news for businesses looking to roll out sophisticated mobile technology at low cost; however the same cannot be said for rugged device manufacturers who will see their value proposition further compromised this year.
In 2012 we saw two major buy-outs signal diminished demand in the rugged device sector, with Honeywell taking over Intermec and Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions do the same with Psion. To survive the tough year ahead, rugged PDA manufacturers will need to reinvent themselves and build in innovation to their product range.

Business Intelligence enables big data
The slow economic recovery will no doubt mean some businesses freeze or rein-in IT spend. On the other hand, those that invest in Business Intelligence (BI) will gain a significant advantage, both in terms of their ability to identify inefficiencies and exploit opportunities to generate revenue. Having granular knowledge of operations will allow for businesses to proactively streamline processes and enhance performance, becoming leaner as a result.
This year will see more and more organisations turn to real-time BI tools to pull vital insights from important data, whether it resides in the IT infrastructure or with the mobile workforce. In turn, cloud synchronisation of corporate data will be further utilised as a low cost facilitator of big data analysis.

Machine to Machine (M2M) will migrate to alternative wireless services
To date, M2M devices have predominantly been connected to GSM 2G (GRPS) networks. However with the advancement of cellular data connectivity and the global roll out of LTE, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are now considering the alternatives. For instance, US telecommunications giant, AT&T, announced last year its plans to switch off GSM in 2017, to access valuable bandwidth for fast data services in the race for bigger capacity.

However, if UK MNOs follow suit, this may cause some issues here in the UK. Many of the major gas and electricity suppliers intend to the roll out 50 million Smartmeters over the next five years on the GSM network, which could one day be switched off. What we can say for certain is that the wireless spectrum that was recently used for the Teletext service could be repurposed to offer a significantly lower data cost than the current GPRS network, to provide specific M2M services.

Keep taking the Tablets
Impressive figures for the Tablet market in 2012 can leave us in doubt - Tablets are here, and they are here to stay. Global usage grew by 55 per cent last year - with over 108 million devices purchased - a mega-trend which looks set to continue in 2013. If consumer demand for Tablets follows in the footsteps of the Smartphone phenomena, we will see a 60 per cent increase in growth, equating to at least 250 million more devices being sold this year.

Smartphone growth
It's a similar story with Smartphones. 720 million Smartphones were shipped last year, representing growth of 48 per cent globally. The increasing availability of low cost, feature rich Smartphone technology is a key driving factor in their unceasing popularity. The market is far from saturated though, with 5.5 billion connected devices worldwide there remains potential for another 50 per cent rise in Smartphone sales in 2013.

Mobile shopping
In the run up to Christmas last year, the BBC reported a 300 per cent rise in the number of people using mobile devices to buy online. Coupled with the upward trend in sales of Tablets and Smartphones, 2013 looks set to be the year for mobile shopping. We saw many of the major retailers making their online presence mobile-friendly and creating apps, and this will become more widespread as the year progresses. Although Point of Sales mobile payments is slowly gaining traction, it is mobile based spending that will cause the biggest stir in 2013.

The turning point for NFC
All of the smartphones in the shops today have NFC technology baked-in, all bar the iPhone that is. So this year will see NFC come of age, used for gaming, Bluetooth pairing, information transfer, and increasingly mobile payments. As this exciting technology starts to get established within the consumer space in 2013, businesses will also begin to embrace NFC in barcode scenarios.
Due to its ultra low-cost, NFC offers businesses an attractive RFID alternative, with numerous innovative applications including ticketing and transportation (micro-payments), barcode enhancement, active tags which store and communicate information (vehicle damage records), safety systems, asset management, fleet management, equipment rental and time and attendance.

Is Windows Phone 8 poised and ready for business?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:03:00 +0000

After being an avid iPhone fan for the past four years, last week I bid farewell to my 4GS and said hello to my Windows Phone 8 powered Nokia Lumia 920. But in under four days of becoming acquainted with my new device, I realised I could never go back to an iOS 6 powered iPhone.

Boredom with the user interface and its matrix of apps drove my departure from the fruit-based brand, compounded by a desire for something fresh enough to keep my attention for the next two years, not to mention that the 920 has a functioning map application.
The Nokia coupled with the Windows 8 operating system is a highly capable device and is in my opinion the most innovative smartphone on the consumer market today. But what do Windows Phone 8 devices offer to business users, are Microsoft and its smartphone partner, Nokia, up to the task?

The Windows Phone 8 business offering

Exchange Server and Office 365
As you would expect, the WP8 operating system connects seamlessly and quickly into your corporate exchange server and Office 365. Not only does it offer full email, contacts and calendar support, but the exchange server also enables remote policy settings management, including password policy, device encryption and remote wipe. The WP8 email client also supports digital rights management (DRM) policies to prevent sensitive emails being forwarded, among other possible commands.

Microsoft Office Hub
WP8 introduces the Office Hub, which incorporates Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, making finding and accessing your personal and work documents on SkyDrive, Office 365 or SharePoint, intuitive and effortless. Office content is optimally adjusted for WP8, not only making viewing a pleasant experience, but also allowing for simple edits to be made with ease.

Company Hub
This distinctive new feature enables businesses to create a customised secure zone containing company-specific apps and disseminate information to the workforce. The Company Hub offers support throughout day-to-day activities, and can incorporate business-centric content like private business applications, intranet based information and a recommended list of approved mobile applications to help employees use the right productivity tools.

Businesses are put right at the helm of the Company Hub, with total control over setting security policies. This might be requiring a certain length and complexity of password, device encryption, the ability to remotely disable the phone storage card or reset the phone to its original state.

Nokia Lumia 820 & 920
We get excited whenever a new mobile device comes to market, but the two Nokia Lumias have made a bigger splash than normal here at TBS - not least because their slick performance and high screen quality means our native TaskMaster smart client runs super-fast and looks stunning.

Nokia Drive
Both devices come equipped with innovative turn-by-turn sat nav, Nokia Drive, which does not require a wireless connection to function - a major USP in the consumer and business markets. Map data for 90 countries is downloaded onto the device for free, which also provides speed camera and speed limit warnings.

TaskMaster adds a further dimension to the sat-nav user experience; automatically uploading addresses, bypassing the need for manual input. Not only does this eliminate error, but it also saves masses of time and ultimately promotes safer driving practices.

Near Field Communications (NFC)
NFC is familiar territory for TaskMaster, which already harnesses it in a wealth of diverse business scenarios. So the fact that the two Nokia Lumia devices have this dexterous technology in-built is a much welcome addition.

TaskMaster takes advantage of the secure, fast transmission of data between devices facilitated by NFC technology. This boosts the efficiency and scope of a range of business tasks, such as ticketing and transportation (micro-payments); barcode substitute and enhancement; time and attendance; health and safety compliance; general process adherence and asset record storage and communication.

PureView
This is the jewel in the Lumia 920 crown. PureView camera technology incorporates Optical Image Stabilisation and a Carl Zeiss lens, combined to capture high-quality photographs, blur-free and bright – even in poorly-lit spaces. For me, no other smartphone comes close to the picture quality offered by PureView.

In business, photography is often the only practical method of capturing certain information, such as damage to vehicles or graffiti on walls; for example. It is also an intrinsic part of the TaskMaster platform and PureView will dramatically enhance this vital function.

Ultra sensitive rugged touchscreen
Both Nokia models come with innovative ultra sensitive touchscreens that can be viewed in bright sunlight and used whilst wearing a glove. This feature is invaluable on a cold day or when wearing personal protective equipment.

Not only do the screens boast Gorilla Glass 2 from Corning, but also a polycarbonate casing, making for an extremely durable device capable of withstanding harsh treatment and the occasional drop.

For extra protection the 820’s cover can be replaced with a rugged shell case. This robust mixture of features coupled with TaskMaster capabilities makes this the ideal smartphone for use in heavy duty fieldworker scenarios.

The perfect package

Unlike like its rivals, the new WP8 operating system is designed to be business-aware, positioning it as a serious contender in the corporate smartphone stakes.

Its intuitive assimilation of office content coupled with the compelling features offered by the Lumia devices, such as Nokia Drive, NFC, PureView and the ultra sensitive rugged touch screen, make this combined proposition for business users difficult to beat. Introduce TaskMaster to the mix and businesses will be in possession of a winning mobile technology formula.

Survival of the Innovators: The next generation of plant hire company

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:58:00 +0000

Nobody wants to be reminded about the bleak 2013 growth forecast in the plant and construction industries. But with yet another year of gruelling economic challenges lying ahead; plant hire businesses are compelled to rigorously scrutinise their strategies or face the very real possibility of going to the wall.

Recent predictions indicating plant hire businesses will cut capital investment by ten per cent during 2013, raise an important question: Does a cut in capital investment now ensure financial stability in the long term, or will it just keep the wolf from the door for another year? With fiercely competitive trading conditions that are here to stay, surely plant hire businesses must innovate to differentiate?

Plain sailing or choppy waters?

With increased capital investment firmly off the menu, plant hire businesses are starting to consider the use of mobile technologies as an alternative, with the aim of putting clear blue water between them and their rivals. By maximising existing resources, not only are they cutting unnecessary costs, but they are also discovering new opportunities to increase revenue – in way that is simply not possible using paper-based systems.

The sheer scale of documentation generated by the wide range of necessary processes leaves plant companies drowning in an ocean of paperwork, from which it is impossible to run a modern, proactive business and turns decision making into guess work. By facilitating the provision of reliable and accurate information on business activities to management, in real time using handheld devices, innovative enterprise mobility solutions are underpinning intelligent on-the-spot decision-making, in addition to building the bigger business strategy picture.

The Three Ps

People, processes and plant equipment: The plant hire company’s powerful trio of assets that are central to devising a robust future-proof mobility plan. The way in which these elements interact holds the key to a successful plant hire business that will not only weather the economical storm, but emerge from it fighting fit.

Empowering personnel with automated and logical workflow via a mobile device, not only ensures process adherence, it also increases productivity by reducing the administrative burden. Back in the office, management have immediate access to granular data that will inform specific asset utilisation tactics to achieve the most advantageous business outcome.

On the road to smarter sales

Reviewing the sales process is often a starting point when looking to capitalise on revenue streams. But with most rental arrangements for heavy equipment being agreed on the customer’s site, it is challenging for sales representatives to offer value-added services or viable up-sell propositions.

With a smartphone or tablet in hand, sales staff can generate tailored quotes immediately, specific to the exact needs of the customer, without needing to return to base and for a quote which will arrive days later. Transparent equipment availability details also make it easy for staff to offer alternative rental options, which offer benefits to both the customer and business.

Preserving your assets

If plant hire companies are looking to cut capital expenditure, reducing outlay on replacing equipment is essential. However, keeping on top of the maintenance of a large fleet of varied plant equipment is an overwhelming task.

So to support engineers in their vital role, intuitive workflow systems delivered on a mobile device ensure that no planned maintenance is missed, and any equipment servicing is carried out methodically. By safe-guarding the condition of assets in this way, breakdown call outs are dramatically reduced, along with any hefty related costs and the knock on delays caused for forthcoming rental contracts.

Taking stock

The equipment audit is a laborious yet necessary task to evaluate whether equipment should be sold off or retained. With access to detailed timely data relating to asset condition, value and yield, provided by innovative mobile technology; intelligence-based decisions about equipment sale can be made quickly, and depreciation rates can be factored into the rental of the asset and as well as any future buying commitments.

Undisputable evidence

Recovering equipment damage costs from customers is the root of many headaches for plant hire managers, with the finger of blame being pointed in all directions. Proving 'whodunit' without unequivocal evidence can be a long and painful struggle, and has the potential to sever business ties for good.

Mobile devices offer a reliable and efficient way of recording equipment condition at the point of delivery and collection, obtaining the customer’s signature there and then. With details of damage fed back to head office in real-time, an invoice can be raised immediately and accompanied with supporting evidence. This minimises disputes and ensures costs are recouped promptly.

A new breed of plant hire

With the threat of flat lining revenues, plant hire businesses need to embrace the shift in the plant hire business landscape, to stand a chance of securing the highly coveted rental contracts on offer, and crucially, attract returning business.

The transformative properties of innovative mobile technology adoption are putting many plant hire companies at a significant advantage, by giving them the foundations to offer more competitive leasing arrangements and excellent standards of customer care.

London 2012 kick-starts a high speed media revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:03:00 +0000

London 2012 surpassed all expectations, from the success of Team GB to the spirit generated throughout the United Kingdom and beyond. As the dust settles and legacy debate begins, let us take a look at how a mobile technology critical to the success of the Games is starting to undergo a revolution of its own.

For the thousands of Britons who poured through the Olympic Park this summer, there were many more that didn’t. But many of them still achieved an unprecedented sense of involvement, thanks in no small part to media delivered with a speed and style like never before.

Medal information, times, scores, images, reports and video were devoured by consumers across a number of different platforms, and everything simply worked. Fears about mobile network stability weren’t realised and data flowed in and out of venues reasonably smoothly. Media consumption rates rocketed as a result.

During the Beijing Games in 2008, 31 per cent of the British population went online to consume content; just two per cent viewed on a mobile. In London this summer, 56 per cent of the British population consumed media online, with 14 per cent consuming on a mobile device. Online content was focused on consumption through excellent tools like BBC’s iPlayer and dedicated applications for smartphones and tablet devices, which formed a large part of the 14 per cent.

BBC Olympics content

Over a single 24 hour period on the busiest day, bbc.co.uk received more visitors than for all combined FIFA World Cup 2010 matches.
The BBC Olympics mobile application for iOS and Android smartphones was downloaded 1.9 million times
During the weekends, 40% of browsers accessing BBC coverage were mobile
During the week, 30% of browsers accessing BBC coverage were mobile
2.8 million mobile browsers requested BBC content on the busiest day, with 2.8 petabytes of data delivered
Over 700 gigabits per second were delivered on August 1st, when Bradley Wiggins won his gold medal
12 million requests for mobile video were received over the course of the Games
The Olympics mobile website was visited by 9.2 million browsers, including 2.3 million tablet browsers

Four years of work was invested to ensure the streaming technologies used for these tools were frugal in terms of data consumption through both wireless and mobile networks. But were they frugal enough?

Using my iPhone, I watched Rebecca Adlington’s 400m freestyle race for gold in a restaurant and Tom Daley’s diving while waiting for a train. After these two events, although the latter was considerably longer, I received a text message from O2 saying I had almost reached my 3G data limit. I hadn’t considered my limit but clearly I still needed to, which was disappointing.

Rio 2016 and LTE

At Rio in 2016, with 4G mobile data connectivity widely embedded, we could be seeing mobile data rates being used by around the same number of people who are using traditional online data today. This marks another huge leap.

“Unlimited” data tariffs usually means a limit of 500MB
3G offers, at best, 2MB per second
4G offers, at best, 100MB per second
Tariffing has to change or we’ll consume a monthly allowance within an hour

With the significant leap in speeds offered by 4G comes the potential issue of users switching from traditional home broadband to depend exclusively on mobile connectivity. Perceptions of mobile and the power of what it can deliver will switch, which could lead to capacity problems and network infrastructure issues. The advent of 4G means a difficult data cost / value equation for mobile networks.
In America, T-Mobile sells an unlimited 4G data package for £60.00 per month and a 3G package, limited to 2 Gigabytes, at £52.00 per month. On average the typical UK consumer pays around £7.50 per month for “unlimited” data, usually capped at 500MB.

What it means for enterprise mobility

If mobile networks do create tariffs that work for everyone, the enterprise mobility space can experience another revolution. A 4G dongle that connects directly into an enterprise system suddenly gives incredibly fast access to information we are used to waiting some time for. It can open up possibilities and media many businesses understandably haven’t even considered using.

Our customers enjoy the value of capturing images to include in extensive asset registers and record exceptions to the norm. But users are often reluctant to capture more than one image and multiple images take more time to download all the way along the workflow.

4G brings possibilities for HD video, a technology largely consigned to the wilderness up until now. Video can offer a rich source of information for fieldworkers, from operating instructions and engineer guides, to remote diagnosis and video conferencing to help establish whether a call-out is necessary.

But as with earlier mobile data revolutions, first will come the overhaul of consumer behaviour and popular media consumption – a vital process of broad user education. With those usability lessons learned, the enterprise can begin to enjoy the benefits

Which are the best cross-platform tools for developing line of business enterprise mobility apps?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:23:00 +0000

A report about cross platform developer tools makes a number of strong points and raises key questions to consider when choosing cross platform development tools.

Back in February Vision Mobile published a report, Cross Platform Developer Tools 2012 – a self-proclaimed seminal report covering over one hundred cross-platform developer tools, the metrics of developer experience and the future of native and web applications.

Having finally gathered the time to look at it in close detail, in highlighting the tools and players in the application development space, it reveals a number of interesting insights.

Cross-platform tools (CPTs) let developers create apps on multiple mobile platforms from almost the same codebase, ensuring only a small incremental cost compared to writing native apps for each target platform.

For those seeking to develop multi-platform mobile applications in the enterprise space, many CPTs are available to help speed up the development process. Visiongain’s report covers over one hundred available tools, but it can be difficult to know which are worth looking at.

There are three main questions to consider in picking a CPT. Straightforward they may seem, but they are:

- will the tool do what you want it to do?
- will the tool be commercially sustainable?
- will the tool be developer-centric – is support in place?

Target mobile platforms

Line of business enterprise solutions are deployed on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 (8), and Windows Mobile 6.5, which is still strong in the line of business space and usually deployed on rugged devices provided by suppliers including Motorola, Intermec and Honeywell. Selecting a tool which covers all these platforms is essential.

Commercial sustainability

With over 100 CPTs available today, there will be large number of casualties either through business failure or acquisition. Only the fittest will survive, meaning you need to back the right tool.

The majority of CPT providers are struggling with monetisation strategies and OpenPlug has already fallen victim of the failure to develop a robust plan.

Developer centricity

CPTs need to ensure they provide a developer programme with good levels of developer support. This should include timely releases of products to coincide with new mobile operating systems, upgrades and updates, guaranteeing that your apps continue to work.

Performance is vital to the quick running of apps across all target platforms.

Many CPT providers are focused on the consumer application and games market: a volatile and high-risk space. Removing these from the equation to concentrate on CPTs offering line of business apps leaves WorkLight, RhoMobile and Monotouch/Droid.

Comparison Table

	Worklight	RhoMobile	Xamarin
Owner	IBM	Motorola Solutions	Self
Output	Native, Hybrid, Web	Native	Native
Language	HTML, CSS, Javascript	HTML, Ruby, API's	C#, .NET
Monetisation Plan	End user licence model : High cost	End user licence model : Low cost	Developer Licence model : Low cost
Developer Support	Training courses, product docs, training materials	Local personal contact, online docs, tutorials, developer forum, developer events	Online docs, Tutorials, developer form
Supported Platforms	Android, IOS, Blackberry	Android, IOS, Blackberry, Symbian, WM6, WP7, WinCE	Android, IOS, WP7
Market Focus	B2B	B2B	B2B, B2C
Data Synch/Middleware	Middleware, Mobile Management	Middleware, Mobile Management	None

Conclusion

Any ISV seeking to maximise their investment in developing line of business, cross platform mobile applications, need to concentrate on selecting an appropriate CPT. The three cited above should only be used as a starting point in a thorough due diligence process.

But considering that selected three, there is one overall winner that delivers on my three key criteria: target platforms, commercial sustainability and developer centricity.

That winner is RhoMobile. It supports more platforms, has a clearly defined monetisation plan for the B2B market which is acceptable to developers, and a mature developer support programme.

How mobile applications help you and your customers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:14:00 +0000

With the boom time of mobile applications still showing no sign of fading, more businesses are beginning to address what the medium has to offer for both them and their customers. In this blog edition we examine how the enterprise can emulate lessons of application loyalty in the consumer space.

The advent of social media and its establishment as a primary route for communicating with existing customers and generating new trade. This has close connections with the production, marketing and upkeep of mobile applications. Whilst apps have grown to become a popular piece of the sales and marketing arsenal for many businesses, practical utility is vital in creating a strong and worthwhile application.

Social media is ideal for communicating regularly with customers in a snappy, digestible format, but mobile applications should provide a basic use and fulfil a need – as well as being engaging, compelling and inviting to use. Vanity applications performing no obvious function other than as a platform for branding or a one-time gimmick are unlikely to win much, if any, repeated use.

Earning user loyaltyABI Reseach examined the connection between smartphone users of retailer-branded apps and their behaviour toward retailers. 45.8% of respondents said the app caused them to visit the store more, buy more of the store/brand’s products and services (40.4%), spread the word about their store shopping experience (35.8%), and even encourage friends to visit the store (30.8%).

Service providers can foster similar loyalty. An application for breakdown service Green Flag offers users the key value of location awareness, which can precisely calculate where a vehicle had broken down and accept information about its problem. Meanwhile, extra value is given in the form of an AA traffic watch feed, providing live traffic information and news. This helps to secure repeated use.

For businesses without mass consumer market appeal, there remains enormous potential for applications with an effective utility to achieve user loyalty.

Making enterprise apps useful

In logistics and fleet management, applications can help users to keep track of vehicles – whether in pre-sale movements or in passing through an auction site. Solutions can be built around this to support users in planning a day’s work. Cookie technologies make it possible to store preference data, meaning that preferences can be tracked and an intelligently tailored feed of information provided to a user.

Image capture functions which are now widely available on smartphones and tablet devices can give the opportunity for huge efficiency improvements. Misinformation relayed over the phone about asset damage can lead to pointless call-outs where a dispatched fieldworker is not able to resolve an issue and subsequent losses are incurred. If an image is instantly delivered via a mobile application there is a much better chance of an immediate, accurate interpretation and an appropriate response. This helps to make a service more efficient.

Handling demand, adding value

Given the popularity of smartphones and the fanatical behaviour of their users, applications give another valuable platform for brand exposure. If associated services are made easy, customers will often prefer the convenience of using a mobile device rather than fight through the noise and distractions of a full desktop website.

Although tablet devices are growing more popular, especially in the corporate space, the internet browsing experience can still be frustrating. Rather than relying on a website to render perfectly and do a job for all users, developing an application can offer the most efficient way of presenting and providing a service.

Extra value can be added with the promotion of special offers to customers through mobile applications, sustaining the customer contact.

Where does social media fit for the enterprise?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:29:00 +0000

The ubiquity of social media indicates it is a channel which is here to stay. While Facebook campaigns and Twitter tactics can appear natural for household name brands, effective adoption in the enterprise space can be more difficult to get to grips with.

Recent research suggested that social media platforms now receive three and a half times more mobile users than those using fixed desktop solutions. In terms of users, Facebook leads the way with 750million, while Twitter is said to have a growing user base of 100million, LinkedIn boasts 120million while Google+ claims 20 million users.

This explosion of users owes a large debt to the penetration of smartphones in the western world. It’s not unreasonable to forecast that by 2015 4billion people will have social media access via their smartphones. Mobile and social media is the perfect marriage. So how is best to exploit it for gain in the enterprise?

The main tools
It’s likely that if you’re reading this, you’re already aware of the key social media tools; those popularly spoken of to represent the medium: Facebook and Twitter. These two platforms are critical, but the impact of collaborative social media tools can go much further.

Socially driven internal working tools are helping businesses to operate, share and become more efficient, reducing email “chaff” and ensuring relevant information is disseminated as quickly as possible.

But for quick and easy social media wins, the adoption of two independent accounts through Twitter and a blogging website should be considered. The objective here is to grow reputation as a respected, knowledgeable authority on your business profession. But it won’t happen overnight. Over time, by thoughtfully sharing relevant, compelling content – links to news stories and opinion pieces, perhaps with a few words of your own opinion – you will garner followers and respect.

This can be supported by preparing and adhering to a strategy which outlines the frequency, pacing and style of your messages.

Added to this should be a simple blogging platform, such as those freely available through Wordpress or Blogger. Here you can share your expertise at greater length, ensuring the subject is never an explicit sales pitch.

Only once a degree of engagement is earned is it sensible to integrate with the direct campaign promotion of your business’s products and services.

Ask yourself this
When generating any social media messages, from status updates and tweets, to full blog posts, it’s worth asking:

- Is this different or am I repeating what most people already know?
- Is this likely to be considered useful or interesting?
- Will it make an impact on people?
- How likely is it to breed discussion and engagement?
- Is it compelling enough to be retweeted and virally shared?

Also beware of a stream of self-involvement. Messages which are always, or mostly always about one single subject are unlikely to hold much value or interest, especially if that one subject is one person. Self-centred commentaries – while being an exaggerated, common misconception about the medium – are a massive turn-off.

If you experience engagement, the onus is on you to respond. Social media is an inherently two-way channel which demands attention and upkeep. If others respond to your messages, then keep the conversation going. It’s good to talk!

In forming a strategy and setting objectives it’s worth focussing on frequency and pacing of your messages. Sending a glut of a dozen tweets inside five minutes will obviously weaken the impact of your messages. Decide how and when to send your messages. If you’re failing to achieve any engagement, ask yourself why.

Private circles

Privately contained social groups can help the internal operations of enterprises. LinkedIn and Facebook contain the ability to create closed, permission-based groups which can be closely monitored and policed, while Google+ has similar private circles.

There are also bespoke solutions for collaboration. According to its website, Yammer “brings the power of social networking inside the enterprise in a private and secure environment”.

Where to start
When beginning a social media journey for business, it’s wise to start small. Set up a twitter account and consider how to appropriately brand the twitter page and your avatar image. From there select relevant colleagues and peers to follow, and start to interact with them. Once this starts to make sense, consider creating a blog to exhibit expert opinion.

Internally look at your methods of sharing electronic data. It might be that creating an internal knowledge base through a system like Yammer will streamline processes and make inboxes more manageable.

Apps Mania 3: Managing change in enterprise applications

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:40:00 +0000

In part 2 of Apps Mania we discussed the practical questions faced when considering the development of an enterprise application. In this final part we examine how to efficiently manage applications once they are in place.

Once you’ve taken the tricky development decisions and succeeded in creating an efficient mobile application which your workforce is comfortable using, you are likely to be confronted with an awareness that the job has only just begun.

On-going change is a massive consideration in the management of applications. As well as mobile device lifecycles, your business needs will inevitably change with time and with the demands of your customers. As a result, careful consideration must be given to the impact of change. Mobile applications should be designed to cope with every changing demand of your customers and of the market. Dynamic flexibility which caters for change is a must for the enterprise applications of fieldworkers.

If you need to cater for dynamic change, the whole cycle of re-coding and platform testing applications can be a process which is lengthy, commercially difficult and costly.

Native mobile applications may not always be the correct choice and deploying an updated application through a public app store will ultimately rely on the end user manually updating their application, which may result in human error. Cross platform dynamic configuration tools produced by specialist firms like TBS Enterprise Mobility negate such risks.

With TBS's TaskMaster and products of its kind, agile management facilities like TM Studio give the ability to react quickly and modify applications within minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks.

Making connections

Another factor demanding to be addressed in a strategic, long term manner is how an application connects in order to both send and receive data – and how this data is integrated with other core IT systems.

While the application itself earns unconditional attention, it remains a small but vital component of an over-all solution. Connectivity methods used to pull data into an application and push it back into a core system deserve serious consideration as well. Reliability here is paramount because if integration is weak, everything falls down.

Any communications infrastructure that connects a mobile application to a back-end system needs to be resilient, with the data transmitted guaranteed to be 100% clean, secure and accurate. Business dangers include incorrect billing, as well as distorted or lost task data, which can compromise a whole operation.

Added to this is the need for offline functionality. Given that fieldworkers can operate in remote and sheltered locations, it’s critical for enterprise applications to support partially connected environments and entirely unconnected environments.

Server infrastructure

Middleware connecting mobile devices and applications to infrastructure must be robust and reliable. As user numbers increase and the fieldworker pressure on applications grows, consideration should be given to how this is best implemented:

- utilise dedicated servers within a data-centre
- consider using the Cloud to bear the load
- or purchase and manage servers independently.

The Cloud is often considered an attractive option because it is relatively low-cost and can be resilient if configured correctly. Pay per usage models also makes it commercially predicable and easier to scale operations.

However, public Clouds are weak in terms of service level agreements, meaning that trusting cloud-based architecture for mission-critical apps can be a gamble. Last April Amazon’s EC2 Cloud experienced a critical outage for around 12 hours.

With the ownership of high-cost servers comes full autonomy, but the unpredictability of associated expense and maintenance. If mission-critical SLAs are vital then data-centre hosting would be the preferred option.

Total cost of ownership

Once an application has been developed and implemented with a robust underlying support, further costs should not be forgotten. In creating a long term management strategy, contingency budgets should be prepared for human resources of training and managing disparately located fieldworkers, as well as for maintenance costs.

The nature of enterprise applications and their use by geographically dispersed workforces unavoidably brings complex support issues, the implications of which should all be explored from the outset.

The right choice for your business?

Due to the accelerated pace of change in the mobile industry, businesses need to adopt a future-proofed strategy which is free from being shackled to any single mobile platform.

Businesses clearly have the best understanding of their own needs and what processes a mobile solution can effectively cater for. But care must be taken to involve different stakeholders at all levels throughout the design and deployment process, and once the application is in use. The views, experience and knowledge of fieldworkers is vital to ensuring not only a functional success, but also to maintain user support for new technologies.

While design and implementation presents a specific set of challenges, on-going user and technical support requires different skills and can demand considerable resource. Thought should be given to how these needs can be successfully accommodated, allowing fieldworkers to maintain operations through all working hours and conditions.

Finally, organisations need to be confident that if they have in-house development skills to produce a successful enterprise mobility solution – and to ensure they are capable of developing and upgrading it over a number of years. If challenges are likely to be faced in keeping up with the breakneck speed of change, a third-party supplier could prove the most sensible option

Apps Mania 2: the building blocks of enterprise applications

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:37:00 +0000

Last time we took a top-level look at mobile applications, the get-rich-quick myth and the fundamental differences between applications for consumers and applications for the enterprise. In this item we examine in greater detail the practical questions which should be asked when developing an app for use in the enterprise.

Assessing skillsets and managing risk

When considering the development of an enterprise mobility application, it’s important to compare the capacity of in-house teams with third party suppliers.

The underlying objective should be to minimise risk in the development and rollout process so the solution can be completed on time, on budget and with the support of all its users. To achieve this it’s vital to discover whether an in-house department or supplier has adequate technical expertise and project management experience to ensure success.

Picking a platform
A primary consideration when writing a mobile application is selecting the correct platform. Currently there are five major mobile operating systems, and a further seven or eight less popular and more specialised on top of that. The majority of developers stick with the mainstream iOS, Android, or BlackBerry platforms.

Firstly it should be carefully considered whether an application is needed at all, or if requirements can be met through a mobile-optimised website.

While this is possible, it’s a common misconception that the mobile web is an easy programming platform to learn. A recent Vision Mobile report found that mobile web programming ranks sixth in terms of easy learning curve. It found that the need to learn a complex stack of languages and technology frameworks across client and server environments can be onerous, added to the battles of cross-browser portability.

Once committed to developing an application, the next decision concerns the choice of application type. There are currently three options available:

1. An HTML5 application which runs in a web browser on smartphone.
2. A Native application which is written using the official Software Development Kit (SDK) provided by an operating system provider.
3. A Hybrid application, which uses a combination of HTML5 and a native SDK.

HTML5 is ideal for general forms-based applications and will work on the majority of smartphones. However, since the HTML5 standard has not yet been ratified, mobile web browser functionality can vary from device to device, meaning that what works on one device may not necessarily work on another. An example would be the Windows Phone 7 browser, which does not support offline caching. Therefore if the browser loses connectivity, the app won’t work and data will be lost. To span this gap, HTML5 functions must be written with less capable devices in mind.

Writing native applications using official SDKs gives ultimate flexibility and performance which will enable the development of rich features. The down-side here is that the application will only work on one targeted operating system, meaning simply extending reach to a mixed estate of devices is not possible, leading to a level of inflexibility.

Hybrid applications effectively give the best of both worlds: the flexibility of using an HTML5 web browser together with the rich functionality of native applications. Added to this, they can be used across all smartphone platforms to give the ultimate flexibility. Here the challenge is volume and market immaturity. There are simply so many multi-platform SDKs and platforms which could be catered for, some of which will inevitably be fated not to survive current economic pressures, potentially leaving your application and your users in the lurch. Equally, consolidation in the market of multiplatform tools will threaten the continuity of development standards.

Application lifecycle

Another important focus is application lifecycle. Most manufacturers refresh their device inventory every 12 months, making upgrades and modifications to operating systems, and your application should be compatible with these changes. Most corporate contracts are also on a 24 month billing cycle, which will have similar implications. The changing pace of technology means that at least every two years your applications will need to undergo changes and modifications. Contingencies should be built in to accommodate for the changes.

With the existing number of variables and fluidity in the applications market, it’s vital to conduct an appropriate level of due diligence when creating enterprise apps. Once conducted, the major decision is whether to forge ahead with in-house resource or recruit a partner with the tools and expertise to reliably deploy enterprise class apps.

What happens next?
So you’ve built and deployed an enterprise application. Job done? In Part 3 of Apps Mania we’ll look at scale, change management, server and infrastructure strategies.

Apps Mania: can the success of consumer mobile applications be replicated in the enterprise?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

With the world of mobile technology now fully gripped by mobile applications, we examine the current state of the market, paying special attention to how the enterprise space differs from the consumer arena;

Rising numbers of software developers creating mobile applications shows no sign of abating. 500k applications now available on Apple’s iOS, 500k on Android, 60k for BlackBerry and 85k for Windows Phone. Following the dotcom boom there seems to be a get-rich-quick mentality which most evidence suggests to be unrealistic. But the numbers of applications already available aren’t putting off developers in their own quests to become the next dotmob billionaire.

Making money

The likelihood of making your million overnight thanks to an app store is incredibly remote. Competition in the form of compelling free-to-download applications and sheer numbers, is fierce, which means that getting consumers to part with cash for mobile applications is an increasingly hard task.

But not impossible. “Freemium” strategies of generating revenues are said to be on the rise. That is, a free-to-download application which offers further content or functionality upon payment. IHS Screen Digest found that in-app purchases accounted for about 39 per cent of app revenues in 2011, and predicted that by 2015 it would account for 64 per cent of all revenues.

Publisher paywalls such as that introduced by The Times newspaper are another option, offering a pay-as-you-go model for content, while in-application advertising revenue can also be earned from click-throughs, but these profits are unlikely to be handsome.

Consumer to enterprise – copy/paste?

Despite all the evidence suggesting mobile applications are not a get-rich-quick opportunity, the mobile application juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing. This is thanks in no small part to the hype: the daily column inches and web presence it commands. As a result of this it could be tempting to simply try and replicate consumer application success in the enterprise space. How hard can it be?

Answer: very hard. Designing enterprise mobility applications is fraught with even bigger challenges than designing broad-appeal entertainment applications for mobile consumers.

Consumer applications were given a strong foundation through the successful deployment of embedded applications on handsets: the address book, email and text messaging. These out-of-the-box applications still serve to give a generic level of functionality to executives in the enterprise today. But when creating enterprise applications for the operational side of business – blue collar, task-orientated fieldworkers – the challenge is multiplied. Because such unique applications are not embedded on operating systems, they need to be created by a third party or developed in house.

These applications need to be integrated into the existing IT enterprise and modified in keeping with how your business develops. It’s worth remembering that while the typical executive can manage without access to their email for an hour or two, once in-use, the task-oriented fieldworker is at a loss without their mobile application. Workflow applications become mission critical.

Next time we’ll look at what platform questions should be asked on the road to building an enterprise application.