Volume 1, Issue 4 / 2008

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Wait a Minute, The Mobile Web?

Business applications which run on all of the different mobile devices, dozens of evolving wireless networks and countless operating systems are typically found in clients that you download to your device. Those little icons on your home screen have a lot of intelligence in them that tells your device how to present content, synchronize data and encrypt information. They also have the base intelligence so that those applications do not have to be completely re-written, specifically to every device. There are 1,217 unique mobile devices in the world, if you are keeping a tally.

Now the Apple® iPhone™ enters the market. All of the content and applications are compelling. Check out Weather.com, MySpace.com, Food.com…Awesome presentation. The iPhone uses the web to present applications in a special browser, but you don’t see many business applications that are web-only and you probably won’t for a long time. Each of these web sites on the iPhone were specifically developed just for that device. So now Weather.com operates two websites. One for PCs and one for iPhone. That’s a lot of extra work to support

Wait a minute here…So when HTC, LG Electronics, Blackberry and other phone manufacturers launch their ‘iPhone killers’, Weather.com will have to build a third, fourth, fifth…variation website? Probably so.

Business applications being presented on a mobile browser complicate matters even further. These applications not only present information to the employee, but typically collect and send data which feeds to systems back at the office; time reporting, inventory, location, barcodes, etc. Wireless devices are rarely in a consistently connected state (how many times has your phone call been dropped?). So when this data is being transmitted, there needs to be assurances that all of the data is transmitted in order to assure data integrity in the systems back at the office. Mobile browsers don’t do this very well. Mobile clients do. Which one to use really all depends on the specific needs of your company and processes.

If you are considering building or buying mobile applications, give us a call first. We can help you with the risks and rewards of using a mobile browser or a mobile client.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at clint.parr@goanyware.com.

Sincerely - Clint Parr
 

What do a national car rental company, oil and gas drilling company and gypsum board manufacturing company all have in common? They are all companies that came to Anyware looking for ways to more effectively manage their assets with the use of mobile technology. Although the companies are very different in what they do, they all have very valuable enterprise assets that are portable in nature. Each of these companies has a tremendous amount of investment tied up in physical assets and each had an inefficient and ineffective way of keeping track of them – typically paper and spreadsheets.

At the most basic level, Anyware’s Process Enabling can be boiled down to “eliminating paper and saving money”. Although that is an obvious exaggeration, it does hit on the basic benefits of enabling business processes with mobility. Consider the inefficiencies of using paper based forms to capture data, the process time and human resource time required for data entry. Add the time for manually creating reports and the management tools necessary to run a business. Now, imagine electronically capturing data at the point of activity and having that data transmitted to a central reporting system where actionable information can be available for management in near real-time. There are many benefits to mobile asset management systems, including: increased value-added work by minimizing data entry, better decision making due to access to more actionable information, automated adherence to corporate or governmental regulations and improved management visibility.

The oil and gas drilling company mentioned above had several goals. They wanted to create a solution for managing asset movement and inventory levels, track historical asset performance metrics, as well as have the ability to collect, manage and report on data collected from job sites. Assets were previously tracked by administrative staff using paper based research, with consolidated data typed into spreadsheets, and delivery of the management reports via email. It was an inefficient and time consuming process that did not provide adequate visibility into their operations. Anyware designed, and is currently deploying, a solution that will allow job site operators the ability to record asset data, validate the data, and automatically process the data and generate informative reports for supervisors in regional offices in near real-time.

Expected benefits include:

• Reduction of administrative time researching and generating reports
• Reduced risk of asset loss
• Higher productivity for existing staff – ability to manage more jobs with existing staff
• Reduced risk of job site errors – QA staff will have higher visibility into field operations
• Improved field data due to system-supported data validation
• More effective financial and operational planning – knowing precisely what is available and where it is located

If any of these asset management issues or potential benefits of deploying a mobile asset management system ring true for you and your company, give us a call.

Two years ago we all saw the catastrophic results of hurricane Katrina slamming into the Gulf Coast. We also saw and heard bad press in terms of the overall response to the disaster. What we did not hear about was interesting technology, including novel use of some Palm® Treo™ smartphones, which helped people get back on their feet.

Many of the mobile homes provided for temporary housing did not effectively make their way to Katrina victims. However, a good number did. One customer of Anyware had responsibility for managing deployment of several thousand mobile homes. This company inserted a barcode scanner into the SD slot of a Treo smartphone, used a Bluetooth connected GPS receiver, and Anyware’s ReForm data collection product to effectively deploy and track the temporary housing.

Employees showed up while trailers were being dropped off, scanned the VIN number from a barcode on the mobile home, and collected critical data about the physical site. The data collected included information on whether the site had electricity, water, and sewer lines, how close the nearest schools were and where the closest healthcare facility was located. By using the GPS receiver they were able to capture exact coordinates of the trailer for asset management purposes. Most importantly, the data collected provided the families living in the trailers valuable information needed to start rebuilding their lives.

GPS is becoming more common place and the technology is ever-improving. This company is a great example of how GPS is more than just about getting directions or finding a place to eat. In this case, it helped a company organize what could have been a logistical nightmare and helped hurricane Katrina victims get a head start. How can GPS help your business?

One of the more powerful capabilities becoming commonplace on mobile phones is GPS. The Global Positioning System was originally developed as a mechanism for the military to find things: people, equipment, targets, etc. Over the years this capability has become less expensive, more accurate and certainly more commonplace. Today, driven by the need to support E911, all new cell phones must have some sort of GPS chip in them. So why is this new GPS technology important to you?

Sure, we can find directions to the nearest McDonald’s while we are traveling, and we can find the nearest movie theater using Google Maps, but that’s not very helpful to businesses. If you confine your thinking about GPS to directions, it doesn’t mean much. But, if you think outside of the box, the newest mobile devices have GPS receivers that enable you to do some powerful things.

In March 2008, a crane collapsed from the top of a building in New York City. The exact crane was documented as being inspected one week before the collapse. After the accident, the inspector was arrested for falsifying the report – he had, in fact, not even visited the site that day. The company the inspector worked for could have alleviated that problem by using GPS coordinates from his mobile device. The GPS coordinates, collected in conjunction with the crane inspection form, would have shown where the inspector was and that he had completed all assignments – or not. Today’s smartphones, and even some consumer “feature” phones, can provide that capability, and they are getting more accurate all the time. Anyware can help your business think “outside of the box” and start taking advantage of this available technology.

Anyware University – Business Applications of Mobile Video
If you watch TV commercials from the largest cellular providers you will see quite a bit of buzz around mobile video. YouTube allows you to stream videos to your cell phone. MobiTV allows you to watch movie trailers and sports clips on some of the latest handsets. This provides great entertainment, but can mobile video help your business? Anyware believes much of the real value of mobile video is in the business environment. At Anyware University we will discuss and demonstrate some of the video technologies that may change the way your business processes work. Presentation will be followed by lunch. For more information, email April Sailsbury.
Tulsa, June 10 / Oklahoma City, June 12