Extending your business systems from your workers perspective

Providing direct access to your business’s core systems through mobile applications can help many companies align with the 5 top on-going challenges that keep your GM or CEO awake at night.

1.  How to increase the company’s revenues
2. How to reduce the operating cost of the company
3. How to optimise the assets your company has – especially the company’s mobile workforce
4. How to deliver better cash flow for the business
5. How to meet your company’s industry regulatory requirements

Most managers will scope out mobile app requirements with the IT department before rolling them out. To ensure the best success of mobile apps to your workforce; it is imperative to engage a cross section of the people who will be using the app in their daily work.

Have you ever thought that a mobile worker might see enterprise mobility from a different perspective than the company he or she works for?  The company might be thinking only about how to extend their existing back end systems out to mobile devices.  However, in order to maximize productivity, engaging your workforce during the planning phase can mean the difference between many refinements to the app after roll-out compared to getting it right the 1^st time.

Some things to consider are:

• Start with business need – engage the users to understand their challenges and how to deliver maximum output with minimal input (that is to make the app easy and intuitive to use with minimal request to produce maximum access to information)
• Look at how mobile apps can enhance communications already in place
• Don’t just replicate what you have in-house – users don’t need access to all the information that have in your systems – deliver only what is relevant to their mobile needs - in other words decide what is most useful to the user and base the app on that
• Run a pilot prior to production launch to iron out any glitches and ensure smooth and simple access to the content they need

• Work with a specialist app developer – they provide technical expertise and offer valuable relationships with the wider industry
• If accessing multiple databases simultaneously, with the view to support different departments in your organisation (i.e. sales, service, maintenance etc) consider a platform approach to building the application (read my initial blog 2011 is a MEAP year for mobile apps)
• To minimise the work involved with managing and maintain the smartphones/tablets in the field consider a platform approach to mobile management (read my blog minimise the pain of smartphone/tablet management)

Some core functionality that your employees may need when out in the field could be:

• Dispatching work orders to a smartphone/tablet
• Step-by-step navigation from existing location to the next job site/customer visit
• The ability to fill out timesheet in the field
• Mobile access to the employee’s vacation and sick days information
• Mobile access to the account information of customers including out-standing debtor’s information
• Mobile access to the service history of customers
• Mobile access to shipping status, order history, specials, out of stock parts so they know when to schedule a return visit
• For field workers, the ability to know the location of parts needed for repairs.  Is the part in inventory in the warehouse, in a nearby company vehicle or down the street at a preferred vendor's location?
• The ability to geo-tag (capture GPS location and apply a barcode label) to the equipment being maintained, to assist with the exact location of all the equipment on the maintenance plan to uniquely identify it
• For sales employees, the ability to take orders, while on location, check inventory, special pricing etc
• The ability to collect payments while onsite with the customer
• Visibility of KPIs to compare with peers to improve performance

The point of the list above is to suggest that the mobile user, in order to maximize their productivity, may have different needs and different priorities than others in different roles and departments.  It is important to review the mobility needs of your entire mobile workforce first, before developing your company's IT priorities and mobility strategy.