ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘rugged-devices’ CATEGORY

Varlink who distribute a range of rugged hardware, announce date and venue for 2020's Meet the Manufacturer event.

As a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast, Varlink’s Founder and CEO Mike Pullon reflected philosophically on his thirty plus years in the sector identifying the key milestones in the evolution of rugged devices. Field Service News’ Deputy Editor and host of that podcast explains more...

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Mike Pullon discusses if rugged devices will ever be replaced by their consumer cousins.

Varlink’s Meet the Manufacturer event is firmly established in the field service calendar. Mark Glover attended the event, held at Leicester City Football Club, to see the latest rugged devices and meet those who play a key role at the gathering...


In 2016 and against all odds Leicester City Football Club provided one of the great stories and, indeed shocks, in world sport by winning the English Premier League. When the Midlands team finally lifted the championship trophy at their home ground, The King Power Stadium in May that year, few could believe their achievement, the feat made all the more remarkable that only 18 months prior they were eyeing a potential relegation to the league below.

As a long-suffering football fan - I support West Ham - Leicester’s plight gave us smaller teams hope; that the goliaths of Manchester City and Chelsea can be overcome; that it’s not all about rich chairman and money; that fairytales do come true. You’ll have to forgive my tenuous diversion here. I’m conscious the focus of this piece is not football but on discovering the venue for Varlink’s Meet the Manufacturer (MTM) event would be the King Power Stadium - an event my editor sent me to cover - then you’ll allow me the misty-eyed opening paragraphs.

That said, in service, there is much talk of disruption and how companies should look to challenge what’s gone before in order to evolve and stay ahead and in a way, Leicester’s title winning season could be seen as the ultimate ‘disruption’ to the league’s status-quo and rigid hierarchy, and while the team haven’t joined the elite ranks of super clubs (Manchester City, Chelsea etc.) they are now firmly established as a Premier League side both financially off the pitch and with their performances on it.

Disruption meanwhile in hardware, specifically hardware in service is not as frequent, which doesn’t mean it’s not evolving; far from it. Service software providers – quite rightly - are extremely reticent in altering their hardware foundation as Mike Pullon CEO of Varlink explains. “A company that writes software for a niche, field service opportunity, whatever it is, is actually far more focused on their own business and the need to change is often driven out of necessity rather than any great desire,” he says. “When you’re writing your software, you’re enhancing your software, you’re taking care of business, you’re looking after your customers. The last thing you want to do is change the hardware platform you use.”

Mike founded Varlink in 2005. The company, a leading distributor of barcoding and data capture and EPOS products, feeds the service industry with rugged devices and hardware. Now in its 14th year, the firm’s annual MTM event serves to bridge the gap between customer and manufacturers, which today includes, among others, Zebra, Honeywell and Data Logic. Given the longevity of the event, I ask why it is so important for customers to see and experience the devices on show.

“Where do they go for their knowledge?” he asks. You go to the internet, you look at some websites and you actually find one product looks much the same as another. You don’t get a chance to feel the weight, feel the quality. It sounds really basic, but you know, until you hold one of those devices...where are the buttons positioned? How tactile is the screen? What’s the robustness? What’s the resilience? What are the charging options? So there are no UK shows that bring as many specialist, some might say niche, manufactures together.”

Mike suggests marketing emails and tweets replacing conversation between manufacturer and a specialist systems company, particularly those in niche verticals – which service tends to operate in – is missing the mark, creating a space for the event. “The communication between a hardware manufacturer and a specialist systems company, somebody providing for a particular vertical, has become stretched,” he says.

“There’s an assumption that email communications are going to carry the message about product, technology, opportunities to a customer base that’s just waiting for that communication. The last few years we’ve seen the slimming down of that conversation.”

Among the larger, big-name manufacturers such as the aforementioned Zebra, Honeywell and Datalogic and Janam Technologies. They produce operating system platforms and rugged hardware which they distribute to a reseller or software house to tailor, for example, a picking or delivery task. Robert Hurt is the firm’s EMEA General Manager and we find a quiet corner, among the beeps of demos and buzz networking, to discuss the company’s philosophy.

“Our approach is to provide people with a business tool that will work for as long as we can possibly keep it going,” he says, “and we’ll provide a service for as long as we’re able to obtain the components in order to do that. The differentiation for us is about providing a level of service.”

Compared to their consumer counterparts, rugged devices have a longer life. Failing batteries which are built in to ubiquitous Samsung and Apple smartphones are the common cause of failure and ring fence the two year turn around in buying habits. Having removable batteries in rugged devices means hardware can last a lot longer and keep the service technician active with the same device. “If you’re out on the road, you might not get to base for a couple of days,” Robert explains. “So we have removable batteries, which means you can take a spare battery and pop in this replacement battery. You can’t do it with an Apple phone and you can’t do it with a Samsung phone because it’s sealed giving it a limited life. We are still servicing and supporting devices we installed 10 years ago. They’re running simple business applications such as receiving a task and taking a signature, but it does the job.”

Janam do the vast majority of their business with re-sellers, who are a key demographic of visitors to MTM. I ask Robert how important the event is to the firm. “Every meeting, every conversation is worthwhile,” he tells me, “Everybody you meet is somehow connected to the industry, either as a supplier or as a customer or a reseller. We’ve been coming for as long as I’ve been at Janam. It’s always an interesting venue and an enjoyable thing to do.”
I shake hands with Robert, turn off my dictaphone and sip the final dregs of my coffee. Heading for the exit, I catch a glimpse of the football pitch, a bright, lush green that looks as smooth as a bowls lawn. Robert’s right. This is an interesting venue and I’m already looking forward to next year’s MTM event. For now, though, I’ll continue to believe that my team West Ham might one day perform the same miracles as Leicester and I have Varlink to thank for giving me that hope! 

Our  new Hands On  regular feature focuses on the hardware choices available for field service organisations, from smartphones to tablets.  To set the scene, Sharon Clancy runs through some of the key specification points to consider.

As more field service companies automate their business processes, so is the market for the devices required to capture all that useful data. Consumer devices are proliferating thanks to their low initial cost and this has given new impetus to the rugged v. consumer device discussion but has also raised questions about what type of mobile device best suits the task in hand.

Rugged tablets, for example, have given excellent service in sectors such as utilities and emergency services, where processing power, outdoor screen visibility and high levels of reliability are required. Rugged handheld computers might lack user-appeal but they are reliable, versatile and easily configurable. Their relatively small 3.5in screens are not seen as a particular deterrent because the data capture tasks they are used for are simple.

At the other end of the spectrum are consumer devices - cheaper, with user-appeal shine and intuitive apps, but also with components not designed to last the rough-and-tumble of an intensive eight-hour daily use. In the middle are a new breed of hybrid devices with shiny smartphone-style skins underpinned with rugged features to enhance reliability.

Device names can be confusing - one manufacturer's rugged smartphone is another's Personal or Enterprise Digital Assistant (PDA and EDA). The straightforward approach is to focus on what functionality you need the device to have and also on dimensions and weight. For example, does it need to fit in a pocket; does the data task require a keyboard; a scan engine;  or a camera. What connectivity does your operation need?

We've put together this short guide for buyers to guide to help ensure the devices you choose are fit-for-purpose.

FSN Buyer's checklist

1. Ruggedness
   The rugged specification of a device is more critical for some field service operations than others. Compromises on IP (ingress protection against dust and water) and drop-spec ratings are possible in some environments, but push that too far and the result will be more downtime and repair costs.A typical rugged spec for devices used mainly indoors, for example, might be IP54 for dust and water ingress and a 1.2 metre or 1.5 metre drop rating. some models are rated as high as IP67 and some survive 1.8 metre drops. Check if the drop test is to a soft surface or to concrete (which mimics a fall on to a car park floor).
2. Functionality
   This is a key differentiator when choosing between consumer devices and rugged ones. Rugged devices tend to be built on a modular platform that allows varying degrees of customisation: you get a device precisely tailored to your data capture needs. Specifications for consumer devices are less, if at all, configurable. One area where this manifests itself is in whether the device has a dedicated scan engine for barcode scanning or relies on device camera with a scanning app. A camera might be fine for occasional scanning, but if your service worker has to scan frequently, using a camera is a much slower and fiddly process, affecting productivity and, possibly, data accuracy.
3. Form factor
   With form factors ranging from 2.8in screens on smartphones to 10in or more on tablets, service organisations are spoilt for choice. Small devices are portable, but the small screen may hamper productivity; tablets allow more information to be displayed and usually have more configurability, making it easier to get the exact fit for your processes.Some rugged devices incorporate a hard keyboard matched to a small screen, but user experience with consumer smartphones is helping to create demand for similar larger screens in the business world.
   [quote float="right"]There is intense competition in the 5in and 7in tablet sector

    

   - an area also populated by rugged smartphones. (The main difference is that while smartphones automatically include voice functionality, tablets may not.) Some fully-rugged tablets incorporate a mini-hard-key navigation keyboard to one side, whereas smaller tablets and smartphones rely on touch screens.The use of larger tablets for enterprise is a fast-expanding sector. Rugged tablets may not be as slim as Apple’s iPad, but they are still ultra-portable, with some incorporating a carry handle.
4. Screens
   Screens can be glass or polycarbonate: glass is more fragile and scratch resistant, while polycarbonate is flexible so less likely to crack, but over time can dull with scratches. Toughened glass such as Corning's Gorilla glass is popular in tablets and in some of the rugged smartphones now appearing on the market, while other manufacturers are using bonded screens that are as scratch-resistant as glass but more flexible.Not all mobile devices have the capacitive touch screen technology found on smartphones and tablets for touch data entry and screen. Some rugged devices have resistive screens which are said to be more responsive to touch when the user's finger is wet or gloved, but less responsive than capacitive to bare fingers. However, the latest generation of resistive screens can handle finger-touch input as well as stylus input. Everyone's had the experience of a slow-responding touch screen when navigating: one technical factor can be the number of wires incorporated in the screen, so do ask.

   For field service, there are two other important factors to take into account when it comes to screen specifications: how easy are they to read in bright sunlight and how wide is the viewing angles. NITS is the measure by which visibility in strong sunlight is described and there are various technologies that improve visibility in strong light, usually involving a combination of reducing loss through reflection off the screen and colour management.

5. Operating systems
   When selecting devices, it's important to think about the Operating System as it could impact on whether or how your apps run on it. For Apple fans, iOS is standard; for other devices there is a choice of various Android OS or Microsoft Windows OS in their various guises.[quote float="left"]Device OS is particularly important when you have legacy applications

    

   OS is particularly important when you have legacy applications: they may have been developed with earlier software development tools that are incompatible when it comes to upgrades. Bearing in mind, for example, that Apple iOS is incompatible with a lot of enterprise legacy software systems unless deployed with some sort of mobility management system, for example.Device manufacturers can also tweak the OS, so the more frequently a device is refreshed, the higher the risk that an app which ran happily on an older model won’t on the new one. This is more of a concern with consumer devices which have more frequent model updates than rugged devices.Android is popular with software developers who like the open-nature of Android. Android was once labelled as not-fit-for-enterprise: earlier versions (2.0 or Gingerbread) are more vulnerable from security-wise and may lack enterprise-friendly features such as mobile device management functionality - they can still be found on some older rugged models. Expert advice is to opt for Android 4.0 or later.Tablet manufacturers and their enterprise customers have remained loyal to Microsoft Windows, partly because of its easy integration with desktop software. Some tablet makers now offering licence-free Android as an alternative OS, especially on small form-factor devices where cost is a factor.

   Microsoft's tardiness in releasing a roadmap for 6.5 embedded (popular with rugged device manufacturers) and less-than-stunning Windows 8 has seen customers desert it for Android. However, the newly launched Windows 10 may help it regain some of that lost traction in enterprise.

6. Processing power
   Having sufficient processing power is key if you intend to run multiple applications on any device. Many, but not all, devices now incorporate dual or quad processors with advanced power management that help preserve battery power when running multi-applications.  Some low-cost devices may have older generation, slower, processors. Tablets, especially those 10in and above have impressive RAM and storage facilities, with solid-state memory now widely available. Intel’s Atom or i-series processors and Texas Instruments’ OMAP family are the most widely used.
7. Connectivity
   While smartphones tend to come as standard with all the connectivity you could wish for, on rugged devices, there's greater variation in what is standard and optional. GPS or A-GPS is usually standard on devices aimed at field operations, as are network radios from 3.5G upwards. WiFi and Bluetooth may be operational rather than standard.
8. Batteries
   Some features considered essential for field service management (GPS location fixes and 3G or 4G communication, for example) are notoriously power-hungry, so do compare battery life claims. Smart battery management is now a feature on many devices. Some of the latest generation of rugged devices claim impressive battery life of up to 20 hours, thanks to a new generation of higher-capacity batteries coombined with smart battery-life management and power-saving multi-processor architecture. Light and proximity sensors, for example, power the device or applications on-and-off and battery-condition monitoring and reporting are often included.If the app or operation will be particularly demanding of battery life, it's worth checking how the claimed life was calculated: some manufacturers now quote different hours between recharges for different types of use.It's easy to forget that battery replacement needs factoring into total-cost-of-ownership calculations: the more discharges, the shorter the battery life and the sooner they will need replacing. Don't forget either, think about how devices will be recharged and check the comparative costs of types of in-vehicle chargers.Rugged tablets designed for field service often have hot-swappable batteries which allows users to change batteries without losing data.[/ordered_list]

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Got a Toughbook or Toughpad? Panasonic wants to hear from all those people who use these devices for very difficult tasks - jobs that would make the average worker's knees tremble.

In celebration of tough job heroes and recognition that while the Toughbook and Toughpad rugged devices are tough, their users are often even tougher, Panasonic is running a Toughest Job competition. The jobs show rugged devices in action in the UK's National Health Service, by Royal Air Force helicopter crews and by crane inspectors for Zurich Insurance.

To enter, you view three videos showing the devices in action and cast their vote as to watch three videos and cast your vote as to which of the three jobs is toughest: you click on "tough as Old Boots" if you agree the job is tough or on "My Nana's Tougher" is you think there are tougher jobs out there. The winner receives a rugged Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1.

You don't think those jobs are as tough as yours? Panasonic wants to hear from you, too. In a second competition those people view the videos and think their job is tougher can upload a photo or video of themselves or their colleagues in action and enter a prize draw to win a Panasonic rugged Lumix camera as well.

The competition runs until 31 August 2015.

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