In the latest of our Field Service News webinars, FSN Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland was joined by Sandy MCaskie, Sales Director EMAC for Xplore and Bob Ashenbrenner,President Durable Mobility Technologies as they gave an excellent session as they...
ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘sandy-mccaskie’ CATEGORY
Dec 12, 2017 • video • Features • Mobility • Xplore • Bob Ashebrenner • hardware • rugged • Sandy McCaskie
In the latest of our Field Service News webinars, FSN Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland was joined by Sandy MCaskie, Sales Director EMAC for Xplore and Bob Ashenbrenner,President Durable Mobility Technologies as they gave an excellent session as they gave us the benefit of the insight they've gained from years of experience and hundreds of mobility implementations - to help field service organisations get the most from their mobility projects.
The full Webinar PLUS an accompanying eBook are available to Field Service News subscribers - if you are a field service professional you may well qualify for our complimentary industry practitioner subscription. Click the following link to apply for your subscription and we will send you links to the webinar and the eBook instantly whilst we process your application!
The webinar itself covered a range of important topics within the strategy development and planning process for delivering a successful mobility project including:
- How to get the green light for your mobility project
- Why buying for the enterprise differs from buying consumer devices
- Exploring the common drivers for mobility projects
- The importance of form factors amongst rugged mobile options
- Understanding how to get your mobility projects approved
- Getting the right stakeholders invested in your mobility project
- Why and how you should build a strong project team across operations and IT for your mobility project
- Putting together the RFP for your mobility project
- Testing and piloting your RFP
- The importance of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for your enterprise mobility solution[/unordered_list]
In this excerpt taken from Oldland's Q&A session at the three discuss the importance of approaching enterprise mobility in a holistic and integrated manner that taes into account both your hardware and software requirements simultaneously.
"For those companies out there - and there are an awful lot of them still, that are approaching this process [developing a mobility strategy for their field service operation] for the first time, how much should the decision in what tools to use in an ecosystem be intertwined - or should the decisions around software an hardware be treated separately?" Oldland asked.
"From my perspective I think companies tend to look at the software applications way before they look at the hardware question and I think that's a big mistake" McCaskie replied.
You want to be picking devices that are the easiest to use relative to software - because the software is your process.
"If it's the first time around they've implemented an IT mobile solution, they tend to look to port over their old paper based processes onto the new system. What that results is that whatever software they go for, there tends to be a certain amount of rewriting and bespoke development for themselves. When that happens all of a sudden you've got costs down the road when it comes to updating the software."
'This is why working with a hardware supplier such as Xplore can mitigate that because when the later phases of implementation are rolled out some eighteen or twenty four months later, the device is going to be the same - they don't have to think about getting their bespoke software rewritten - you can't say that about consumer grade devices."
"You really don't want to let the tail wag the dog, you don't want to let your device limit your software options" added Ashenbrenner.
"When you look at both of these together, you want to be picking devices that are the easiest to use relative to software - because the software is your process. The software really controls your order of work and you don't want to pick a device that becomes a straight jacket."
"And there is then the other piece to this which you mentioned earlier in the session Kris and Sandy has picked up here as well which is by getting a device that has been designed to operate for the next three to five years you save yourself an awful lot of churn and change. Xplore has tablets that work in vehicle docks that haven't changed in five or seven or even more years and that is by design."
"If you'd been buying consumer devices, and you were buying over a period of two or three years you'd have to be buying different devices at the time you deployed, you'd be buying different cases that aren't interchageable, different vehicle docks and so on."
"So you absolutely need to look at the whole solution, and make sure neither hardware nor software is pinning you into a corner."
The full Webinar PLUS an accompanying eBook are available to Field Service News subscribers - if you are a field service professional you may well qualify for our complimentary industry practitioner subscription. Click the following link to apply for your subscription and we will send you links to the webinar and the eBook instantly whilst we process your application!
Be social and share
Mar 27, 2015 • Features • Hardware • Xplore • rugged • Sandy McCaskie
Xplore Technologies’ Sandy McCaskie asks whether the rising “consumer made rugged” approach can work for field service companies?
Xplore Technologies’ Sandy McCaskie asks whether the rising “consumer made rugged” approach can work for field service companies?
In an industry so exposed to mobile technology it was inevitable that consumerisation would have a huge impact on field service. Mobile phones, tablet PCs and intuitive, point solution apps have all been part of the FSM landscape for years.
And it is now clear that the consumer manufacturers have their sights set on the industry.
It is easy to understand why there has been such profound interest in this market. Gartner research puts the revenue for packaged field service dispatch and workforce management software applications, not including service revenue, at approximately $1.2 billion in 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.7%.
Gartner research puts the revenue for packaged field service dispatch and workforce management software applications, not including service revenue, at approximately $1.2 billion in 2012
Much of this growth has been driven and will continue to come from small and medium-sized enterprises and though high implementation costs could pose a challenge to the growth of this market, the clear commercial drivers are presently winning.
Top of this list of drivers is that an ever-more competitive landscape means service businesses are struggling to differentiate themselves to a customer base with expectations at an all-time high.
As the number of customer touch-points increases for every brand, services in the field are rapidly becoming the new frontline in the battle for competitive market share, playing a major role in customer satisfaction, brand reputation and customer retention and profitability.
As the number of customer touch-points increases for every brand, services in the field are rapidly becoming the new frontline
These service organisations will need to invest in a number of initiatives to tackle these elements. At the risk of sounding predictable, it is the technology at the heart of those customer interactions in the field that will be vital and needs most intense scrutiny.
In recent research, 88% of field service directors say say that increasing workforce productivity and utilisation is an important strategic objective but less than 20% had implemented fully automated scheduling, dispatch and mobility systems to deliver real-time visibility and control of field service
88% of field service directors say say that increasing workforce productivity and utilisation is an important strategic objective
This is one half of the story - the other comes from the development of the rugged tablet market.
The rugged tablet market, has shown consistent quarterly growth upwards of 20% for the past two years, is showing signs of slowing. VDC anticipates that the rugged tablet market will top $500 million in 2014 and that the increased adoption of Android will present a growing opportunity as more enterprises move to adopt the OS for line-ofbusiness applications.
This is in comparison to the rugged handheld market, which represents the single-largest mobile computing category at nearly $600 million.
This battle between form factor is keenly fought in field service: recent VDC research showed that 89% of “field mobility” businesses deploy smartphones, 67% deploy tablets, 24% use a rugged handheld and 28% use a rugged tablet.
Recent VDC research showed that 89% of “field mobility” businesses deploy smartphones, 67% deploy tablets, 24% use a rugged handheld and 28% use a rugged tablet.
At the present time, in many cases the decision to deploy a rugged tablet is at the immediate expense of rugged handhelds, rather than a consumer tablet.
This can be best understood because rugged tablets offer a better “point of convergence” for all of the demands on the technology in the field, especially when compared to handhelds or even ruggedised smartphones.
However, there are some strong conflicting factors at play for the rugged tablet market at the present time - top of which is the need to develop more consumer-inspired designs versus maintaining legacy capabilities when dealing with verticals that are typically averse to change.
And of course, one of the problems with making a tablet that is built to last, is that refresh cycles are going to be further apart.
However, the fact remains that the enterprise tablet market, especially a rugged market that comes with added incentives of billable service, peripherals for workflow and strong customer loyalty is going to spark the interest of the major manufacturers.
Samsung has recently made strong attempts to secure rugged business.
Field service, alongside construction, is going to be a great proving ground to see if this “consumer made rugged” approach can work.
This is not just a simple case of ruggedised casing on existing consumer models.
Peripherals, be they data collection units, docks, carry bags etc are important considerations.
Small design nuances like a handle, stylus input and screen viewability will cause a lot of early changes for these consumer-based units. But much will come from the simple question of if these consumer-focused manufacturers understand the vertical markets in which they will operate.
Consumer taste changes fast. IT investment cycles do not. There is a reason for imposing standards such as software security or methods of data collection.
A lot of the expertise (and therefore control) is in the hands of the channel and some manufacturers may not like that. And let us not forget that the rugged market is already dominated by a consumer name.
For those of us already engaged in developing ruggedised tablets for professional markets such as field service, we must view the the entrance of the large consumer manufacturers as a call to arms.
The response will be one of innovation, keen alignment to the demands of the industry, And perhaps one or two moments of disruption too.
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
Leave a Reply