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In today’s enterprise landscape organisations are rarely limited to a single business function or indeed a single market. Many companies in the facilities management and building services industries are expanding their target markets along with the range of services that are delivered via an increasingly flexible and mobile workforce.
Delivering line of business applications to the workforce has traditionally been approached with a task orientated view and this method will often deliver the right result for the mobile worker and the management of that specific task. These solutions are often delivered from the same supplier of the back office system it is connected to. Indeed many solution providers are web enabling aspects of their systems and delivering this as their mobile solution.
Many within the operations function will, quite rightly, consider this to be the simplest and most economical way to mobilise the workforce. Indeed in some instances this may appear be the only viable option open to an organisation when they are seeking to deploy line of business applications. However this type of approach may not be fully aligned with the overall business plan in an organisation with a five to ten years view.
Has the decision to deploy a mobile worker application taken into account future growth, new markets, acquisitions or new lines of business? Has the multi-tasking capability of employees been taken into account? What happens when new contracts are won and potentially come with another back office system? Many companies especially those in the outsourcing and service delivery markets end up with a number of mobile worker solutions to cover all of the tasks carried out. For the CIO this makes for a complex system landscape that can be difficult and costly to manage and more importantly, inflexible.
Deploying the right mobile solution that is capable of covering a number of business functions can drive a much greater degree of efficiency gains and cost savings versus the cost of deployment than deploying multiple systems to support the enterprise.
Alan Small, Systems Manager at Aberdeen City Council said: “The technology is helping us improve and drive efficiencies across a wide range of processes from diagnostic work to supplying field operatives with parts and scheduling and prioritising jobs. We are far more efficient, effective and productive – recently one of our guys completed 187 jobs in three weeks when in the past the average was five a day per person. Cost savings are in excess of £1.5 million and so agile has our team become that, at a time of fiscal austerity, we’re in a position to tender for other public sector business.”
Applying the holistic approach
Taking a holistic approach to mobility starts with the premise that enterprise mobility in itself is a system, and not just a bolt-on, in the same way as CRM is a system and therefore a wide range of elements need to be taken into account. Not least of these is the wider business plan, where is the business going to be in five or seven years time and will the chosen mobility platform meet with these needs?
What does holistic mean in the context of mobile working solutions? In its simplest terms it means deploying a single mobile working platform that will address all aspects of the business requirements. The approach should look at a number of key factors which include the business plan because the solution must be capable of addressing plans for growth including new lines of business and any acquisition strategy that the organisation may have.
It must also consider existing systems and be able to leverage the investment that has been made in the existing back office systems, any future systems that may come in as part of the acquisition strategy or new systems required to support new business lines.
Operational multi-tasking is also a key area because it must be able to create demonstrable cost savings through a solution that allows field based operatives to multi-task using a suite of applications to complete any number of tasks, face to face with the customer.
The business plan
When deploying line of business mobile working solutions the easy route tends to look at an immediate business requirement and solutions are architected around this requirement. Whereas this approach can be successful in the short term, the likelihood is that it will end up as a point solution and further costly development or indeed a completely different approach will be required to satisfy other business needs highlighted through the business plan. By taking the overall business plan into consideration this potentially expensive mistake can be avoided.
Existing systems
One of the key benefits of the holistic approach is taking into account the existing and planned IT landscape. This ensures that any chosen platform will have the capability of interfacing with multiple system types and will also be able to leverage the existing investments.
By extending the system(s) reach functionality and value is added. However, by extending the system(s) reach, across all business functions on the same mobile platform, the gains in terms of functionality and value are much greater. The platform can then be used to provide specific KPI (Key Performance Indicators) reporting across functions providing the capability to multi-task staff without the need to re-train or, most importantly, provide additional hardware.
Operational multi-tasking
This is a concept whereby staff can cross over some of the traditional dividing lines that are normally in place within the operation. Many companies today have multiple contract types with their customers or they are seeking ways to add value to existing contracts.
This can be achieved by providing functionality on a handheld device that an operative can collect information, report incidents or carry out inspections during the course of working day. For example, a security officer carrying out a cleaning inspection during the course of a night time building patrol can report a light which is missing in the room where the asset is situated, or you could give an asset engineer the ability to report faults or deficiencies with other assets in the same area they are working.
By taking a holistic approach to mobility, companies can leverage the existing solutions investment and enhance the capabilities that they have, create multiple cost saving opportunities across all areas of the operation and improve customer service.
So why not challenge your potential solution providers and get them to really put their money where their mouth is to show how they will enhance your customer’s experience.
