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I would split the enterprise extension capability requirements into three parts, handheld device capabilities to securely process, store and analyse the data flowing to and from enterprise backend, wireless communication technologies that carry the data and the enterprise backend interface capabilities to address the challenges of enterprise extension over a public wireless network to field employees.
Out of the three key items mentioned above, first two (device and wireless technologies) have achieved the required maturity for a mobile extension of an enterprise. Third requirement (enterprise backend readiness) is still remaining as bottleneck for most of the organizations due to multiple factors like lack of extensibility (propietary custom design) due to lack of foresight on IT requirements for field employees for seamless flow of business process, lack of mobile readiness of leading tier 1 enterprise packages, doubts on security for an mobility extended enterprise network, qualitative and quantitative measurement of ROI of mobilization etc.
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Shafeer – How does your comment relate to managing the mobile workforce? I am not following your line of thinking.
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Kevin/ Philippe,
Please excuse me if my comments have created any confusion on the very relevent topic!
While agreeing to Kevin’s view point on the effectiveness of mobile technologies for mobile work force, I just tried to dig one step further to show case the implementation challenges for seamlessly rolling out mobile technologies for mobile work force and central office staff!
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Agreed. My take on Kevin’s excellent article is that mobility is all about the opportunity for business process re-engineering.
Shafeer – I too am not sure I follow where you’re going. Could you clarify please?
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Kevin’s points are particularly relevant for task-based applications such as field service or facilities management, and these are two of many environments where enterprise mobility applications are making a dramatic impact on the performance of the mobile workforce.
It’s not just about internal KPIs; customers are negotiating increasingly demanding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that define (amongst other things) response times, time to fix, etc., with significant penalties for failure to comply. The challenge is compounded in applications like ground works where the UK Road Traffic Act (and similar legislation) where there are significant penalties for non-compliance.
Kevin is right to highlight the critical importance of managed mobile workflows. From my recent experience of working with organisations like Cognito (www.cognitomobile.com), one of the UK’s most experienced mobile systems integrators, I’d like offer a few other keys to success.
First, the data needs to be managed in real time, but that’s not enough; given the vagaries of mobile networks, coverage blackspots and the simple possibility that the engineer might have their device switched off, it’s vital to monitor transaction integrity. By that I mean that it must be possible to separate the task into component parts (like “job received by engineer”) and to be able to guarantee that it has taken place – or escalate and if necessary re-assign if it hasn’t.
Second, management must be presented with real-time dashboards that enable them to identify transactions that are in risk of SLA breach while there is still time for them to take corrective action. Intimate integration between the workflow and scheduling is necessary to achieve this.
Finally, as Phillipe suggests, there is a tremendous opportunity for business re-engineering with the objective of transformational, as opposed to incremental, change. Simply mobilising existing paper workflows will only scratch the surface of the potential. The most effective mobile enterprise solutions are founded on using the potential of mobility to change the way in which the field force works.
Good article – keep them coming!
Bob
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Mobile technology is a wonderful management tool for all the reasons that Kevin pointed out, and mobility is changing the way everybody works. As excited as we all are about the enterprise use of mobile technology, though, management is still fundamentally a human interaction exercise, with mobility (and other technology and advances) great support tools for managers. However, a bad manager with great technology (mobile or otherwise) will still get lousy results. And a great manager with lousy technology may still get great results.
One of my management professors from a long ago time when “mobility” just meant I had my own car told us that studies at that time showed that managers should have a maximum of about 8 direct reports. That figure might be adjusted by the environment: a loud, far-flung or otherwise challenging environment might mean less direct reports, while a sedate, homogenous environment could mean many more. So a manager at big office full of people doing the same thing could have many reports. Conversely, a battlefield or a steel mill (that really dates me) would need fewer direct reports.
Translating that to current day with technology of all types making it easier to keep communications and monitoring going no matter where people are in the world, I would say it makes it easier to manage in some respects — e.g. across great distances. However, countering that is that competitors, customers and suppliers all have great technology too so you get back to the human factors again. As a result, I would guess my old professor’s studies on managing people have had their numbers changed (though I’m guessing not as much as we think) but the general principle still is in place, mobile technology or not.
That’s a long way to say that managers can project themselves anywhere in the world with great workflows, metrics and reporting. After doing all that, lousy managers will still have poor KPIs while delivering inefficient mediocre service from their organization, because management is still a human interaction activity.
Andy
http://www.OvationWireless.com 0 0 -
Interesting points by Bob on data management of mobile endpoints.
Once your employee is outside the corporate perimeter, it is important to ensure that he is traceable and the data is secured. With so many mobile networks and platforms, the mobile device management platform must be scalable and multitenant to accomodate to the ever changing technologies .
Mobility as a Service, a spin off of SaaS, allows IT administrators to circumvent these problems by eliminating the mobile blind spot, tracking a device outside the corporate perimeter and ensuring the compliance state of the device in the cloud.
Here is a link which talks about some more best practices on Managing the Mobile work force
http://links.maas360.com/MobilityasaService_Best_Practices_for_Managing_Mobile_Work_Force 0 2
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[...] then in turn sends a signal to a remote location. Many such new processes are only possible with mobile solutions, speeding up and even creating new ways of doing [...]
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Managing the Mobile Workforce
The challenges listed above are substantial. It is hard enough to have those management responsibilities when your team is all working together under one roof, but having your team spread across a wide geographical area with an unlimited number of things that can go wrong is a truly daunting management challenge.
Your mobile workforce may have no problem doing their job via paper, however, you as a manager have KPIs (key performance indicators), obligations to deliver on a plan, and fiscal responsibilities to your employers. The problem is a management and operational issue.
Mobile technologies can often be effective at making it easier to manage a remote and mobile workforce. Photos can be required at the start of a project and at the completion of a project to document the work. Safety checklists or photos of safety procedures can be required and captured before the job begins. Periodic updates can automatically be sent from the field to better align schedules and workloads. Videos and voice memos can help explain various challenges that were met and addressed on the job site.
All of these requirements can be developed and included in sophisticated mobile workflows inside of mobile applications. When the applications are opened and a workflow initiated, mobile applications can efficiently direct the mobile worker through a step-by-step process that ensures the right company processes, standards and industry best practices are followed. These steps can be updated and seen in real time back at the central office.
All of the features listed above are intended to make the management of the mobile workforce easier, the quality of service higher and more reliable, and the operations of the organization more efficient so KPIs can be met. Managers, when armed with the right mobile technologies to solve the identified problems, can project their presence anywhere on the globe.
Kevin Benedict is the Principal Consultant/Founder of Netcentric Strategies. You can connect with him here.