Mobility is a Process and not just a product
By: Nick Kugelman
Building a mobility strategy from the ground up often includes much more than just selecting a product
and getting it deployed. Businesses who have adopted mobile technology have been able to reap
benefits in the following areas.
• Improved Technician Utilization
• Improved Asset Utilization
• Better Customer Server
• A Reduction in Accounts Payable
• Increase in sales
• Better Inventory control
• Plus Many more
Allowing for a single source service provider to tell you what your mobile strategy should include is a
recipe for disaster. Understanding what kinds of information need to be at the point of interaction to
enable technicians to interact with your customers more effectively, efficiently, and profitably needs to
be the focus. Then understanding your internal business process and associated paper bottlenecks is the
next step.
Here are a couple of questions to think about:
What is the most annoying part of your field technicians day? (Ask Them)
What are they not doing today that you want them to be doing?
What process is taking the most time away from productive, profitable work?
What can be done to increase performance inside the office?
How many people are really managing paper all day?
Mobility is about adopting a more efficient operating process, and executing against a carefully
designed workflow, thereby providing key decision makers, and customers the information they need to
be successful. I'm not saying that just implementing a product without an associated strategy isn't
going to provide a return, but it will NEVER provide the kinds of returns that are possible if a mobile
strategy is coupled to a product set.
THE LESSON: Partner with a company and provider that is interested in more than just selling a
product or a service, look for an organization that is willing to invest in helping you understand you
own process, and allow for them to work collaboratively with your organization to come up with a
solution.