Even though real-time access to information anytime and anywhere is considered one of the most important productivity enhancements available, the reality of the situation is that any enterprise is restricted by what they can spend on wireless data services. Mobile Enterprise Magazine has outlined 8 steps that will help you make sense of choosing the right wireless data plan for your enterprise business.
1. Wireless broadband pricing for business customers depends on the number of devices, the types of services you want, and how good you are at telling the wireless carrier what you need.
2. Take into account your organization’s data usage on a per-user basis to determine what your averages will be. Field workers will need more data than business executives, for instance.
3. Look for a monthly per-user contract, or a bucket of data that can be used by everyone in the company, depending on which option results in the best pricing.
4. Ask for a price reduction guarantee, so that when data price points drop, as all wireless pricing does, you will automatically get the reduction.
5. Some carriers are offering a new way to purchase data: they’ll sell 24 hours of data services for about $12. It’s a good way to buy for your organization’s occasional travelers.
6. Ask about becoming a customer without a one-year or two-year contract. If you have a large enough company and the carrier really wants your business you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.
7. Buy toward the end of the quarter, when the network operators’ sales forces are scrambling for new net adds that can be reported at the end of that quarter.
8. The bottom line: your organization should end up paying less for your enterprise data than the carrier’s advertised consumer pricing.
To read the entire article by Mobile Enterprise Magazine, click here.
There is a continuing debate surrounding the best type of device for use in field service or enterprise businesses: BlackBerry smartphones or rugged devices? This article, from Mobile Enterprise Magazine, looks at the merit of both, and suggests that rugged devices still have the upper hand in the industry. Here are some advantages rugged devices offer over smartphones:
While the BlackBerry’s versatility is an attractive feature, rugged devices are designed specifically for the needs of the job and don’t blur the lines between business and personal use.
For large field forces that have a large inventory of devices used by employees on a daily basis, the ability to personalize a BlackBerry offers no particular advantage; rugged devices, in this case, are more desirable.
Rugged devices stand up to harsh environments, such as construction sites. BlackBerry smartphones are more susceptible to damage and have a shorter life cycle.
This video highlights the great new features of the Purchase Area Regional Transit’s (PART) groundbreaking Travel Management Coordination Center (TMCC) in Western Kentucky. PART is a cooperative effort between four transit providers in Western Kentucky: Paducah Area Transit System, Easter Seals West Kentucky, Fulton County Transit Authority and Murray-Calloway Transit Authority. They have implemented an ITS solution to more efficiently manage the transportation and information needs of those living in the Purchase Area region of Western Kentucky.
The four transit agencies are connected through a centralized computer network which increases dispatching efficiency. Using Computer Assisted Scheduling and Dispatching (CASD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), dispatchers can keep track of all trips and vehicles. AVL constantly sends every vehicle’s precise location to the central dispatching computer network so that PART dispatchers always know the nearest vehicle to a caller.
The centralized computer network communicates with all the vehicles of the four transportation providers through in-vehicle mobile computers. The in-vehicle units keep drivers aware of all pick-ups and drop-offs, and dispatchers can send messages directly to the driver’s in-vehicle computer if there are changes to their schedule.
Customers will be able to access the TMCC by phone or via the PART website to make or modify travel plans. Customers will be able to receive information not only for transportation, but for health and human services and general governmental and educational information as well. For more information about PART, and their exciting new project, click here to visit their website.
Is excessive radio traffic affecting efficiency and productivity levels in your paratransit agency? A paratransit ITS solution allows dispatchers to communicate instantly with drivers using text messaging. Dispatchers can also keep tabs on all vehicles and unplanned situations, updating drivers’ in-vehicle manifests immediately to ensure customers are picked up on time. Hank and Jan are back to show you how paratransit ITS technology can make driver/dispatch communication more efficient, and managing unplanned events a breeze. Click here to watch Hank and Jan in action
The relationship you have with your wireless voice and data service provider is an important one. Is your carrier adequately meeting your business voice and data requirements? If you are considering re-evaluating your enterprise mobility strategies, you need to read the results of a joint research project conducted in 2009 by Yankee Group and Mobile Enterprise Magazine. They examined how well the “Big Four” carriers – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon – are doing in providing voice and data services to their ever expanding corporate client base.
Yankee Group and Mobile Enterprise Magazine surveyed business decision makers from over 560 small, medium and large companies in order to understand their current carrier relationships, wireless provider satisfaction, and selection criteria for choosing a provider for wireless voice and data services. Click here to read the results of the survey and compare how your carrier stacks up against these performance indicators.
This press release from Mobile Enterprise reveals a surprising statistic: 80% of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15% through 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner’s research vice president, Phil Redman, explains the four main areas companies should look to when managing their wireless costs: contracts, international roaming, mobility management and desktop replacement. Read the full article here.
Does choosing the right wireless data plan leave you mystified and even more confused? Not to worry, Mobile Enterprise magazine has eight steps to help you figure out how to get the right data plan for your enterprise. Keeping these tips in mind will help ensure you don’t overspend when it comes to your wireless broadband costs. Click here to start deciphering wireless data prices today.
As I discussed in my previous post ‘Wireless Communication: Freedom at a Cost’, sending data over wireless networks can be expensive. Cellular networks are the most commonly used public data networks for fleet applications because of their broad coverage areas, but are costly because they charge per byte sent. With a private network like WiFi (802.11), transmitting data is free after the initial hardware investment, but the coverage area is limited by how many access points are installed and their location in respect to the vehicles. Access points can only be installed at private properties owned by the fleet, such as dispatch centers and storage yards, so the coverage area will never be large enough to include the fleet’s entire operating area.
However, a WiFi network will be able to reach vehicles at the beginning of the day as they leave the yard and at the end of the day when they return. Although this accounts for a relatively small amount of time, it may end up including a large amount of the data sent to a vehicle each day. For example, many dispatch applications send a manifest to each vehicle at the start of the day. The manifest is usually large, often 10 or 20 times bigger than the real-time location/status messages sent periodically throughout the day. If the manifest is sent while the vehicle is in WiFi coverage, the organization won’t have to pay for any of that data on their monthly plans. Once you factor in end of day uploads (such as high resolution GPS logs) and software updates, a fleet could end up transmitting more than half its monthly data over WiFi.
So while it’s not practical to use WiFi as the only means of sending data to vehicles, it will save an organization a significant amount of money if used as a supplemental network. When evaluating a mobile data system you should make sure both the mobile devices and the server software are capable of supporting simultaneous cellular and WiFi network connections. They should also be able to give the WiFi connection higher priority and automatically switch to it as soon as a vehicle moves into coverage. Lastly, ensure that mobile software updates can be scheduled to occur overnight and only transmit over the WiFi network.
In this Mobile Enterprise article, it is argued that broadband wireless costs are worth the investment, with ROI measured almost instantly – weeks and months – as opposed to years. The author outlines many benefits of investing in wireless technology, such as productivity increases, while still considering budget limitations. Learn how to choose the right device for your company’s needs, and how to get the most from your wireless network operator. The article provides some solid tips on data package pricing and selecting wireless coverage. Weigh in on these issues and more here.
If you work for a multinational, you know that there is no option out there for reliable and universal wireless coverage. So what can you do to keep a mobile, and often remote workforce connected? This Mobile Enterprise Magazine article gives you some insight into managing the challenge of multinational workforce connectivity, and shows you how one company is doing it. Here’s the article.
A blog for those of us who live and work in fleet management. Topics include engine diagnostics, driver safety, mobile workforce management, CAD/AVL, vehicle maintenance, truck distribution, global computing, work order management, and field services.
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