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.
If you manage a paratransit fleet, you know how difficult it is keeping up with ever-changing customer requirements, streamlining driver responsibilities, and conquering the chaos in the dispatch office. Time-consuming manual data entry adds to these challenges. Fortunately, there is technology out there to make your job much easier. A paratransit ITS solution automates repetitive processes, eliminates manual data entry so you can make better use of staff resources, and helps improve on-time performance. Hank and Jan, of Number 1 Transit, demonstrate how paratransit ITS technology makes everyday tasks and challenges a lot simpler to manage, and with fewer headaches. Click here to watch this short, entertaining demo.
Understanding the basics of the technology used is important for any person working in fleet management. Simply put, much of the technology used in fleet management can be described as “machine-to-machine,” or “M2M” for short. Essentially what this means is that two or more machines communicate to one another. If you plug an iPod into a USB slot on your stereo to control the iPod via the stereo and listen to music through different speakers, you are employing M2M technology.
In the world of fleet management, M2M technology connects machines of various different types together, and most often by a wireless connection. For example, a vehicle can have a sensor embedded into its engine to monitor gas usage, speeds, idling, and excessive braking. As the information is collected, the sensor transmits it over a wireless data network. The information is received in a separate office where it is stored and analyzed.
Collecting this information is highly beneficial to a company because it saves both time and money: if, for example, a vehicle has engine trouble the company will be automatically informed and can repair the vehicle before it falls into disrepair. There is also no need to service a vehicle when it does not need work done, saving time (vehicle downtime), money (the cost of servicing) and fuel (bringing a vehicle in from the field).
Getting the Most Out of an M2M System
There are various ways of wirelessly connecting two machines, and they all have pros and cons. A reputable vendor will assist you in setting up, running, and trouble-shooting problems. Knowing which system will best provide the functionality you need, at an affordable price will take research, but is worth the time invested. M2M solutions can bestow multiple benefits on a user, including improved customer service, more efficient processes, reduced operating costs and a sharpened competitive edge.
M + 2 + M = Success
Industries of all kinds are filled with success stories from implementing M2M technology. To learn how real-world businesses have applied M2M technology, click here to read the full article from Integrated Solutions: For Wireless, Mobility and RFID. Also included is a useful glossary of terms common to the M2M industry.
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.
Keystone Excavating Ltd., of Calgary, Alberta, is regarded as a leader, not only for its strong hold on the excavating market over the past 30 years, but for its decision to implement a mobile workforce solution. They wanted a solution that would let them streamline job costing, billing and timesheet management. The chosen solution includes in-vehicle computers installed in their more than 250-pieces of heavy equipment, which work together with mobile resource and process management software.
The Challenges
Before installing this new technology, Keystone’s manual paper processes and radio communications were no longer making the cut when it came to managing workflow in relation to employees, hours, clients, locations, and equipment. As Holly Goulard, Keystone’s Controller, explains, “When I started at Keystone, one timesheet was handled 11 times before being filed.” In another example, truck tickets and timesheets could be lost or submitted after the client was billed for the job, and Keystone would have to absorb those costs.
The Results
Since installing the mobile workforce solution, Holly says that one of the biggest benefits is the ability to capture real-time information. “We see real-time hours and know where every piece of equipment is. We’re billing the real deal. Our HR department knows who worked when and can verify that information.
In addition to reducing the number of people reviewing job codes and hours worked, Keystone has also been able to downsize scheduler staffing requirements, removing four full-time scheduler positions.
It was originally thought that this technology would save about 20 minutes per piece of equipment each day due to better time management, so each operator would get to their next job 20 minutes earlier. In reality, Holly believes the system is exceeding this number. She has also seen a quick return on investment. “The money we invested in this technology was expected to be returned in three years, and it has been returned in one. That isn’t even accounting for the overtime hours we’re saving.”
Because subcontractors make up 30 to 40 percent of Keystone’s business, Holly hopes that round two of this technology implementation will include these subcontractors adopting electronic devices in their vehicles in order to improve efficiencies in this segment of the business as well. But for now, mobile workforce management technology is helping Keystone streamline its operations and minimize its staffing requirements in order to remain competitive, regardless of the economic climate.
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.
We’re very pleased to present an educational webinar next Thursday, November 12 at 1:00pm (MST). ‘7 Steps to a Successful Transit ITS Implementation’ will give you an overview of the implementation process as well as tips and suggestions to help make the process run smoothly. Even if your implementation is far in the future, this is a great way to learn what to expect. You’ll also learn best practices on change management and how to prepare your staff for the new technology in order to secure acceptance.
The webinar will be presented by Gregory Osmond. Gregory has over six years of project management experience, overseeing technology implementations for more than ten fleet-based organizations. He has special expertise in technology integration—ensuring all hardware, software and on-board devices work together seamlessly.
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.
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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With driver distraction being a leading cause of vehicle accidents, selecting an in-vehicle computer for your fleet that lets you control when drivers/device interaction is crucial to your fleet’s safety, as well as your bottom line.
