Mobile workforce apps entering second generation, say IT managers

Computerworld - For years, businesses have been deploying mobile software to help workers communicate wirelessly with back-office applications to make field service calls or sales visits.

Now, wireless mobility is entering a new generation, with more capabilities like GPS enabled on new devices, and made more powerful with richer middleware and synchronization software.

At air conditioning giant Carrier Corp. in Farmington, Conn., about 1,600 service technicians throughout North America have been equipped with wireless handhelds for several years. The functions they receive on the devices so far are limited to receiving dispatch data for service calls, and technicians can notify a dispatcher that they have finished a job.

"Now we want to move to the second generation," Michael Hawman, CIO of building systems and services at Carrier, told Computerworld. Hawman wants to capture data from newer devices on what work a technician has done, including the model and serial number of a new part installed, and even readings from an air conditioning or heating unit. He'd also like to have a customer's signature captured electronically and transmitted to a back-office application.

Those are only a few of the various tasks that could be done using second-generation technology, including new devices for field workers such as ultramobile PCs (UMPC) and rugged handheld devices. Carrier is now testing Panasonic Toughbook U1 UMPCs. It has tried and rejected the iPhone, simply because it is not rugged enough for Carrier's service technicians, Hawman said.

With GPS capabilities being added in more devices, Carrier will also have the ability to track technicians from the handhelds they carry -- not from a separate device on their trucks, Hawman said.

He said that all of these second-generation capabilities were helped with newer hardware, of course, but also because of more sophisticated software. At Carrier, linking back-office applications for accounting and inventory as well as GPS will be handled by Antenna Software under a software-as-a-service contract, Hawman said.

Antenna is especially valuable to Carrier because it has tools to link to a number of Carrier's legacy applications and more standard Web applications, Carrier said. While Carrier won't say exactly how much it spends with Antenna or on hardware, Hawman said the company has invested millions of dollars over the years in hardware and software in its mobility strategy and has seen a large increase in productivity as a result. "Our mobility strategy is a key strategy for us as we improve the customer experience," he said.

Antenna recently announced several improvements to its Antenna Mobility Platform with the release of AMP 2.0, which should help Carrier, Hawman said. They include capabilities to quickly configure mobile connections to back-office applications and GPS, as well as a new mobile instant messaging application, according to Antenna. Other improvements include AMP Studio 4.0 for building applications with components, AMP Component Library, AMP DocShare and support for the iPhone, said Antenna CEO Jim Hemmer. In all, Antenna can connect mobile workers to about 50 back-end systems, including Oracle databases and SAP.