Examining the gains your organisation could make with new workforce technologies
Mobile workforce management has developed substantially during the past five years and is integral to most distribution and service work processes.
These are systems that involve the use of mobile computing devices to help remote or travelling staff to schedule and receive work, deliver products and service to customers outside the head office environment.
What’s in a Name?
Mobile workforce systems are called a variety of things by vendors, including:
• Field force automation (FFA)
• Field force enablement (FFE)
• Field force management (FFM)
• Field service management (FSM)
• Mobile resource management (MRM)
• Service delivery management (SDM)
• Service optimisation solutions
• Workforce management system (WFMS)
Some of these systems are used as back-office, short-cycle scheduling tools without the mobile computing devices. However, here we are focusing on mobile-computing-enabled scheduling, service and interaction tools that typically cover four process areas:
• Personnel management.
• Service parts and tools.
• Field service processes.
• Customer service.
These span CRM, ERP, enterprise asset management (EAM) and, in some cases, supply chain management (SCM) applications that have been deployed for several years. Field service and remote workforce management is increasingly viewed as an integral part of a unified customer strategy, as integral as sales, marketing and customer support.
Market Overview
There are many vendors providing mobile workforce solutions, but only 11 (including Oracle-Siebel, SAP and Ventyx) are listed in Gartner’s current Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management, due to the highly-specialised and fragmented nature of the market. No two vendors are alike, making it imperative to discuss your industry-specific needs, geographic reach and functionality depth with an analyst before creating a shortlist. For example, Gartner tracks nearly 20 vendors in the market that did not meet the broad criteria for the Magic Quadrant. Examples of these include 360 Technologies, Microsoft, Lawson Software (which acquired Intentia in 2006) and salesforce.com. Microsoft has tremendous long-term potential in this area, but it is unlikely to muster the focus required to build a credible business during the next 18 months.
The packaged application providers in the mobile workforce solution market remain highly specialised for mostly one type of field service delivery, and often for only a specific industry or two. Therefore, specialisation, or fragmentation, remains the dominant theme. The market will remain in a period of continued consolidation through 2009, with another 25% of vendors disappearing through acquisitions and mergers such as the recent combination of MDSI and Indus, and the branding of the merged entity as Ventyx. We expect further acquisitions to follow, specifically of Microsoft-centric vendors.
Software sales in the mobile workforce management market can only be approximated. The larger vendors (Infor, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP) do not disclose software sales in this area, and the market itself is highly fragmented making estimates difficult. Gartner research put the revenue for packaged field service dispatch and workforce management software applications — not including service revenue — at slightly less than US$245 million in 2006 (rising to US$300 million by 2009). By 2009, the combined application software and consulting and system integration services market for field service will reach US$1.6 billion, rising at an 18% average annual growth rate through 2009. Of this, the professional services component of the market will account for almost 85% of total spending. The percentage of field service workers in North America and Europe using mobile applications will grow from less than 10% in 2005 to more than 30% in 2010.
Benefits and Return on Investment
Mobile workforce technology can enable more efficient field service for workforce/asset management and customer service improvement. Many business cases expect one-year project payback and greater than 100% annualised return on investment. Benefits include:
• Transferring data over mobile networks is more efficient than paper-based systems.
• There are fewer errors (provided the mobile application does a good job of field validation).
• Staff members are no longer required to re-key data from paper, resulting in faster and more accurate data collection.
• Can enable more efficient field service for workforce/asset management and customer service improvement.
• Bridge the information gap from the field by transferring data over mobile networks more efficiently than paper-based systems. Cost savings occur from reduced paper handling, copying and storage.
• It achieves better workforce usage and a reduced need for back-office staff.
• Faster dispatching and job management are possible – along with easier assignment and reassignment of jobs.
• Foot/vehicular travel is reduced.
• Communication of urgent job details and technical data is faster and more accurate.
• It is easier to meet regulatory requirements more cost-effectively.
• Data is uploaded directly to core CRM systems, rather than being delayed on paper.
• Data is time-stamped, available in real time and traceable for audit purposes.
• It drives greater value from back-end system investment through more timely, complete data reporting.
• Business risk is lowered through an enhanced ability to meet service level agreement (SLA), regulatory and customer satisfaction goals.
To measure the system impact accurately, organisations should establish a baseline of metrics before mobilisation to enable more accurate measurement of the success of a mobility project, and they should consider the process changes brought about by mobilisation when identifying metrics.
How to Be Successful With Enterprise Mobility
Mobile workforce management must be part of a coordinated enterprise mobility effort. After treating the first mobility initiatives as one-off projects, many organisations are faced with creating a mobility strategy to ensure cost efficiency, predictability and consistent service-level agreements. Organisations must treat mobility with the same rigor as other IT disciplines, leveraging processes, tools, best practices and organisational constructs to meet the requirements from an increasingly mobile workforce in a cost-efficient and consistent manner. To be successful, a balanced mobile strategy is key. The workforces in most organisations are increasingly working away from their desks, if they even have a dedicated desk any longer.
Many organisations are in a situation where one or two application mobilisation projects, plus mobile email to a select number of users, have been run more or less as one-off projects and are now in a situation where a mobile strategy must be put in place to ensure cost efficiency, predictability and consistent service-level agreements. A successful mobile strategy must be balanced between technology, people and process.
Technology is an important enabler when mobilising organisations. However, no technological panaceas are available in enterprise mobility. Similarly, an organisation needs skilled people to succeed in mobility, but relying solely on technology heroes to come in and save projects is unrealistic. Process and policy is the third component needed for success, but it must be in balance with technology and people. Too much process and policy can adversely affect productivity and negate any good intentions. To create the much-needed balance, the company needs to organise for success.
Telecommunications Requirements
Currently, the primary criterion for evaluation is the access to networks in rural areas. While urban-based staff can be expected to rely on good network access and support for real-time access to information, rural staff may need to be equipped with store and retrieve, offline, mobile devices with greater storage capabilities and less reliance on real-time access.
Mobile workforce solutions impact telecommunications plans in the long term, but we do not see this as a constraining factor to planning extensive usage. While costs will need to be accounted for and network vendors selected, we see a steady rise in wireless network capacity with a corresponding drop in costs. As we look at future deployments of technology, the network decisions will be important for matching the operational needs with the network provision. The basic assumption is that affordable bandwidth will expand, so it should not be considered a constraint to long-term planning. Indeed, planning for a future of greatly increased bandwidth will provide a better basis.
The main issue for connectivity is network coverage or range, so long as battery life is acceptable — that is, a minimum of one eight-hour shift — which is challenging for today’s 3G wireless PDAs. Unless the application requires a real-time link, bandwidth is less of an issue, but “more is always better” so as not to be a constraint on delivered functionality. An example of a real-time requirement would be running a desktop-style ERP/EAM application over Citrix in the field — this just does not work well enough at less than 200 Kbps. However, a field data collection (for example, a meter-reading application) running on the PDA with occasional data uploads is much less demanding and can run on older wireless technologies such as GPRS or EDGE. For those applications that require higher bandwidth and network coverage (for example, anything involving video streaming or access to centrally stored geographic information system [GIS] data), then WiMAX will come to the rescue.
Security Requirements
In Gartner surveys, security ranks high on the list of the concerns of Chief Information Officers (CIOs). However, in some ways, its real risk may be overrated.
For CIOs willing to pay the price, it is possible to assemble a bundle of tools and services to address a wide range of mobile security risks. These include tools to lock down, provision, implement virtual private networks (VPNs), encrypt device memory, authenticate users and remotely disable devices. Devices owned by the enterprise can be secured and fully supported.
However, mobility is challenging CIOs because of increasing demands for some level of access from employee-owned devices that cannot be locked down and secured by the enterprise. This demands a new security zone, which is reluctantly tolerated rather than trusted. Devices in this zone may be allowed to access corporate systems, but in ways that are deemed safe even when the device is not owned and managed by the corporation. Examples include using interactive voice response (IVR) or thin-client applications on handset or PDA web browsers, using protocols such as HTTPS.
Terminal Ergonomics and Capabilities
Companies that leverage field computing are currently using tablet PCs, ruggedised mobile PCs, PDAs, ultramobile PCs and standard laptops in the field. Several manufacturers have tried to create full-function, no-compromise tablet PCs with 14-inch screens. These tablet PCs function well as notebooks, but tend to be heavy and unwieldy, limiting their usefulness in some applications. Building forms applications for tablet PCs requires artistry, if not new thinking. Organisations should not build applications for tablet PCs using paper conventions.
Ruggedised handhelds target job functions that include harsh handling of the unit or operation within a harsh environment. Most consumer handheld and notebook form factors have been replicated in rugged versions by the vendors. Organisations should expect costs for ruggedness devices to run 60% to 100% over their consumer counterparts after heavy discounting.
The revolution in this segment has been the adoption of standard operating system (OS) platforms — mainly Microsoft Windows on larger devices and Windows Mobile on smaller form factors. In turn, this has permitted the OEMs to use standard, off-the-shelf components at much lower price points than the custom technology formerly used. IT organisations should begin to standardise on these platforms because the more proprietary platforms will rise in price as components become scarcer. Digital pen and paper technology should also be considered as a low-cost transition option.
Recommendations
There are some simple steps you can take to get started with mobilising your business applications. Evaluate and select the best hardware and communications options to fit diverse applications and geographies. Put a decision framework in place to evaluate consumer technology and services. Set governance and security policies, and invest in tools to help enforce the policy. You can provide differentiated support levels based on device classification and business requirements. Ask vendors what their mobile application enablement approach is to each system involved in the four areas of mobile workforce management identified above, in terms of modular integration, device support, application maintenance, sourcing and architecture decisions. Don’t be afraid to seek outside help – consider system integrators with long track records to assess the business transformation required if you haven’t done so during the past two or three years.
Leif-Olof Wallin is a Research Vice President in Gartner Research, where he advises enterprise clients on all aspects of networking infrastructure and services. His research has a special focus on enterprise mobility where he pays special attention to mobile applications infrastructure, mobile security, remote access, mobile device management and enterprise sourcing of mobile applications. He also coordinates research in network planning and operations on a global level.
