For parcel carriers, mobile devices are increasingly extending critical computerised processes into the frontline – right in to the driver’s cab. Great for improving efficiency and customer service but what happens when the devices fail many miles from the depot? How quickly can you get things up and running again and give your customers the service they expect? Organisations need to consider carefully the true challenge of managing a key wireless application once deployed because many systems will provide less support than you might expect.
Introducing Mobile Devices into the processes of parcel carriers has been a natural progression in a highly competitive industry where customer expectations are constantly evolving but cost remains a key consideration. Mobile devices can help by making delivery both easier and more predictable whilst making data collection less onerous and time consuming. But as these devices become more important to the smooth running of key processes, organisations are realising that there needs to be more focus on their management. This can prove to be quite a challenge to those that only took the basic management tools provided by the original supplier.
As Eugene Signorini of the Yankee Group has pointed out in an article on the subject, “An often overlooked challenge is the management and administration of wireless applications once deployed.”
When implementing a project to use mobile devices the natural consideration is to get the new process up and running and it should be no surprise that all the focus is on the target date for launch. The excitement is around the promised process improvements. But of course the system, like any other IT system, needs to be managed to deliver the best payback from the investment. Unlike other IT systems, however, mobile devices have some unique issues, not least of which is their location when things go wrong.
When parcel carriers introduce mobile devices and integrate them with the business processes, they become part of the mission critical process of the carrier - part of the delivery service itself. But when things start going wrong you cannot simply send IT support round to sort things out. Retrieving the situation can be time consuming and costly.
Most organisations consider two options. Firstly fall back on the old paper based process, wasting time both on the road and back in the office where data needs to be input manually. As the paper based process becomes a distant memory this will become more onerous, unreliable and costly. The second option is to call back in to the depot to get the problem fixed, delaying delivery and impacting customer satisfaction.
Neither approach really works for most organisations, but a third option is now increasingly being adopted. Namely, using solutions such as B2M’s mprodigy – a software solution that focuses on the daily management of mobile devices
Yankee’s Eugene Signorini went on to point out,”As mobile deployment becomes more complex and multiple applications are supported for a wide array of mobile users, enterprises should consider a separate systems management application or toolset.”
Keeping drivers on the road
Lynx Express took this approach when they purchased mprodigy from B2M. With users who were not technology savvy the central IT support team found itself traveling all over the country to support their users. And of course, it was not just to repair the devices. New systems often need to have their software upgraded. With mprodigy both these problems have been dramatically reduced. As Mike Fitzgerald of Lynx Express says, “We can keep drivers on the road. If a driver has a problem, we can reset the device and get it working. We’ve found that 80 per cent of devices that go wrong, resetting them remotely will get them operational again”
There are many aspects to Mobile Device Management. Remote rebooting; updating software on devices that are spread around the country; keeping track of easily misplaced assets; and, understanding how new systems are being adopted by employees who are not technologically aware. Organisation’s like B2M focus on these types of issues and understand the types of problems that are likely to arise. As Mike Fitzgerald says “They understood in detail the problems that we were experiencing – and actually predicted a few that we hadn’t encountered yet.”
When key devices are not properly managed IT struggles to deliver good support; drivers find that they are stopped from doing their jobs properly and the customers can get poor service. A dedicated mobile management system can go a long way to avoiding many of these problems.
As Eugene Signorini points out, “Many mobile application vendors provide some level of device management capability within the core software set. However, a diverse application and user environment requires a more robust, dedicated solution.”