Supporting GIS and Mapping Solutions on Muddy Tablets

J.D. Axford, P.E. CESCL

I want to introduce you to a long time friend of mine J.D. Axford.  He is a civil engineer with all kinds of acronyms after his name (P.E., CESCL, etc.), who has worked for most of his career in the Northwest of the USA in and around water and mud.  He is a hero among the duck population for his many years working with wetlands.  He is you may say, an expert in outdoor field data collection.

I can remember a time about 25 years ago when J.D. and myself were perched above a waterfall along the East Fork of the Lewis river in Washington state measuring water flow and collecting data together.  It was, in fact, cold and muddy work.

He shared with me recently the list of things he typically carries in his service backpack to collect data:

• bubble levels
• incline-ometers
• rangefinders
• GPS accurate enough to serve as an inspection-level pre-survey grade checker
• wet papers
• job reports
• field notes
• redline drawings
• change orders

He is a big fan of finding ways of reducing the items in his backpack by utilizing mobile apps.  In this article J.D. shares his insights on data, data collection, mobile devices, GIS and how they are all used in utilities work.

Collecting data is a big job.  Utilities both generate and demand tremendous amounts of data. They are designed and operated with the use of a lot of geospatial and asset data.  Maintenance and repair work generates data, which is of particular importance in predicting future staffing needs, maintenance costs, and for the management of risks. In the distribution side (in electrical utilities) data is generated that is used to predict economics parameters, consumer demand, and other trends essential to profitability.

A lot of data is also generated by field crews which come from tasks related to vegetation control, drainage and other similar items. This work and the data generated are of increasing importance as infrastructure ages and budgets tighten. The information must be captured accurately by field staff and uploaded to geospatial databases and document management systems and then be made available to all the stakeholders.

All of this data collection, especially the outdoor data collection, benefits from mobile devices. Think about the environment. Maintaining a utility grid requires working remotely, often in multiple locations per day and on a variety of different projects and issues.  A lot of data is collected in rugged, cold, damp and muddy locations.  In these environments, tablets are very useful as they are light-weight and offer the simultaneous ability to capture, store, query and process data.  Tablets can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to manage data if you can keep them from being damaged.

As important as tablets have become to many engineers and utilities, they still have limitations as memory is limited, the service environment can be harsh and connectivity lost. There is also the challenge related to different tablets using different operating systems.  Some GIS and mapping applications only support one operating system. Many of these limitations, however, can be solved by the right software.  Vendors like We-Do-IT of Australia have developed tablet-based GIS software solutions made to operate online and offline, on a wide variety of tablets and operating systems while integrating with most GIS and ERP systems.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Selling and Buying Enterprise Mobility

One of my first jobs after I graduated from Portland State University was to work at Dale Carnegie and Associates.  I helped sell and teach all kinds of professional development classes on public speaking, management and sales.  I still remember one of the rules we taught in the Human Relations Approach to Sales class, "Customers don't want to buy your product or service, they want the results of your product or service."  I believe that rule applies equally well today to enterprise mobility platforms, mobile security and development tools.

What do you think are the results of enterprise mobility platforms that customers want to buy?  I will start the list and you can finish it:

• Increased speed or tempo of operations to gain a competitive advantage
• Efficient data collection so better and faster business decisions can be made
• Quicker reporting of events and KPIs to a wider audience to provide full situational awareness and promote good decision making and issue resolution
• Improved workforce productivity due to real-time data collection, artificial intelligence and reporting
• Reduced expenses and waste due to inefficient resource allocation
• Improved visibility to remote operations and projects so better data driven decisions can be made
• More collaboration, faster and with more remote workers contributing to good decision making
• Higher profits due to efficiency gains
• etc.

It is useful to understand that if these results could be achieved without purchasing mobile platforms and tools they would be.  No one wants to purchase, develop, test, maintain and support these mobile solutions.   They are a lot of work and distract from your core business.  The reality is though in today's world, mobile platforms, mobile app development tools, app stores and mobile security solutions are a necessity.

Any discussion with a mobility platform and tool vendor should, at a minimum, start with identifying the business results your company wants.  Any feature or function the mobility vendor shares and demonstrates should be tied back to a business result on your list.  Don't let a mobility vendor discuss features that aren't tied back to a business result.  Although painful for the mobility vendor's sales team, holding the vendor to this exercise makes the presentation far more entertaining and valuable for you!

Last week I wrote an article titled Enterprise Mobility, Business Executives and Mobility Vendors.  In that article I reported that more CIOs and CEOs are getting involved in decisions about enterprise mobility.  Why?  I believe executives are seeing enterprise mobility as a catalyst for digital transformation.  It is one step, although a very important step, to transforming their companies to meet the demands of a digital market place.  A market place where the competitive differentiators are digital competencies.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Strategies, Cloud Computing and the Role of Speed and Agility

If I can develop and pursue my plan to defeat you faster than you can execute your plan to defeat me, then your plan is unimportant. ~ The Art of Maneuver by Robert Leonhard

In our world of near ubiquitous connectivity, the competitive arena in many industries has moved from the physical to the digital, and from the tempo-of-old to the tempo-of-the-new.  The word tempo means the rate or pace of activity (aka, business operations).  Any IT decision made today should consider how different options and choices will impact today's and the future's tempo of operations.  Can and will the solution you choose support tomorrow's required tempo of business?

In many countries in Latin America new and emerging e-invoicing requirements have been passed by national tax authorities.  In some countries today, the seller of a product needs to electronically record a sale/invoice (in real-time) with the tax authority before a product can be delivered.  The tax authority issues a real-time unique transaction code to be attached to the invoice number.  Once the product is delivered, the buyer electronically acknowledges receipt (in real-time) with the national tax authority, and the process is closed and documented with the tax authority.  If a product is found to be sold and delivered outside of this real-time electronic reporting system, stiff penalties will be applied.

These e-invoicing systems are designed to document and make visible transactions in real-time for tax collection purposes.  This process requires an entirely new and faster tempo than most companies are currently prepared to support.  This is but one example of how the tempo of business is being impacted by digital transformations.

Today, companies are looking seriously at cloud computing solutions and SaaS (software-as-a-service) options in increasing numbers for the purpose of improving the operational tempo of their IT environment.    If you instigate a global five-year ERP implementation plan today, your business will likely be unrecognizable by the time the implementation is completed.  This means your ERP implementation will likely be misaligned with the new and different demands of your market and industry.

Every aspect of your IT environment must be evaluated today in the context of tempo.  What tempo will each solution and integration methodology support?  Will my enterprise mobile strategy support the tempo of change and evolution of the devices, networks and apps my target customers want?  Can I keep pace with the demands of my market?

It is critical that enterprises today evaluate themselves in a brutally honest manner and identify weaknesses that drag down operational tempo.  These limitations will have an increasingly negative impact on bottom lines as the operation tempo of your market and competition increases.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Where the Physical Meets the Digital in Field Services and Asset Management

I am fascinated by the notion of the physical world converging with the digital world and the benefits that become possible as a result.  Not in the context of a humanoid weeding my garden, although that would be nice, but in the context of making better business management decisions based on more efficient data collection and reporting.  The term digital transformation is often used to describe this convergence.

Think of growing the best possible garden full of award winning fruits and vegetables.  The garden may consist of some physical things like dirt, seeds, containers, plants and tools, but the key to success is the information about the garden.  The information about the soil, types of plants or seeds, appropriate time to plant and harvest, weeding and watering schedules, the best fertilizers to use based upon the soil conditions etc.  This information can be collected and input into a software application as digital information.  Once digital, software applications can analyze this information and create schedules and plans on how to optimize the production of the garden.  Business operations are much the same.  The more data that can be collected and analyzed on location, physical assets and facilities, environmental conditions, tasks, status, etc, the better planning and optimization can be done by software applications utilizing artificial intelligence.

Integrating Geospatial with ERPs

Let's consider utilities and other geographically dispersed operations.  Effective data collection, management, analysis, and reporting of data is critical.  They own and management data-driven systems of pipes and wires, poles, valves, substations and switches all associated with data such as location, service history, asset details, maintenance records, applicable product warranties and history.

Utilities must know a massive amount of geospatial information about their assets and the environment around them.  Think about an underground gas line.  The utility needs to know the exact location of it, creeks, rivers, roads, property owners and property lines, access routes, location relative to other construction sites, environmental impact studies and issues, minor and major transportation lines crossed, just to mention a few data points.  In addition, a lot of information is dynamic like new construction sites, road building, digging, erosion, etc.  Not only must the utility collect and store static information like asset details, but dynamic data about activities and tasks around it.  Wow!  You can quickly see that efficient information  collection is critical.

Efficiently operating a utility grid is mostly about implementing an efficient logistics of information system connecting field data collection and management and planning solutions in the office.  If you are a sub-contractor for services, it is also the way you get paid.

Today many are considering the use of tablets for collecting and querying required field data.  The problem is tablets still have painful limitations. First, while tablets have the computing power of laptops, their memory remains limited, which impacts their capabilities when working with large geospatial databases unless you purchase specialized geospatial software purpose-built for tablets.  Secondly, connectivity in the field is often intermittent, while geospatial data access needs are constant.  This necessitates a robust offline mobile app and data storage capability often missing from tablets.  And finally, there are multiple tablet operating systems available, which often dictate the type of applications, databases and geospatial applications that can be used by your workforce.

If your organization is considering the use of tablets in the field look for applications that can support multiple tablet operating systems, offline data editing and data collection and integration with all of your required ERPs and geospatial enterprise applications and databases.

Now let's get back to the notion of the physical meeting the digital.  In a utility, the digital information (code halos) related to a physical asset and the tasks around it are the keys to planning, scheduling and maintaining it for optimized productivity.  That means efficient data collection is critical to digitizing your physical environment and gaining the benefits of artificial intelligence built into your planning, scheduling and asset management solutions.

Today efficient data collection can be facilitated through M2M (machine-to-machine) embedded wireless chips integrated with sensors that automatically report on conditions and statuses of equipment, assets and facilities, and by field workers using smartphones, rugged laptops or tablets.

How efficient is your data collection system?  Are there gaps that are preventing you from fully digitizing your physical operational area and leaving you with geographical and operational blind spots?

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility, Business Executives and Mobility Vendors

Recent surveys point to the fact that companies are viewing enterprise mobility in an increasingly strategic manner.  They see compelling mobile apps as the front line of marketing, sales and customer service.  They are providing executives and managers with business intelligence apps on their tablets to improve visibility, situational awareness and decision-making.

Integrating Map Data with SAP!

When strategic enterprise mobility expands to include integration with the Internet of Things, entirely new business models and competitive arenas will open up.  Can you image a maintenance person entering a plant building and wirelessly surveying all of the equipment located there for repair and maintenance needs?  The machines can wirelessly communicate their own needs using wireless embedded chips connected to sensors.  All of the equipment could be connected to a command and control center on the other side of the globe!

Companies are recognizing the productivity gains enabled by mobilizing their sales, services, logistics, transportation, warehouses and manufacturing environments.  In a word, enterprise mobility has become strategic.  More selection and acquisition decisions on mobile platforms, mobile security and mobile applications are being made by CIOs and CEOs today.  Why?  These enterprise mobility solutions are needed to support mobile apps across numerous departments and processes.  No one department or project is able to anticipate the needs and requirements of all others.  As a result, management must look across departments and take a more enterprise wide view of their organization's mobility needs.

Today, business leaders are recognizing that the very future of their companies may depend on their ability to effectively make the digital transformation that rests on the foundation of enterprise mobility.  If customers are utilizing mobile apps for purchases, then the sales department must be very focused on mobile apps.  If mobile marketing is becoming more effective, then the marketing department should quickly become mobility marketing experts.  You get my point!

I am very interested in how mobility vendors are addressing CIOs and CEOs in their marketing campaigns in 2013.  I haven't see much content focused on business leaders yet.  I guess the assumption is that the LOB (line of business) or developers are the ones creating a short list of vendors for the CIO/CEO to review.  As a result, webinars and marketing campaigns are still focused on development platforms, development tool kits, implementation challenges, mobile security and speed of implementation solutions.  I wonder when this is going to change.

I wonder how a marketing campaign would look if it were targeting business executives.  Would it emphasize the ability to increase productivity with B2E apps?  Would it suggest more effective marketing campaigns and increased customer loyalty by using compelling B2C apps?  Would it focus on maximizing the number of solutions that could all be supported on one platform?  Would it emphasize scalability, security and a low total cost of ownership?  What do you think?

What about mobile solutions focused on business leaders?  Perhaps executive level solutions would show all mobile data flows, mobile security levels, mobile apps, and any solutions yet to be mobilized.  Perhaps all ERPs and business solutions should be wrapped by a mobile management solution that shows all data that is accessible by mobile devices, and which is not.  Perhaps any performance limitations residing in your logistics of information systems would be automatically exposed so management could determine how to remove bottlenecks and mobilize the system.

If we buy into the the notion that mobility is strategic, and if our legacy systems and enterprise application integration platforms are not supporting real-time mobile device access to mission critical data, then things must change fast.

Consumers' buying habits are changing.  They use mobile devices for researching products.  They compare prices on mobile devices.  They ask their friends for suggestions and recommendations using social networking sites via mobile devices.  They schedule their lives on their mobile calendars.  They track product shipments on mobile devices.  Are businesses understanding this?  Are they changing their processes and technology platforms to support these industry trends?  If they are not evolving at the same rate their customers are adopting the use of technology, then they are opening up an increasing opportunity for competitors to capture market share by delivering new or improved mobile apps and enhanced mobile experiences.

Business leaders cannot simply play around with mobility and POCs (proof of concepts) today.  They must get strategic, and fast.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: SAP's Ole Einar Fosse

I had the privilege this week to interview SAP's mobility expert in Norway, Ole Einar Fosse.  We discussed industry trends, ROIs and use cases he sees most often in Norway.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://youtu.be/ZxrH4n3XcSE

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility, Network Centric Operations and Decision Making

Mobile apps for the enterprise can offer significant value on their own, but when integrated together into a network (network centric operations) with many other applications, the IoT (internet of things) and other data collection technologies, this network of applications can offer exponentially greater visibility and value to an organization.   The challenge is to understand how to use this plethora of data for the purpose of good operational decision-making.  Modern military strategies offer some useful insights for us.

USAF Colonel John Boyd is credited with the concept of the OODA loop.  The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) is a concept originally applied to combat operation processes. Today it is also applied to commercial operations and learning processes where significant value has been realized.

According to Boyd, decision making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe=>orient=>decide=>act.  An entity (whether an individual or an organization) that can process this decision making cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby "get inside" a competitor's decision cycle and gain the advantage.

In the business world, OODA loop is an emerging concept for making decisions and managing fast changing field services, projects and mobile operations.  Today the ability to observe events from afar benefits from mobile technologies and connected devices such as:

• Wireless networks
• IoT
• Mobile data collection solutions (mobile inspection forms, barcode scanners, RFID, GPS, etc.)
• Mobile field services applications
• Mobile business intelligence applications
• Enterprise asset management solutions
• Plant maintenance systems
• Mobile CRM
• GPS location tracking technologies
• etc.

Mobile data collection and the IoT supply the data that enables a field services or plant manager to observe from afar.  

The next step in the OODA loop is orientation.  The manager needs to be oriented as to what the data means, and how it impacts the mission.  

Decide - now that you have the necessary data and you understand what it means, you must make a good data-driven-decision.  

Act - take action without delay based upon all the data you have received, its business meaning and the decision you have made. 

The “loop” refers to the fact that this is a continuous process.  The loop or cycle never stops.  Each time you complete a cycle in the OODA loop you observe, orient, decide and act again based upon the results you see from the prior cycle.  If the results are positive, you can continue down that path and improve it.  If the results are negative, you quickly adjust and review the results again.  It is a fast moving process of trial, error and adjustment until you get the results you want.  Not dissimilar to the agile programming methodology.

The OODA loop is particularly useful in environments that are chaotic and unpredictable.  In these working environments, decision making is often very difficult and without appropriate training paralysis in decision-making results and nothing gets done.  The OODA loop is a decision making process that is well suited for helping people make decisions and acting in situations where there is no existing road map to follow.

   

The military has effectively utilized the OODA loop decision making processes in the chaos of battle found in air combat, tank warfare and daily in Special Forces operations.  There is a lot to be learned from these experiences in decision-making.

In a world where nearly 40 percent of the workforce is mobile, companies must learn and implement these concepts in order to successfully manage mobile operations and services from afar.  To be successful implementing and integrating the OODA loop and Network Centric Operational concepts into your field services operations requires the following:

1. Data collection systems and processes.
2. Real time knowledge of the location of your mobile workforce, assets and inventories.
3. Real time knowledge of the capabilities and expertise of your mobile workforce.
4. Real time status and progress updates of the tasks, work assignments and schedules of the mobile workforce.
5. Real time knowledge of the location of all inventory, equipment, tools and other assets required to complete specific tasks.
6. Work order management system that assigns, schedules and dispatches specific assignments to specific members of your mobile workforce.
7. Business intelligence software applications for analyzing data collected in the field.

All of the items listed above help provide the real time visibility into your field operations that is required in a Networked Field Services organization practicing OODA loop management decision making.

One of the remaining challenges, however, with the systems listed above is that humans quickly become overwhelmed by large volumes of data.  Complexity can become an inhibitor to the practice of OODA.  It is not enough to have real time visibility into massive volumes of data, as one must be able to orient and understand what the data means and how it will impact the mission.  Business intelligence software, context aware and artificial intelligence capabilities all fit in here. 

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility, IoT and the Network Centric Operation

Manufacturing plants, vehicles, high valued equipment and other assets can take advantage of the IoT (Internet of Things) and low cost embedded mobile devices to provide visibility into operations and events in remote locations.  M2M (machine to machine) data can report on anything that a sensor can read for example: operational status, location, environment (pressure, heat, cold, wet, dry, etc.), hours of operation, maintenance and repair needs. This data can then alert field managers and service teams when there is a problem or event that requires their attention.
 
The location of mobile workforces can also be tracked via smartphones or vehicle tracking systems which enables management to better understand how to optimize the use of experts and assets across a geographic area.

Today wireless remote sensors are capable of bi-directional data exchanges.  Sensors can both send data to the central server and receive data in the form of machine commands.  In many cases remote sensors can receive commands from central servers to adjust settings or perform other functions via wireless data exchanges.  This opens up a wide area of possibilities.  Today we see irrigation canal gates, greenhouses and other facilities and assets controlled remotely using this technology.

M2M is a way of connecting physical and digital things to each other wirelessly through a network. These connections, and the data exchanged, can provide real time visibility and access to information about the physical world and the environments around the M2M enabled objects in it.  This is an important component used to develop full situational awareness of a given area of operations.  Used in the context of an electrical grid, enterprise asset management system, plant maintenance, field service automation system, or any other mobile workforce management solution, this data can lead to innovations and gains in efficiency and productivity that were never before possible.

Juniper Research predicted that the number of M2M and embedded mobile devices will rise to approximately 412 million globally by 2014.  ABI Research used a more conservative set of numbers and says that there were approximately 71 million cumulative M2M connections in 2009 and predicts this will rise to about 225 million by 2014.  GSMA predicted that there will be over 50 billion embedded mobile devices by 2025.  All of these predictions represent big numbers and a lot of data. The challenge for managers today is how to turn this high volume of available data into actionable intelligence.

Some of the key markets for M2M systems are:

• Utilities/Smart grids
• Fleet management/Automotive systems 
• Equipment monitoring/Plant maintenance
• Connected homes/Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS)
• Healthcare - Remote patient and health monitoring, medical equipment monitoring
• Vending/POS
• Remote asset management monitoring
• Security systems
• Consumer electronics (eReaders, Wireless Printers, Appliances, etc.) 

In a world filled with M2M data feeds, the question is what can you do with all of this data?  Where can this data provide value?  This is where business intelligence applications are needed - solutions that have the capacity to immediately analyze vast amounts of data and recommend how best to use it for optimal operational efficiencies.

I am seeing companies like ClickSoftware embed artificial intelligence into their scheduling and workforce optimization and field services solutions.  They use collected data to predict the needs of the field services workers.  M2M data enhances these kind of solutions with additional data provided by sensors on machines, in plants and across utility grids.  ClickSoftware has a new software component titled ClickButler designed to predict, based on a wide range of collected data, the information most relevant and needed by your mobile field services teams.  This is just the beginning of a new wave of innovation.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Importance of Spatial Data for ERPs and Enterprise Mobility

In field services, construction, engineering and other work in rugged environments there is a lot of data to be collected, stored and analyzed in order to complete a job and get paid for it.  This data has traditionally been collected using rugged laptops and other specialized data collection devices, but increasingly devices like consumer grade iPads are being utilized.  It is important to note that eighty percent of this data has a spatial component.

When collecting data, as in journalism, the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How matters. Those are the questions needed to complete work accurately, document and invoice it. That collected data often includes spatial data that is used by various solutions including CRM, CAD, engineering and surveying tools which are integrated with GIS, spatialNET, and other spatial software solutions.  Once the data is processed by these solutions it is shared again with those in the field using mobile devices. 

All of the contractors and sub-contractors working on projects in the field need data that accurately depicts the built environment; especially the parts buried, hung, or routed out of site.   As a result, any software UI (user interface) needs to intuitively connect the user to engineering drawings, spatial databases, and administrative forms. A construction and maintenance crew’s profitability is not measured by how much data they acquire and manipulate, but rather their metric of success is the built environment. 

Whatever software is in their tool kit must be able to access the databases used to model the built environment and provide complete office-to-field GIS, ERP and DMS integration without adding the burden of tedious training. It must also provide mobile and off-line functionality; as utility crews will need their data the most when connectivity is down.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility and Network Centric Management Strategies

Some of the most technologically advanced organizations in the world today are utilizing strategies based on the concept of the Network Centric Organization.  These strategies, methodologies and concepts are important for just about any organization that is geographically dispersed and requires the organization and management of remote and mobile workforces and assets.

The concept of the "network centric" organization relates to the fact that people, objects, events, activities, assets, inventories, locations, fleets, equipment, tools, etc, are all connected to the Internet (aka network), monitored, and most often visible on a map.  All of these connected components are providing data in real-time that can be used to manage operations.  This collected data is wirelessly sent to a central server where it forms a real time and unified view of operations that can be used for analysis, forecasting, resource allocation, planning and real time decision-making.

This networked approach enables users to see where their assets are located, where they are needed and how best to manage them at all times to successfully and efficiently accomplish the mission.  Network centric operations in commercial environments, is a relatively new concept that continues to evolve as mobile technologies improve and more assets are connected to and become visible to the network.

From a business strategy perspective, you want to gain an information advantage over your competition.   You want to set-up a robust network of well informed geographically dispersed people and assets that have situational awareness and visibility.   This networking, combined with changes in business intelligence, artificial intelligence, organizational structures, processes and people, enable organizations to behave and respond in ways never before possible.

Specifically, the strategy of Network Centric Operations contains the following four tenets in its hypotheses:

1. A robustly networked workforce improves information sharing.
2. Information sharing enhances both the quality of information and the shared situational awareness.
3. Shared situational awareness enables collaboration and self-synchronization, and enhances sustainability and speed of management decision-making.
4. These, in turn, dramatically increase productivity.

In order to optimize operations, in the context of field services, asset management, engineering and construction operations, it is critical to know, in real time, the location of all resources, the status of each job, the assets, parts and equipment needed, and the time each job will require. When effectively coordinated and managed, human resources, equipment, assets and mobile inventories can be shared between multiple projects, and the right experts with the right levels of experience can be used on the right projects at the right time.

The bottom line is that a leaner, more efficient organization can be put in the field that can accomplish more work with fewer resources and generate a higher return on investment.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

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Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.