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Issue 88
Rugged Hardware
Industry Specific Software
Full Service Support
www.touchstargroup.com
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Mobile Enterprise Magazine, a recognized leader in the mobility and field force automation media, just published their February 2007 issue with a Field Service focus article on “Making the Business Case for Rugged”. TouchStar participated in the magazines profile due to our leadership role in ruggedized mobility platforms. The following is an excerpt, but please visit www.MobileEnterpriseMag.com for the full story and key findings in the ROI of going rugged.
By Lynnette Luna
The falling costs of consumer grade devices make them a tempting entrée to mobility. But can their ROI stand up to rugged in the long term?
The proliferation of cheap laptops and slim $150 smartphones represents a tempting entry point for enterprises looking to make their workers more productive in the field. But experts caution that indirect costs – such as ongoing maintenance and service, training and downtime from failed hardware and software – could lead to bigger expenses in the long run, undermining the whole reason for buying mobility in the first place.
Research from Venture Development Corp. (VDC), which conducted a comprehensive survey of several hundred end users of mobile computing in enterprise applications, shows that rugged mobile devices provide a superior cost profile to commercial grade solutions in select environments. For instance, in industries such as field service, transportation and public safety, the annual total cost of ownership (TCO) of a mobile rugged device was as much as 35 percent lower than for non rugged devices. Multiply those costs across several hundred or thousand workers plus lost productivity, and the price tag for off-the-shelf technology becomes significantly more expensive.
The rugged TouchPC Hawk from TouchStar features a touchscreen, GPS and GPRS, and while designed for in-vehicle mounting, a quick-release mechanism makes it quickly mobile.
“Longer product and parts shelf lives and guarantees around stability of the entire hardware platform were major factors in our decision to go with a [rugged] solution”, said Cam Jackson, logistics manager with Superior Propane, a fuel delivery business in Canada that recently completed a rollout of a rugged solution from field service automation company TouchStar Solutions on all of its bulk delivery trucks”
Claude Alexander, principal and VP with TouchStar, said there are other cost considerations, too. Commercial technology is moving so fast that there is no guarantee that product support will be available longer than two years (if the product makes it that long in the field)…In addition, spending less up front usually means that enterprises must support devices from multiple manufacturers, keep pools of multiple spare devices on hand and troubleshoot several different devices.
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Every day dispatchers, service and delivery fleet managers ask the same questions: “Where’s my truck?" “Where’s my driver?” “Where’s my stuff?”. Customers have their own historical refrain: “When are they going to be here?” “I’ve waited all day!” “He was just here last week, now what?” Enterprises are faced with having to meet increasing customer demands and expectations as resources to provide those services are dwindling. Technology and equipment have to do more.
The state of the utilities and repair service sectors illustrates perfectly as a retiring work force, shrinking recruitment pools and attrition are sharply affecting field service. The average worker is 54 years of age and replacing knowledge, procedure, routes, parts, product and customer information stored in a technician’s memory is impossible. Training new techs to pick up the trail is daunting at the very least. Additionally, rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions, displaced, replaced and reassigned employees are exacerbating operational backlogs and laggard service fulfillment.
Managing physical assets and improving customer service through location based services, real time route optimization and visibility is a key growth area for mobility. Now. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group, “The Location Based Mobile Field Service Benchmark Report”, revealed that while 66% of respondents state that field service is either “very” or “extremely” important to their operational and financial performance, just 13% were satisfied with their current field service operations. Only 13%!
Aberdeen succinctly defines the challenge, “…a service organization’s ability to plan and provision its field resources – technicians, inventory and vehicles – can make the difference between missing and meeting customer commitments.”
Field service technology is bridging the gap. With infrastructures in place to support low cost GPS, WiFi embedded devices with increased data storage and transfer capacity, satellite connectivity and cellular networks, location based platforms are quick to perform. Aberdeen findings support this as well: 66% of best in class field service companies who use location based services (typically GPS for routing and scheduling) average at least one more full stop per driver per day and see a marked increase in service driven profits.
TouchStar engineers and application developers are finalizing a suite of modular and scalable optimization products built on GPS and real time communications with multiple modem options to track, monitor and manage vehicles, inventory and drivers. Hardware agnostic, our soon to be released platforms are designed to work with existing hardware and software, second generation upgrades as well as any new mobility initiative.
See InTouch next month for a detailed profile of new offerings, benefits and features that will drive profit and operational efficiencies while creating new revenue potential in customer satisfaction and post sales service.
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“Thank you for calling XYZ Service Company. Your call is important to us, please follow the prompts. If you don’t know the extension or department to reach, the next available attendant will connect you. Your estimated hold time is ten minutes. “
Sound familiar? The advent of convenience technology has unfortunately relegated personal service and surety to the back burner and left many of us, consumers and business to business customers alike, on hold. TouchStar Pacific has reset the trend by extending our “One Stop Shop” philosophy to include “One Company, One Call”.
TouchStar has built a solid and sustainable reputation of leading products and services and continually strives for one call resolution rates. Today, we have taken it to a higher level and formally created a first class team of service professionals, made up of existing and new staff members that have been trained and cross trained on our products, services, processes and customers business.
Established three months ago, the TouchStar Pacific Customer Support Team is dedicated to customer satisfaction, issue resolution and support. Lyndall, Monica and Sunny are setting new standards in customer support and invite you to experience “One Company, One Call”. The team reports to Petricia Augustus, Marketing Communications Manager and Petricia’s affinity for customer focused processes have laid the foundation for the Team’s momentum for customer support.
TouchStar’s “One Company, Once Call” customer centric methodology dovetails with our “One Stop Shop” focus. Our customers are best served by having a single source solution for field force and enterprise mobility solutions that extends beyond hardware and software. Prompt, professional, courteous and knowledgeable service and support is an integral component of our tightly weaved package.
Have a question? Need a product? Some troubleshooting? Just call 02 9739 9009…the only music you will hear is “Thank you for calling TouchStar, how may I help you today?”
For TouchStar - North America, call 877.558.6824, and don’t miss next month’s InTouch for a profile on North America’s Customer Service Department
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The impact was immediate…explosive. Literally within seconds, Palm and RIM (Research in Motion, aka Blackberry) lost a combined $2 billion in market capitalization. Apple stock shot up 7% which equates to a $5.6 billion market cap increase. How? Why? Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, introduced the iPhone at Macworld 2007. Push e-mail vendors felt instantaneous and brutal effects.
Clearly a very well kept secret, Apple engineers have been busy developing the iPhone for the past three years. The iPhone is a clever convergence of the enormously successful iPod, mobile phone and an internet anywhere device. Protected by more than 200 patents, Apple’s innovations make this device unique. While strictly a consumer device at this stage, insight can be gained by monitoring and analyzing market impact and the ripple effect to the enterprise mobility landscape.
The iPhone’s marriage of hardware and software creates its sensational appeal. The multi-touch interface, combined with on screen user interface, allows the device to sense simultaneous depressions on the screen. This affords the user simple and optimized functions, like squeezing fingers together to zoom an image or web page. Multi-touch also allows the user to scroll without touching on-screen scroll bars by merely hovering and gesturing a flick forward or back, the page content is scrolled. It’s innovations like these that can have extraordinary impact on mobility vision. Very, very impressive.
 Visually, the first thing I noticed is that the iPhone has only one hardware button, the ‘home’ button. The user interface is driven via dynamic on-screen virtual buttons, large enough to operate with your finger. TouchStar engineers have been relentlessly pioneering finger driven user interfaces for over 10 years and the iPhone has many similarities in look and feel.
The iPhone also runs a cut down version of Mac OS X, a testament to designer savvy product development and razor sharp focus on fidelity, user experience and aesthetics.
Presently targeted to the consumer market, the iPhone will likely have little initial impact at the enterprise level for several reasons:
• Custom vendor applications will not be permitted to run on the device, with no mention even of Java application support.
• It only supports EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), a superset to GPRS. With much of the world now officially moving to 3G and beyond, the iPhone is a little bit behind the times.
• It is also exclusive to Cingular, now being rebranded as AT&T, which limits adoption.
Other enterprise and commercial barriers include a lack of external storage slots (like Flash Cards), user inaccessible battery (just like the iPod) and only five hours of talk time between recharges.
However, the innovation packed iPhone will likely influence the way we deploy mobile devices in the future. It’s "wait and see” following the formal market launch set for June 2007. Remember, as with GPS and navigational tools, consumers prove to be the test and acceptance control group for new technology, subsequent upgrades and affordability.
The big positives coming from the iPhone release will be increased competition and proof that there is plenty of room for radical innovation in the mobile space. The competition will need to be on their toes…and fingers.
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Mobile Enterprise Magazine
The February Issue features rugged deployments and TouchStar was a lead part of the story. See the February 2007 issue at http://www.mobileenterprisemag.com
NPGA 57th Annual Southeastern Convention & International Expo
April 14th – 17th at the Georgia World Congress in Atlanta. Visit Booth 720 for a hands on look at the newest mobility technology and don’t miss the Information Technology Panel, featuring TouchStar and Rural Computer Consultants. Panelists will discuss effective use of information technology, the challenges marketers encounter and solutions proven to work. Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 14th beginning at 2:45 p.m. More details coming soon…and visit http://www.npgaexpo.com
AREE ’07 Atlantic Regional Energy Expo 2007
April 23rd – 26th at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. TouchStar is bigger and better than ever as a Marquee Exhibitor in Booth 318. Come see what’s new in mobility for the fuels market as well as our ServiCE solutions for HVAC and service techs. It’s a new show format this year and not to be left off your calendar. TouchStar is presenting the Benefits of Automation for the Fuel Oil Industry: Delivery and Service, from 4:00 – 5:00p.m. on April 24th. It’s a “do not miss” for fuel marketers. More details coming soon…and visit http://www.areetradeshow.com
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The ROI of Going Rugged |
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Location, location, location |
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One Company, One Call |
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Tech Talk with David Thornley |
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