MobileFrame Blog » Application

Give Yourself a Late Present – The Perfect Mobile Application

Patricia Oswalt — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:25:17 +0000

While getting ready for the holidays I was at the mall, and it was packed! People were hustling and bustling about, looking for the perfect gift for loved ones. I mean it was NUTS! It made me think, why do we put ourselves through all this? Couldn’t we just as easily get a gift card, or whatever is in the sale ads for the people close in our lives? Wouldn’t they be happy just knowing we thought of them? No. There is something to be said for the perfect gift, the one thing that – when you see it – you know it was made for them.

Why settle for less when it comes to your organization’s mobile application needs? Off the shelf systems are designed to meet industry wide needs, but not necessarily the requirements of your organization. Your organization is unique and chances are your software needs are as well. Settling for an off the shelf system might solve some of your problems, but it will surely leave holes – probably in just the places that differentiate your organization.

MobileFrame is a tool that is used to create the perfect mobile and web based applications. MobileFrame helps to solve all of your mobile software needs, not just some of them. Whether it is a modification of an existing pre-built solution or a complete customization, our 100% code free platform makes it easy for you to solve the exact problems that typical off the shelf systems cannot. This means that rather than a system that will simply allow you to get by; you can have the system that works for you. Allow electronic data collection and managed workflow to be seamlessly integrated from the field to backend systems, making sure your mobile workforce has access to the data they need and the backend system is fully up to date.

From mobile application development to device management, MobileFrame gives your business the benefit of the perfect mobile and web based application – one that when you see it you know it was made for you.

Click here to schedule a demo and have us build your perfect mobile application and demo it to you live on our very first phone call.

Scheid Vineyards has chosen MobileFrame’s Inventory Control Application

Danielle Mora — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:53:02 +0000

Scheid Vineyards has chosen MobileFrame’s Inventory Control Application to track their inventory and crops. Prior to MobileFrame they were doing most of their data entry and inventory tracking manually, and found this system to be timely and inefficient. As Scheid Vineyards continues to grow, they decided that they were in need of more advanced software technology to help streamline their business operations. After researching several software packages, it was obvious that MobileFrame was a perfect fit. With MobileFrame, Scheid Vineyards has been able to automate harvest tracking and fertilization information down to the individual row level, which has achieved significant efficiency gains for the company. Now that Scheid Vineyards has automated the vineyard side of their business, they will be able to streamline their wineries data and inventory on the same platform, thus driving a much higher ROI.

Although application development tools are a commonplace, those tools require costly, time-consuming development to create business applications. Moreover, such business solutions tend to be inflexible, requiring expensive custom programming whenever business processes change. As Scheid Vineyards business processes evolve, MobileFrame’s software has the ability to provide them with unparalleled flexibility to create new mobile applications of any degree of complexity, incorporating any mix of business processes, and to make changes to those applications on-the-fly. With its flexibility and ease of use, MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility software will allow Scheid Vineyards to quickly deploy their Inventory Control Applications and make changes as needed, without time-consuming and expensive development efforts.

“For two years we have been asking for a change in one of our [previous] packaged applications, and it never makes it into the product. In MobileFrame I can have that done in a couple of hours. I am not a computer programmer and basically I have been able to run with this thing. In 5 weeks I went from not knowing anything about MobileFrame to having a fully deployed harvest inventory system”.

- Tyler Scheid, Viticulture Technology Coordinator.

“We love it when customers exploit our state-of-the-art technology in their business. Going mobile so quickly is a rarity in the mobile industry, but typical in our deployments — a fact that doesn’t go unrecognized across our network of over 350 global resellers. With over 1,400 successful MobileFrame customer deployments, MobileFrame has become the Gold Standard.”

- Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO

About Scheid Vineyards

Scheid Vineyards, a family ran business located in Greenfield, California, is one of the largest independent growers of premium wine grapes. Their primary business is the production and sale of wine grapes and bulk wine to wine producers. Scheid Vineyards’ vision has always been to maintain and enhance quality without losing high production-rate capabilities. Their mission is to supply their winery clients with the grapes they need at an acceptable price and at the highest quality possible. For more information visit: http://www.scheidvineyards.com

About MobileFrame

MobileFrame is the leading provider of Configurable Mobile Applications™ enterprise software that requires no coding or programming to create, deploy and remotely manage sophisticated mobile applications. With secure SOX compliant instant messaging, remote device control, configuration and management, intelligent networking, remote software updates, prioritized synchronization, automatic device driver recognition and loading all built-in, MobileFrame’s platform significantly streamlines mobile application development, deployment, and administration. MobileFrame eliminates custom programming through an intuitive, user-friendly point-and-click graphical user interface, enabling novice computer users to quickly create and deploy custom mobile applications tailored to their business.

MobileFrame’s award-winning mobility platform is an entirely self-contained mobility solution that provides full functionality out-of-the-box, with no custom programming, no third-party mobile gateways, synchronization engines or SDK’s required. MobileFrame’s software allows users to capture photographs, voice notes, documents, templates, logos, sketches, digital signatures, bar code scans, magnetic strip read outs, RFID tags, advanced algorithmic functions, and attach them directly into their mobile applications. Applications are stored in a library so administrators can quickly make changes whenever operational requirements change, enabling on-the-spot deployment of a wide variety of mobile applications.

For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

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Contact:
Danielle M. Mora
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200
dmora@mobileframe.com

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Creams the Competition with MobileFrame’s Product Inspection App

Danielle Mora — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:53:40 +0000

Warnambool Cheese and Butter Factory (WCB), producers of high-quality dairy products for over 120 years, selected MobileFrame’s Configurable Mobile Application Solution to eliminate all paper based processes across the company. WCB is one of the oldest dairy processors in Australia today and is a major producer of high quality dairy commodities such as cheese, milk powders, whey protein, butter and cream, for both domestic and export markets.

Prior to purchasing the MobileFrame solution, their staff was using clipboard and paper forms to do quality control inspections on both the production floor and in the warehouse. After the data was collected, the completed forms were turned over to administrative staff to manually enter the data into their business system. This manual system was extremely labor intensive, error-prone and inefficient, so they were looking for an easy to use, intuitive software solution to solve these problems. WCB quickly realized that MobileFrame’s platform can be used to deploy any app with any requirement across any department. Their apps can be tailored to their business and integrated to their JD Edwards backend system. Some of the benefits of MobileFrame’s solution include:

Increase efficiencies by eliminating error-prone manual data-entry tasks
Increasing efficiency of product inspection operations
Ability to write their own apps without writing a single line of code

Businesses are pressed to do more with the same resources. Capital expenditures are more closely reviewed than ever before. In this environment it’s paramount that every dollar invested in new technology drives a return that is measured in days, and not months or years. MobileFrame’s unique, patented technology addresses that need head–on. With the ability to adapt quickly and deploy literally overnight, no other mobile platform provides this type of acceleration of deployment of any custom application, integrated into any backend system. MobileFrame accepts challenges to deploy custom applications live and synchronize those custom built apps over the air in real-time every day. With this flexibility and ease of use, MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility software has allowed Warrnambool Cheese and Butter to deploy their product inspection application and make changes as needed, without time-consuming and expensive development efforts.

“The key deciding factor for Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory’s purchase decision was the fact that MobileFrame could be deployed across all departments for any application requirement. This, combined with our ease of use made it an easy decision”. — Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO

About Warrnambool Cheese and Butter

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) has been producing high quality dairy products for over 120 years, making them the oldest dairy processor in Australia today. They are an Australian-owned company, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 2004. Warrnambool Cheese and Butter is one of the largest employers in South West Victoria, with about 300 (full-time equivalent) employees based at their Allansford site. For more information visit: http://www.wcbf.com.au

About MobileFrame

For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

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Contact:
Danielle M. Mora
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200
dmora@mobileframe.com

Separating Fact from Fiction: Digital Forms vs. Mobile Business Applications

Patricia Oswalt — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:46:27 +0000

Along with the smartphone boom of the past decade we have also seen an exponential increase in the number of companies providing mobile applications.

This increase in the number of available software vendors has caused confusion in the marketplace when trying to determine what the main differences are between companies that provide simple mobile forms vs. mobile business applications.

When most companies are investigating solutions they are looking for ways to eliminate the manual process of collecting information on paper. By eliminating the collection of data on paper, the business will be able to save costs, and ultimately increase profits. As an example let us assume that you are currently looking for a mobile software vendor to help eliminate paper from your field operations. You have completed your preliminary research and think you have found 2 companies that could be a potential fit.

The 2 companies you have found offer different solutions; one provides simple mobile forms and the other provides mobile business applications

Company A – Provides a mobile forms tool which enables you to re-create simple paper forms on a smartphone. This tool makes it easy to collect simple text based information using your smartphone when connected to the Internet.
MobileFrame – Provides a Mobile Business Application tool set which enables you to create, manage, deploy and support an infinite number of mobile business applications. This tool makes it easy to collect not only text based data but also rich data types including photo’s, barcode scans, voice notes, and can operate even when disconnected from the Internet. Meaning all associated business logic, data from your back-office systems is made available at all times even when working in remote locations.

Mobile Forms vs. Mobile Business Applications – What is the difference?

Collecting information using a mobile form is still a one-time event. Information is collected, saved, and transmitted back to the host system. Once completed, someone still needs to physically copy, calculate, or re-purpose the data for your business to receive any benefit.

In other words the means of collecting the information has simply changed formats, but the actual business process that needs to be completed (the one that is taking all of the time) is still manual.

Other common issues with this approach include the lack of the ability to collect data when disconnected from the Internet, control over the data format, scalability, device management, and peripheral support (barcode scans, photos, voice notes, rfid, etc.).

In contrast mobile business applications like the ones developed by MobileFrame, enable you to bi-directionally exchange information between multiple back office business systems (Accounting, Inventory Tracking, CRM, etc.) and the mobile workers in real time. These thick client mobile business applications embed all of the business logic, and necessary data into the database so the mobile worker is able to do their work without having to worry about connecting to the Internet. Mobile business applications also provide peripheral support making it possible to collect rich data types, and validating the data as it is being entered into the system. The best part is that once data is received by the back-office system, automated tasks can be set up to automatically process the data once it is received in real time.

Why selecting a Mobile Business Applications is the right decision:

Using a Mobile Business Application you are not only eliminating paper you are eliminating the administrative overhead, and manual data processing of information back at the office. Information is collected digitally, validated at the point of entry, and automatically entered into the other systems immediately once data is received back on the server. This means that your business will be able to run smoother, faster, and less expensively than ever before possible.

As takeaway from this article here are the 3 differences between mobile forms, and mobile business applications that you should remember.

Mobile Business Applications Provide Control
- Do you want an open, free text entry or do you want to ensure that the information has a level of control to it? Are phone numbers actually phone numbers or simply a combination of 10 digits? Are your addresses formatted correctly? There is no reason to electronically store information if it is not accurate and you lack control of what is captured. Garbage in – garbage out.
Mobile Business Applications are Integrated
- As you are fulfilling customer orders, you can automatically update your inventory tracking system, produce a mobile invoice, send it to your accounting program and update your CRM system in real-time with no additional effort. When your systems are talking to each other it saves you the time of duplicate (or triplicate) data entry.
Mobile Business Applications can run automatically
- Possibly the most powerful benefit of this type of system is the ability to DO something automatically as information is received. Your workflow can be simplified when it is automated. When you are running low on a particular part, your mobile system can update your ERP which can send an alert to the purchasing department and let them know it’s time to order more. Other additional benefits include leveraging management dashboards, customer self-service portals, and automatic delivery of daily productivity reports.

If you are interested in learning more about our award winning mobile enterprise application platform, please contact us today!

EuropEXpress chooses MobileFrame’s Proof of Delivery Solution

Danielle Mora — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:12:36 +0000

EuroExpress has selected a version of MobileFrame’s proof of delivery application. EuroExpress, a Europian based organization of haulers and couriers, will be using MobileFrame’s home delivery application for truck pickup inventory from a warehouse, then delivery and assembly of the furniture at the customer’s location. Prior to adopting MobileFrame’s platform, EuroExpress’ system for collecting such data was proven costly and ineffective. This is expected to be the first phase of a large deployment that will be rolled out as new warehouse distribution centers are loaded. With MobileFrame, EuroExpress will be able to utilize the latest mobility technologies to implement full-featured mobile proof of delivery applications that closely integrates with their existing Knighted Home Delivery backend system, guaranteeing them a huge ROI.

Although application development tools are commonplace, those tools require costly, time-consuming development to create business applications. Moreover, such business solutions tend to be inflexible, requiring expensive custom programming whenever business processes change. As business processes evolve, MobileFrame’s software provides users with unparalleled flexibility to create new mobile applications of any degree of complexity, incorporating any mix of business processes, and to make changes to those applications on-the-fly. With its flexibility and ease of use, MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility software will allow EuroExpress to quickly deploy their proof of delivery applications and make changes as needed, without time-consuming and expensive development efforts.

“Many wireless proof of delivery application systems fail because they are not able to accommodate the diverse needs of different vertical marketplaces. MobileFrame’s dominance in the proof of delivery vertical demonstrates the affordability and flexibility of our mobile technology to a large variety of businesses such as EuroExpress.”

— Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO

About EuropEXpress

EuropeEXpress is a European based organization with operations currently in Austria and Hungary. It is our mission to provide world class specialized logistic services in every Market that we enter. The leadership of our organization in each market has extensive experience in providing the highest level of services. We currently have offices in Hungary, Austria, Luxembourg and New York.

For more information visit: http://www.europexpress.com/

About MobileFrame

For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

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Contact:
Danielle M. Mora
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200
dmora@mobileframe.com

Sunstate Equipment selects MobileFrame’s platform

Danielle Mora — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:11:17 +0000

Sunstate Equipment has chosen MobileFrame in order to allow their individual drivers in the field to manage the pickup and delivery of heavy construction equipment. Prior to adopting MobileFrame’s platform, Sunstate Equipment was collecting data on paper and generating around 9 million paper forms. Sunstate Equipment is utilizing MobileFrame’s platform as a base-point in the process of eliminating these paper forms. MobileFrame is now helping Sunstate Equipment to go mobile. With MobileFrame, Sunstate Equipment will be able to utilize the latest mobility technologies to implement full-featured mobile work order applications with delivery time and signature capture that closely integrates with their existing Kronos, SQL backend system, and eliminates the need for manual data re-entry – guaranteeing them a huge ROI.

Although application development tools are commonplace, those tools require costly, time-consuming development to create business applications. Moreover, such business solutions tend to be inflexible, requiring expensive custom programming whenever business processes change. As business processes evolve, MobileFrame’s software provides users with unparalleled flexibility to create new mobile applications of any degree of complexity, incorporating any mix of business processes, and to make changes to those applications on-the-fly. With its flexibility and ease of use, MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility software will allow Sunstate Equipment to quickly deploy their mobile work order delivery time applications and make changes as needed, without time-consuming and expensive development efforts.

“Equipment rental companies like Sunstate Equipment can greatly impact their bottom-line through mobile automation to manage their pickup and delivery operations. They are also able to eliminate around 9 million pieces of paper. This is great news for Sunstate Equipment in the current economic climate and a big reason they are going mobile now.”

— Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO

About Sunstate Equipment

Sunstate Equipment has been providing construction, industrial and special event companies with construction rental tools and equipment for more than 33 years. Their reliable service and dedication have helped clients get their job done efficiently and safely. Renting a full line of quality, well-maintained construction equipment, from hand tools to heavy equipment, they have continued to grow from their Arizona home. With the trend for users to outsource their construction equipment rentals, Sunstate Equipment has successfully competed against the changing face of their competitors for over 30 years. Currently, they have equipment rental locations in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee.

For more information visit: http://www.sunstateequip.com/

About MobileFrame

For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

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Contact:
Thomas J. Laughlin
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200
tlaughlin@mobileframe.com

Snyder Security Group selects MobileFrame for proof of delivery

Danielle Mora — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:55:00 +0000

Snyder Security Group (SSG) has chosen MobileFrame to automate their proof of delivery because their customers are requiring better accountability and tracking. They also have a courier business that needs better control and visibility of their pickups and deliveries to provide better customer service. Prior to adopting MobileFrame’s platform, Snyder Security was collecting data on paper. This was highly inefficient and costly, leading Snyder Security to recognize the need for a robust mobility solution to make this process more efficient. MobileFrame is now automating them with both a proof of delivery dispatch app and a handheld app. Snyder Security recognized that MobileFrame’s unique full-featured platform was best suited to helping them automate their proof of delivery. With MobileFrame, Snyder Security will be able to utilize the latest mobility technologies to implement full-featured mobile work order applications that closely integrates with their existing Dos-based backend system, and eliminates the need for manual data re-entry – guaranteeing them a huge ROI.

Although application development tools are commonplace, those tools require costly, time-consuming development to create business applications. Moreover, such business solutions tend to be inflexible, requiring expensive custom programming whenever business processes change. As business processes evolve, MobileFrame’s software provides users with unparalleled flexibility to create new mobile applications of any degree of complexity, incorporating any mix of business processes, and to make changes to those applications on-the-fly. With its flexibility and ease of use, MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility software will allow Snyder Security to quickly deploy their mobile work order applications and make changes as needed, without time-consuming and expensive development efforts.

“MobileFrame’s configurable software makes it easy for any business to automate their operations. Snyder Security Group doesn’t have the time or resources to engage in labor intensive hard coded solutions. MobileFrame enables Snyder Security Group to automate any process without having to write a single line of code.”

— Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame CEO

About Snyder Security Group

Snyder Security Group (SSG) provides customized security services to a distinguished clientele through its several divisions each of which enjoys a remarkable reputation for its caliber of personnel, supervision and management response. SSG is proud of its history of continuing growth and success in the security industry.

For more information visit: http://www.snydersecurity.com

About MobileFrame

For more information, customers may contact MobileFrame directly at 1-408-885-1200 or visit our website at http://www.mobileframe.com.

# # #

Contact:
Thomas J. Laughlin
MobileFrame LLC
(408) 885-1200
tlaughlin@mobileframe.com

The Mobile Village Mobile Star Awards are here, and we need your help!

Patricia Oswalt — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:19:44 +0000

The Mobile Village Mobile Star Awards is a once a year contest where industry professionals cast their vote to recognize the companies with the best products, success stories, and vision within the mobile space. The aim is to increase awareness about mobility and to promote new technologies. With the help of our partners and customers, MobileFrame has consistently swept the competition in every category that we have entered since 2005. We would love to keep the streak alive!

This year we have entered the following categories:

Enterprise Software: Application Development
Enterprise Software: Asset Management
Enterprise Software: Data Capture / Database
Enterprise Software: Field Inspections or Service
Enterprise Software: Field Sales
Enterprise Software: Middleware

We would greatly appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete this online survey for us. Please copy and paste the following address into your browser http://www.mobilevillage.com/awards.htm then click on the VOTE HERE link at the top of the page. Thanks!

When Selecting Mobile Solutions, don’t leave any ROI on the Table.

Nick Hession — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:53:23 +0000

When investigating mobile software solutions every organization has to ask themselves the age old question: “Can I find something off the shelf to solve this problem?”

I invite you to consider the merits of evaluating an alternative approach before spending money on a solution.

FACT: Off the shelf mobile software solutions are developed by companies that identify some common problems in a specific market, then build a software solution that addresses some of those needs. This is also called a one size fits all approach.

PROBLEM: Here is where the problem lies; no two organizations even within a specific market operate in exactly the same way. The associated business logic that has made your organization successful can’t be incorporated into a boxed solution intended to fit the masses.

THE POINT: Don’t purchase a ‘one size fits no one’ product since it will provide only some of the needed functionality to your organization. The ability to configure and define how your solution looks, feels, and operates based on your organization’s best practices will provide a much more substantial ROI, and will solve the problem for which it was intended. As a bonus, our custom software solution can also be reconfigured to accommodate changes as business conditions dictate.

MobileFrame’s Configurable Mobile Application allows you to have a custom app with no custom programming required. If you would like to learn more about how we do it, please contact us today. We can show you how other customers in similar positions have made the decision to go with MobileFrame and have realized incredible returns.

Contact Us | Phone: 208.577.6179 | Email: Nhession@MobileFrame.com

Barcode Asset Inspection – Challenge Accepted

Nick Hession — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:41:02 +0000

Here at MobileFrame we are pretty good at solving the problem of paper in the field. In this case we had a customer come to us with a very simple yet, annoying problem.

Here’s the current process:

Write the Barcode from the asset on a sheet of paper
Indicate if it passed or failed inspection
If the asset failed, indicate why

They were having problems with

The wrong asset tag information being captured (Transcription Error)
Forgetting to indicate why the inspection failed
Not turning in required paperwork in a timely fashion
Duplication of data back at the office.

Here is the application that I developed in under 1 hour that was able to address these problems with 100% data accuracy, and real time information sharing. If you would like to learn more about MobileFrame please contact us today.