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

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RFID or Radio Frequency Identification is a technology that involves the use of a tag that is applied or incorporated into a product or asset to help identify and track the item using Radio Waves. There are many different types of tags and associated readers available on the market today. It’s now common for organizations to not only look for ways to eliminate field based paper processes but to also think past bar-coding as well.

Here is a good example, you employ a team of 100+ Sales representatives that are in charge of doing inventory counts at customer locations (Think big box retailers) and the inventory needs to be 100% be accurate. The current solution involves the process of manually scanning 100′s if not 1000′s of products while at the customer’s site. No matter how diligent you are this can be a time consuming and error prone task. How do you solve the problem? Hire more sales people? Invest in better, faster scanners? Buy your sales reps memberships to the local gym so they can move faster? A great alternative would be to create an RFID based system. Read the rest of this entry »

I had an awesome discussion today with a potential client that is interested in converting his current paper based inspection process into electronic format.   He was very enthusiastic about the prospect of getting rid of the mountain of paper in his office.  His enthusiasm got me thinking about not only the benefits of eliminating paper but ALSO the benefits of embedded business logic.   For example:  if an inspection failed he could require that his inspectors collect information about why it failed, capture  a picture of the damage or issue, maybe even record a voice note and associate it with the inspection. Read the rest of this entry »