MobileFrame Blog » Deployment

Mobility does not have to be a science project

Patricia Oswalt — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:04:22 +0000

For the past 20 years organizations that have implemented mobile software solutions have found that in order to be successful they had to become subject matter experts in mobile computing. This is in addition to figuring out how to cobble together software components from different vendors in order to ensure a successful deployment.

In fact during a recent meeting with a prospective client we discussed this very topic. During our discussion he said that when his team was implementing their legacy mobile solution in 2003, they had to learn about a variety of technologies related to mobile computing.

Including:

• Application Development
• Database Replication
• Data Deployment
• Application Deployment
• User Authentication
• Device Security
• Mobile Peripherals
• Device Drivers
• Mobile Printing
• and the list goes on…

Furthermore he said that even though his team went through the pain of learning about mobility they still had to rely on a custom application vendor to build their hard coded mobile solution from scratch, and then maintain it. This came at a great cost, and ultimately the developed solution was deemed good enough, and has not been touched since. This “good enough” approach left a number of nice to have features and functionality on the table and negatively impacted the return on investment of the entire project.

The good news for this customer and for any other organization looking to implement a mobile solution is that MobileFrame has solved this problem. We bring together all of the tools needed to ensure a successful mobile deployment across every department, on every device, throughout your entire organization. And, you can do all of this without becoming a mobile computing expert. Furthermore, because our solution is end user configurable, our customers do not have to rely on us to maintain, develop, or enhance their applications. This allows companies the means to control their own environment, lowers total cost of ownership, and provides a quick return on investment.

Some of the tools we provide out of the box include:

If you are interested in learning how other organizations just like yours have eliminated the guess work and have freed themselves from the cost, headaches, and confusion of implementing a mobile solution please contact us today.

Why don’t businesses value mobile computing like they value office based computing?

Nick Hession — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:15:09 +0000

I was chatting with one of our valued partners today, and we got into a very interesting discussion regarding the adoption of field based mobile computing. It appears as if we have both stumbled upon the same problem. The apparent disconnect between automating office based paper processes, and field based paper processes. This discussion really made me think.

“Why don’t businesses value mobile computing like they value office based computing?”

For years companies have been using computers in the office to aid in the functions necessary to run the daily operations of the business.

For Example:

Bookkeeping / Accounting
AR / AP
Payroll
E-mail
Customer Activity Tracking
Sales Performance Tracking
Resource Scheduling
Creating, assigning, and closing Work Orders
Ordering Parts
Updating Spreadsheets
Etc.

Could you imagine if each of these various office based functions were on paper and needed to be managed the same way field data is? As odd as it seems, it appears that these organizations just haven’t thought about the benefits of extending the reach of their many business systems out into the field. Mobile applications, specifically those built using MobileFrame, have the capability to easily extend the data contained in each of these systems to the mobile worker. Once the information is received the mobile worker is able to interact with the data to make better decisions faster, and with minimal impact to the office staff. Increasing the productivity of the Mobile Worker is just one of the areas mobile computing can assist an organization.

Here are some of the other benefits of Mobile Computing:

Increase number of jobs performed, customers visited, etc
Eliminate redundant manual data entry and data transcription errors, reducing clerical data entry costs
Provide real-time access to data in the field, ensuring workers have the information they need, when they need it
Reduce invoice and accounts receivable lag time
Improve customer service
Increase time spent in the field by eliminating the need to return to the office to complete paperwork
Increase efficiency and productivity of field workers

If those bullet points didn’t capture your attention, how does eliminating 7000 sheets of paper on a weekly basis sound? Miller Pipeline sure didn’t mind.

To learn more about how Mobile Computing can help your business reach new levels, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to show you how Mobile Computing can make a difference to your service based organization.

The 30 minute Real Time Hospital Meal Selection Application! (Watch the Video)

Nick Hession — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:48:11 +0000

I was recently at a technology related tradeshow and was approached by a very intrigued sales person that works for one of the major rugged handset manufacturers. He said MobileFrame sounds great BUT he wanted some specifics on what types of apps we can deploy, specifically for hospitals. I initially answered him and rattled off many of our advanced capabilities… 100% Code Free, GPS Mapping and Tracking, Mobile Device Management, Real-Time Instant Messaging, etc.

As the conversation progressed he just didn’t believe that our solution could really be that easy to use. I asked him to come back in 30 minutes to see what I could come up with. I was up to the challenge, so I quickly created an application for taking meal orders from patients in the hospital. The app allows you to enter the room number, select the main course, side orders, dessert, notate any specific dietary concerns and then synchronize the order back to the office in real time. When the rep came back and I showed him the following video (See below), he couldn’t believe that I was able to get the done and deployed to the device in 30 minutes. So, I have an opportunity for you.

If you would like to see for yourself, please challenge us. Send us your paper forms and we will build your custom application and demo it to you live on your very first phone call.

Rapid Application Development Environments

Nick Hession — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:52:03 +0000

Rapid Application Development Environments

This topic always generates a lot of discussion, so I’m sure this time will be no different. First let’s start with the definition.

Rapid Application Development – refers to a type of software development methodology that involves techniques like iterative development and software prototyping. Essentially it is a development style that favors incremental development with constant feedback from the end user. This development process is repeated until the application has been perfected and meets the needs of the user. Many organizations have found that Rapid Application Development or RAD is a fantastic idea, but is requires advanced tools to make this approach a reality. This is where companies like MobileFrame come into the picture.

In order to “Rapidly Develop Applications” it becomes necessary to provide functionality out of the box, to make the development effort easier.

Some of the things MobileFrame does to make it easier to go mobile include:

Drag and Drop Screen Design – Design your mobile application logic once, and deploy to multiple different Operating Systems
Drag and Drop Print Designer – Create Print layouts in Minutes, and not weeks.
Printer Driver Bundling – Printer Drivers are bundled in, no need to pick a specific printer
Device Driver Auto Recognition – We are plug and play across a wide variety of different devices, and can support mixed device deployments, with no extra effort
User Administration – Users can authenticate against their current usernames / passwords, and IT can lock down the device to keep the network safe
Peripheral Integration – We Support RFID, GPS, Barcode (1d, 2d), Magnetic Stripe Scanning, Photo Capture, Photo Annotation, Drawing, Speech to Text, Digital Signature Capture, Printing, Barcode Printing, plus much more
Backend System Integration – Out of the box hooks into any ODBC or OLEDB compliant data source including (SQL, Oracle, DB2, SAP, Sybase, etc.)
Synchronization Management – Fail proof sync engine, with the ability to prioritize which networks you would like to sync over first
Mobile Device Management – Remote Device Management out in the field, with the ability to take administrative control
Enterprise Application Management – Update Applications, Client Software, and third party applications over the air, no need to collect the device from the field
Multiple Language Support – Create business logic once, deploy to any number of languages. No need to write and support a 2^nd code base
Plus many more.

The Mobile Software Development Market is full of companies that claim to have Rapid Application Development Environments, with easy to use development tools, which can be used to assist organizations to design, develop, and deploy mobile applications. And while I can’t speak for other companies that claim to have easy to use tool sets, I can tell you that at MobileFrame the average project from Design / Scope to Deployment is usually 3-4 weeks, and includes integrations with multiple different back-end systems. With this kind of turnaround many of our customers call our environment a Rapid Deployment toolset, instead of a Rapid Application Development Environment.

In fact, the system is so easy to use that all of our sales reps can show how to build custom mobile applications from scratch, make changes to the application on the fly per the user’s request, deploy them out to the device wirelessly and perform a live integration… all on the very first phone call with a prospect.

So the next time that you are investigating different tools to help you go mobile, don’t just think about Rapid Application Development, think about Rapid Deployment.

If you are interested in seeing how MobileFrame is able to create custom mobile applications with no custom programming required, contact us today.