• Endless Professional Services Cycles (i.e. Development) – One company said that they have been trying to get their pilot started for the last year and a half. They’ve spent $100,000+ on Software and another $40,000+ on Hardware.  The hardware is still sitting in a corner collecting dust.
• Difficult to use Development Environments – Some of these groups purchased development environments that claimed to be easy to use. They weren’t. This naturally lead to issue #1 which is the need to pay for a lot of money for Professional Services.
• Lack of Product Documentation – This is something that most people don’t think about until its too late, but ALL of the organizations with failed implementations said that the lack of product  documentation (how to’s, wiki’s, frequently asked questions, installer guides,  etc.) rendered the already difficult to use Development Environment useless, which lead to the need to pay for Professional Services…
• Hidden Costs – one customer told me he thought that the provider he chose to develop his application was going to be the perfect fit – relatively affordable, solid, great product vision, and support.  However, when he needed to make a very simple change to his application (i.e. changing the label on a text box, and increasing the size of buttons), he was charged with 40 hours of development time.

If any of the above describes your organization I have good news….. MobileFrame can help you. Our development environment is easy to use.  Don’t believe me? Challenge us, send us your paper form, and we’ll build your application and demo it to you live on our very first phone call. Additionally, our professional services group has thousands of successful mobile implementations under their belts and can deliver your pilot in 2-4 weeks.  Not to mention we have a full suite of product related documentation, sample apps, online training, and support.  With the MobileFrame Platform, your company has the power to make changes to your application with our 100% code free mobile computing environment and deploy the changes out to the field in minutes. There are never any hidden costs and no need to pay us to make changes to your application.

If you are interested in having MobileFrame help you salvage your mobile project, contact us today!

The article did a good job of pointing out many of the limitations of mobile operating systems, including the lack of the ability to print out of the box, lack of bundled drivers, etc. While it is true that mobile printing isn’t native functionality to Windows CE, Windows Mobile, etc. It is native functionality inside of MobileFrame. In fact our customers don’t need to plan for the use of mobile printing; they can create new print layouts in minutes, and deploy them to field in seconds, all without the need to write a single line of code, or contact us for development. And, MobileFrame supports over 450 mobile printers out-of-the-box.

We’ve done the work to bundle print drivers, and allow users to easily create print layouts via our drag and drop GUI interface;  this eliminates the guesswork, and gives you the benefit of not having to worry about paying for someone to code a print layout.

If you would like to see a live demonstration of our capabilities, feel free to fill out this form, and we will schedule a time to chat.  Don’t forget to follow us on twitter http://www.twitter.com/MobileFrame

In fact we challenge prospective customers to provide their most difficult business processes and mobile application workflows and we’ll automate them in MobileFrame in real-time.  All of our sales reps build and demo unique custom mobile applications every day.  Our sales reps have no programming knowledge or special capabilities. Our technology was designed to eliminate coding, much like Excel was designed to allow users to manipulate spreadsheets without resorting to writing scripts or SQL queries against a database.

With MobileFrame anything that can be automated using coding tools or SDK’s can be done without requiring any programming knowledge or coding whatsoever. We’ll build the unique custom mobile application from scratch, integrate it to any ODBC backend database, and deploy it to the device live in real-time, and then make changes to the application on-the-fly.  Ask any mobile solution provider who offers “configurable applications” to do that in real-time and you’ll see just how quickly the hype turns into excuses.  I know there is a lot of skepticism in the market which has been driven by many mobility companies with flawed technology, but at MobileFrame we don’t just tell you, we’ll show you.

Over the past several years I’ve witnessed many organizations travel down the same path, they focus almost 100% of their energies on incorporating mobile technology into their business, but fail to think about the full lifecycle of the project.  This kind of thinking is usually characterized by questions such as:

• What should phase 1 include?
• What should my workflow look like?
• What kinds of reports do we need?

These are all very important questions and should definitely be discussed BUT just thinking about the application itself and not the full lifecycle of the project is a recipe for disaster.   Here are a couple of things to think about:

• How do I roll out application updates?
• Do I need to re-compile the application and have it re-installed for every update?
• Will the device need to come back in from the field?
• What happens if the user is having a problem with his device?
• How can I troubleshoot the device remotely?
• How can I control which applications are installed on which devices?
• Which user has what device?

These questions and many others need to be answered before you deploy an application to the field.  Planning ahead and considering the full lifecycle of your mobile project, as well as partnering with a company that specializes in mobility will ensure a smooth and successful roll out.

For more info about MobileFrame and our MDM capabilities, request an online demo or contact us directly.

Phone: 408.885.1200  Email: Sales@MobileFrame.com

1. How is this application, and others developed?  What level of technical expertise is required to write applications, make changes to current apps and to manage updates?  Would our team be able make changes to the application with no coding required?
2. What kinds of mobile computers are supported?  What happens if you have some users that want a windows mobile device and others that would prefer laptops, tablet pc’s or desktops?  What kind of cost is associated with each different device supported?  Can I capture digital signatures, scan barcodes, take photos and capture GPS data these different devices?   Are there separate installers for each of them?
3. What happens with the backend data that is constantly changing, like work order assignments, inventory levels, etc?  How do the mobile workers get the data?  Is it an automated process?
4. What are my out of the box integration options with different backend systems?
5. What happens when there is no Internet connection on the mobile device?
6. Can I remotely manage a device while it is out in the field? Does the solution allow for remote control of devices? Can I get stats of each device such as memory usage, database size, etc?
7. What happens if a worker is synchronizing data and the connection gets dropped?
8. Can I track my mobile workers in real-time on a map?
9. Does the solution allow for real-time instant messaging? Can I view the logs of all messages sent and received?
10. Do I have to manually upgrade each device if the vendor issues a new release of their software or can this be managed remotely?

There are just some of the many questions that organizations interesting in mobility should consider.  To receive our answers to these questions, and a free mobility assessment, please contact us directly.

Email sales@mobileframe.com or call (408) 885-1200

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