September 2002

Anker, a Dutch-based retail IT company, wanted a single, centrally-controlled communications system to manage a pan-European field service network. This is how it achieved its objective

Mobilising a UK-based field service network is a daunting enough prospect. Implementing it across a European network is even more complex: but not impossible, as Dutch retail IT specialist Anker is proving.

Anker provides IT solutions for shopping - wherever, whenever or however that shopping takes place. It specialises in pan-European cross-country retail projects, bringing together customised software, hardware and communications facilities. In the UK Anker is particularly strong in the speciality retail sector, supplying its Power range of software for point-of-sale and back office applications to high-street chains such as Signet, Oddbins, Rosebys, BT Shops and Electronics Boutique Stores Group. By contrast, in Germany Anker has a high penetration in the food sector.

Retail customers range from German flower shops and supermarkets, Danish theme parks and ferries to DIY networks in France. The company has an impressive customer base which includes many of Europe's top retailers - Aldi, Carrefour-Promodès, Centre E Leclerc, Groupement des Mousquetaires (Intermarché), Groupe Agapes, Harrods and Migros.

Anker has 750 engineers working in 11 countries, and the service infrastructure has to match the 24 hours a day, seven days a week trading of its customers. The support service includes a help desk, and software support including remote diagnosis, fault-fixing, technical support and field engineers.

The service operation is already centralised. Interchange's Servasure Service Management application is run across a wide area network, providing pan-European access to local country call centres. However, until this year the operation was voice-based. The engineers used low-cost handheld devices with potential for voice and data transmission, using them over localised GSM networks.

Now, however, Anker has embarked on an ambitious project to improve its efficiency still further and deliver real-time information to customers via a pan-European mobile data network. And a key to this was a centrally-managed field despatch solution, which would allow job despatch, progress reporting and closure of a number of different field engineering tasks. In addition, the solution had to be capable of being rolled out right across Europe, providing both resilience and scalability.

To achieve all this, Anker has teamed up with mobile data specialist Telepartner Systems, whose Despatcher 9000 application is specifically designed for the new generation of smart mobile telephones such as the Nokia 9110 Communicator. With this, field despatch software, mobile phone and field terminal can be combined in one unit.

Anker wasn't put off by the idea of giving its engineers high-specification Nokia GSM-enabled phones rather than field service terminals. The company sees them not as a luxury, but as a positive benefit. As Telepartner's Andy Sale explains: "Buying country-specific devices ensures the handsets connect in the country of origin and are in a language easily understood by the user. All we had to do was localise the Telepartner software." Eventually the units will be able to handle data on job despatch, progress reporting and closure of field service tasks, as well as ordinary voice communication throughout Europe via GSM networks.

In common with Telepartner's other mobile products, Despatcher 9000 is built using a SAFS mobile applications server, with a configurable forms-based application on the Communicator itself.

Anker already operates an Interchange Servasure field service despatch server in Bolton, so Telepartner has interfaced a Mercury Mobile Application Management Server with this to handle the data communications. "We adopt an 'if-it's-not-broke-don't-fix-it' approach," says Andy Sale. "It is not always necessary to start from scratch when implementing a mobile data network."

The Mercury server is linked to individual Mercury communications servers in each European country via Anker's existing wide area network. Each localised Mercury unit then routes the transmission to the field engineer's smart phone via localised GSM networks. A major benefit of the solution is that the Mercury system has intelligent routing capabilities, and so will find an alternative communications route in every country should the preferred network fail, maintaining the links with engineers.

In day-to-day operations, working job alerts are sent to each engineer's smart phone, triggering the devices to connect to localised Mercury units to retrieve job information on a job-by-job basis. The Telepartner software on each device configures the data that has been sent, enabling the device to handle a wide variety of different service tasks encountered by the Anker field engineers.

Reporting and closure is a simple step-through procedure. The Mercury network actually updates the Servasure server in Bolton in real time. Once a job is closed, a new job alert can be sent to the smart phone to start the process again. "In our experience, single-job notification rather than batch downloads is the most productive and flexible way of controlling field resources," says Doug Hargrove, Anker Group Services director.

The new application was fully tested in the UK early this year, and is now being rolled out across Europe. Holland and Germany have already gone live, and the system is currently being deployed in France.

Eventually Anker plans to enhance the system by adding applications such as barcode reading, engineer location tracking and a parts enquiry facility.

Doug Hargrove says the Telepartner solution is an important element of the Anker Group's pan-European service strategy, which involves installing one system, one process and one management structure in each of the company's 11 operating countries.

"The mobile data solution is integral to ensuring that the right support information is available to our European field service resource quickly and efficiently, and that the real-time call status is available to Anker's central support resource," he says. In due course, he adds, the data will be available directly to customers over the Internet.