Feb-March 2003

The successful deployment of a mobile field service application for its own workforce (m.logistics, Issue 4) has encouraged Siemens to join forces with O2 to offer end-to- end mobility solutions to other sectors. Features of their package will include technology choice, business consultancy, application development, systems integration and airtime solutions.

In the original system, Siemens designed and developed the mobile application while O2 delivered the GPRS airtime and network management. This is the formula the two companies plant to offer to other businesses. O2's UK GSM network comprises over 9,000 base stations, including GPRS capability, and covers over 99 per cent of the population and 90 per cent of the UK by land area.

Siemens Communications says the adoption of its mobile application for several hundred of its own field engineers is now delivering £1 million in cost savings through efficiency gains and a reduction in the duplication of administrative tasks and phone calls.