Nov/Dec 2005

Managed services can benefit both small and large companies in deploying mobile IT. Sharon Clancy considers why it can pay to let the supplier take the strain

When you consider the various elements required to implement and manage a mobile workforce application, it is easy to understand the appeal of a hosted or managed service.

Apart from deciding the appropriate data and voice communications network, you need to consider hardware and application management, integration with back-end systems, security issues, remote upgrades and trouble-shooting.

For mission-critical operations, the mobile application needs to be robust. After all, once the business processes become dependent on real-time access to mobile data, it will no longer be possible to fall back to paper methods to resolve a connectivity crisis.

 

Managed services are already providing the backbone for spreading real-time mobile technology into a wide variety of market sectors. Companies in field service have been leading adopters in this arena, along with those in the courier and express parcels industry. The ability to "push" jobs out to dispersed, often self-employed drivers has proved beneficial for companies, drivers and customers. All the drivers have needed is a PDA-style mobile device to receive, accept and return job data.

Web-based managed services have also played a role in the logistics arena - providing the opportunity for Internet-based tracking and remote downloading of vehicle telematics data, which users then access from a Web site.

Getting mobile data out to the field in real time may look seamless, but under the surface the technology is quite complex. "The applications make it seem seamless. Managed services are the glue that holds the hardware, software and communication elements together." So says Steve Alderson, managing director of Cognito.

Managed solution providers say they can pass on the cost benefits of economies of scale and expertise. With a managed system, smaller companies get the same service as larger ones, as they all connect into the same network.

"A managed service can bring mobility to the smallest organisation," says Lindsay Kennedy, managing director of Telepartner Systems. "A managed platform shares the costs of the technology and support services among all the users, but at the same time there is a virtual wall separating your data from that of our other customers."

Kennedy says a managed service also allows companies to extend the use of mobile technology through the company at their own pace. "Building applications can be done quickly over the Web - there are no application set-up or installation costs, and you don't start paying until the application has been deployed. With a bespoke system you have to build the system before you start to deploy it. The managed option provides a good medium for trialling applications."

A managed solution supplier can even help smooth the transition to mobile working, says Cognito's Alderson, pointing out that any new technology will mean new learning curves and acceptance issues, and that ongoing support is a key, given that not all workers start on the same day.

All the managed service providers point out that although GPRS is now a mature technology and works well most of the time, it is not totally invulnerable. Organisations that rely on real-time communications need a back-up system in case there are network issues, whether it be in terms of coverage or latency.

This is where the much-publicised push technology solutions come into their own. Unlike pull technology which relies on the mobile user to "pull" down data, push technology uses software that automatically establishes a connection and pushes the message out to the mobile device. And it will keep trying until the message is received. So messages can be sent out to the field even if the user is not connected at the time, and managers can check whether engineers have received the latest information.

According to Steve Alderson, the always-connected attraction of GPRS meant some early adopters ignored other potential deployment issues. "GPRS was seen as a panacea for many of the issues relating to getting information to mobile field workers. Some of the other issues were sidelined, but that doesn't mean they went away. "

Chief among these, says Alderson, is the need to manage what he calls the dirty day-to-day issues: the operational requirements in managing a mobile workforce - issues such as who you are going to contact to report that data is not getting through.

Some managed services still major on real-time data and voice management aspects. Other suppliers, especially in the field service sector, are expanding their businesses to include the management of hardware, applications and the other elements essential in running a mobile business successfully.

Cognito's Activus and Telepartner's ServiceNet are just two. As well as ensuring real-time data gets through, these companies take responsibility for managing all the other elements, eliminating many of the hidden costs which can be incurred when deploying and managing an in-house service. That can range from handset management to back-office integration and audit trails for service-level agreements.

A big advantage of integrated managed services is that if something goes wrong, the service host can act as a single point of contact to liaise with all the various parties involved. There may be several reasons a user cannot connect to the office, and identifying the cause is the first problem. "The user doesn't know why he can't get data through, all he knows is that he can't," points out Alderson. "Many companies don't have the in-house skills and resources to deal with these situations."

Integrated services are not designed just for small companies, however. Increasingly they are also being promoted as suitable for helping larger organisations deploy and manage mobile applications.

For example, multinational companies that may have complex connectivity issues are being targeted by US company Antenna, which has just opened a European base in Reading, and already hosts enterprise mobility services for various multinational companies including Pitney Bowes.

"The growth of CRM over the past decade has trained people to expect that the engineer or company rep making field calls will have all of their customer history and details on tap. But it is only through robust mobilisation of business applications that this becomes possible," points out chief executive and founder Peter Semmelhack.

Having been a field service operations director, Semmelhack is well aware of some of the issues that can crop up at the sharp end of the business. "Too many organisations get hung up on the question of what device or channel of communication to use. What a specialist mobility provider such as Antenna does is ensure that information is communicated to the engineer via any device or network. If the message can't get through via the normal channel, we will re-route the message via SMS, or by text-to-speech."

Mobilisation is not always about squeezing data on to a PDA, points out Semmelhack. "Sometimes traditional communications technologies, including land lines, are the most effective route to get time-critical messages to your people in the field."

One feature offered by managed services - full audit reporting - is particularly attractive to larger companies who must meet strict service levels agreements or face compliance issues. Deployment can be faster too.

"Compared with an in-house customised deployment, a managed service allows you to cut through both the development costs and the steps required to make it happen," says Telepartner's Lindsay Kennedy.

Alderson of Cognito points out that a managed service can eliminate the need to increase IT resources to handle deployment and ongoing management. "Mobile device models are changed rapidly, and even a unit that was new six months ago may no longer be available. That raises issues for items such as cradles and chargers."

Managed service providers acquire a lot of statistical information that they can feed back to customers to identify any issues or problems. Drilling down allows them to analyse data transmissions on a regional, time and individual-user basis, helping identify whether the problem is a network coverage issue, for example, or an operational one.

Cognito will even tell users when subscribed devices are not being used. "That might mean a lost subscription, but our view is that it is part of our role in helping companies manage their mobile business effectively."

Managed services are also seen as a way for multinational organisations to simplify the route to a pan-European solution. Both Cognito and Telepartner now have continental partners.

Web-based services make mobile technology affordable for smaller companies, so like many other mobile applications, managed services are migrating to the Web. ServiceNet, for example, is Telepartner's pay-as-you-go subscription service, and offers a fully managed field service solution for a monthly fee, which can also include the mobile airtime agreement. The only up-front capital costs are those of the mobile device supplied to each engineer.

ServiceNet users can even schedule jobs dynamically via the Web site now that Telepartner has added 360 Technologies' dynamic scheduling and resource optimisation software to its offering.

With Impact's Response Web-based service, you can even pay per transaction: it comes out to 90p per incident or £220 per monthly subscription. There is no minimum contract, and Impact has negotiated deals with hardware and network service providers.

Impact specialises in workforce mobilisation for local authority building maintenance and services. Its Web-based service is designed to bring a council's smaller contractors into the real-time data net by making it affordable for them to sign up. They can manage their own jobs and stocks online, and as far as the local authority is concerned, the jobs are despatched electronically from the council's own service to Impact's.

"The scheme reduces the risks for smaller contractors because they don't have to worry about whether investment in a mobile data solution is going to bring them in more work," says managing director Martin Taylor. "

Companies worried about service levels achievable with a Web-based application should take comfort from Impact, whose Response service application is entirely Web-based, yet which comes with a 99.7 per cent uptime guarantee.

Aspective is best known as the supplier of the ViryaNet mobile workforce service hub. Now it has added a hosted service to its portfolio, aimed at small- to mid-sized companies and based around Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 CRM solution. Aspective says it will be available for as few as ten users, with costs of around £60 per user per month.

Aspective says some customers prefer to start off in a hosted environment but retain the ability to take the solution on-premise if their business needs change. For such customers, it has developed an Interim Hosting option that gives them access to hosted Microsoft CRM for a set period of time, after which, if they are ready, they can take the system on-premise. The transition cost is already included, so customers can budget correctly.

Some data dedicated networks such as Transcomm's offer a mid-way house between a managed service and managed communications. Transcomm built its reputation for managed data services via the Mobitex fixed radio transmitter network. Since it became part of the BT group in 2004, it has added managed GPRS to its portfolio. Transcomm says GPRS extends the benefits of a managed service to customers for whom Mobitex is too restrictive. It is adding APN, multiple data links for access to GPRS networks and secure Internet connections protected by firewalls, authentication services and virtual private networks. The GPRS service is with Vodafone.

Surveying the field

A survey by Antenna of UK companies with field service workforces revealed some interesting statistics.

• 22% admitted data applications had taken longer to mobilise than originally expected.
• 22% were using a field service application developed in-house.
• 11% of those who had already deployed service application cited lack of experience as a major hurdle.
• 29% said application integration was a major "pain point".
• 37% said network reliability was a key challenge.
• 56% had provided workers with Microsoft Pocket PC devices.
• 23% had provided Blackberry units.
• 19% had deployed Palm handhelds.
• 18% were using SAP.
• 18% were using Oracle.
• 23% had used boutique software.
• 23% said user adoption was a major hurdle to successful mobilisation of data applications.
• 88% of companies said their mobility deployment had been successful.