Feb/March 2007

If you thought automated mobile job scheduling systems were complex and expensive, and were best left to the big users, it's time to take another look. Affordable and highly capable systems are now within your reach. Sharon Clancy reports

The companies who develop job scheduling and optimisation applications have a new mission: to convince smaller service companies there is merit in mobile data and job scheduling engines. Having sorted out the complexities of scheduling for large organisations, they have turned their attention to the more numerous small and medium-sized service business.

In some ways, this is natural progression. After all, there are only so many big projects out there with thousands of engineers. There is a far broader potential customer base of companies with fifty or 100 engineers.

The applications themselves have become easier to deploy, with basic off-the-shelf applications suitable for a wide variety of sectors. There's minimal customising, and easier integration with back-office systems - thanks to the latest generation of Web-enabled applications. Web-based software reduces costs and complexity and allows specialist software providers to team up with one another and simplify the whole process for companies without an in-house IT expert.

Going generic

The established enterprise-based job scheduling systems were designed to serve specific market segments such as engineering tasks in the water industry. Underlining that point, Laurent Otacéhé, managing director of 360 Technologies, explains: 'To add functionality such as mobile data, another specialist vendor would be required, and to add scheduling yet another.'

In the past, these complicated infrastructure projects typically took many months to procure and years to manage, develop and deploy, Otacéhé says, often turning out to be very different from what was originally intended. 'This complexity and subsequent expense meant that scheduling software used to be the preserve of large organisations with hundreds or thousands of engineers dealing with large batches of service calls, meter reads or managed maintenance.

'Today, by contrast, scheduling is a piece of the modern service delivery puzzle,' he says, 'and increasingly a standard request-for-information item for bidders for mobility projects. Scheduling software is no longer beyond the reach of smaller organisations with say fewer than fifty engineers.'

Another factor is that the service sector is increasingly competitive, and a competitor who has adopted an optimisation and mobile data solution has more control over costs than a rival who is relying on a paper-based solution. 'The adoption of new technologies has become mandatory for businesses determined to succeed and survive,' says Otacéhé.

Getting started

Small and medium-sized companies will still need some convincing of course - in much the same way that small logistics companies still need persuading that vehicle tracking and route and load optimisation can improve their bottom line. Many fear, for example, that switching to an electronic scheduling and mobile data system will cause more upheaval in the business than can be justified by the return on investment.

Rafe Aldridge, technical director for Codegate, has some reassuring words on that front. 'Some back-end systems have evolved over many years, and to insist on changes to those processes to enable mobility is not only very expensive and costly in terms of ROI, it will also cause massive upheaval in the company. Our approach is to try and integrate the application into customer's existing back-end applications.'

He advises making sure that the back-end systems are functioning properly before attempting to mobilise the work flow. 'Unless the back-end application is robust, the mobile element will fall apart.' However, that's not as daunting as at first it might seem, he says. 'It is possible to convert paper-based forms and systems into electronic format and then to mobilise that electronic data.'

Allocation, allocation

Job scheduling requirements generally fall into two categories. In the first, it is a question of matching the resource available (the number of engineers) with those customers requiring service (maintenance calls or collection or deliveries) and fitting the work into a given time frame (a day or a week, for example). The software waits for the data inputs on these various items and then calculates the most efficient schedule.

The second category is dynamic scheduling, where response to live events is required (as in the courier sector, for example). Here the solution is to establish parameters such as geographic areas, costings, service-level agreement priorities and skill levels, and then use drag-and-drop applications to match mobile workers with tasks.

Which suits best may well be determined by the type of mobile operation. 'Courier work is a different scheduling task from sending jobs to a mobile engineer,' points out Aldridge of Codegate. 'With courier scheduling the criteria include speed of despatching the job and acceptance of it, and real-time updates on worker position and job progress. There's no demand for large data files.

'Engineers, however, may want access to large data files such as customer history or an engineering diagram at the press of the button. At the same time the operation is less sensitive to the device falling out of connection for short periods or for fast updates on job progress.' Aldridge recommends building in flexibility to maximise benefits. 'Engineers can be given not just a daily work schedule, but also the schedule for the next few days. If they finish the day's jobs early and it is convenient for the customer, they can fit another job in, especially if it is close to their current position.'

The latest generation of job scheduling software recognises these subtle differences in scheduling demands. That's why companies such as Codegate, for example, package together the key components in one application. Mobile Courier expressly targets the courier marker, while Mobile Worker is more generic.

Courier systems have always relieved heavily on real-time mobile data transfers between workers and the office. Scheduling demands range from allocating all the jobs in one area to a single courier to simply finding the nearest couriers to a pickup point. DA Systems' latest application, ACI.net Systems, takes scheduling a stage further by allowing customers to book their own jobs directly automatically on to a courier's ACI scheduling application (see Product Evaluation, page 24).

The application allows more visible integration (by incorporating the courier's own logo, for example) and will drive efficiencies both in job allocation and in the back office. 'Company-to-company interfaces will be very important in delivering the next round of operational savings,' says DA Systems' managing director, Dave Upton.

'The downside is that there is less day-to-day contact with the customers. However, that's down to CRM strategy. You can always invest the time taken out of entering bookings and checking progress in other CRM areas.'

Client self-booking reduces errors, especially in the embedded version, claims Upton. 'It is ideal for high-volume clients with hundreds of bookings a day because the all-important job reference is created automatically at the point of entry by the courier company's own customer. This carries through to invoicing and reporting, where electronic invoices in PDF format can be sent directly to clients.'

With the job schedule and Web front-end, it is now possible to share data with customers. Tracking and POD queries can be swiftly resolved because customers can see the audit trail for themselves.

Early job scheduling applications did not always involve a tracking element, but most of today's offerings do. In the case of engineers in remote locations, this can add a valuable element of lone worker protection, but more companies are also realising that in today's unpredictable work world, with its often-tough SLA targets, adjustments to pre-planned job schedules are increasingly likely. Once you have tracking, satellite navigation becomes a cheap add-on.

Satnav is fast becoming a no-brainer in many scheduling applications, says Aldridge. 'Many managers developing a mobile scheduling solution reject satellite navigation as a toy. As more devices get GPS built in at very little extra cost, however, it will become almost standard.' Satnav costs as little as £1 per week for a Web-based system, he points out, 'and even if you only use it once a month, this may ensure you comply with an SLA, in which case it has paid for itself.'

Messaging is another useful tool that some job scheduling applications incorporate. It can save pounds, as you send broadcast one message to all the devices in the network, rather than sending individual SMSs.

XML freedom

The XML open data standard has made it easier for companies with specialist skills in the mobile data sector to partner with each other and offer out-of-the-box solutions. 'Modern systems architecture has opened up the integration market,' says Laurent Otacéhé. 'It has become easier for vendors to collaborate and work with published XML schemas in order to integrate their software offerings. This means for example that a mobile data supplier can offer scheduling as part and parcel of its overall portfolio - and at a price that makes the buying decision much easier.'

360 Technologies Dynamic Scheduling is a good case in point. It uses the most up-to-date algorithms, built and developed from experience gained over many years in the emergency services sector. 360 DSE is available as a stand-alone 'box' for use with other systems, but because it is built using service oriented architecture it is also easy to integrate and to Web-enable.

Data travelling to and from the field is sent via a Web browser interface. The scheduling component is fully integrated, and in theory is just as capable as the on-premises option, but without the overhead. These systems enable companies to be up and running in a matter of weeks with much reduced risk and expenditure than with traditional solutions. Being Web-enabled allows 360 DSE to be pre-integrated with other Web-based hosted systems such as a mobile data system.

SAAS (software as a service) systems are gaining ground in the service sector because they make integration with existing back end service management systems straightforward. Managed mobile service provider Cognito, for example, has integrated 360's scheduling and optimisation application into its service offering. 'Mobile data and scheduling work hand in hand,' points out Steve Alderson, Cognito's managing director.

'With 360 we feel that the established product credentials, modern Web-based architecture and the development team's record of continually improving their scheduling engine will serve us well in the future.'