The first question to ask is who in your organization is
using a mobile device?
Warehouse personnel
Management personnel
Sales team
What are they using it for?
There are many different uses for mobile devices. The warehouse staff might use their mobile
devices to receive text instructions that direct activities. The management team might want summary
information on sales, shipments, etc.
The sales team might want to know what has been shipped and to
whom. The list of users and purposes
will be different for every company.
It is usually a mistake to assume that you know the
answer to these questions. It is a
useful and productive process to ask people in your company what they use
mobile devices for currently, and what they would like to use them for in the
future.
There are legitimate data security issues, of
course. But, by finding out who is doing
what and what they would like to do in the future you don’t commit yourself to
exposing your data incautiously. But you
will create a user’s wish list worthy of serious consideration. Security and other issues can be considered
later, after the wish list has been created.
What features ought to be built into your system design
to optimize the utility for users of handheld devices?
Clearly, one advantage is that each handheld device is
used by one person. Individualized
information and instructions can be transmitted to warehouse staff. Management and sales reports can be customized
according to the needs of each individual user.
Queries can be customized so that a minimum of data entry is required to
access specific information on particular customers, or products. These are
decisions that must be made during the system design stage. They are decisions that can only be made
after determining what your employees currently do with their handheld devices
and what they would like to be able to do in the future. The best ideas often come from the people
that are performing the activities every day.
They can identify opportunities for efficiency improvement. A few seconds of improved efficiency per
employee, multiplied by your entire staff, will translate into big savings for
your company.
Handheld devices may not actually be held in anybody’s
hand. Truly hands-free devices may be
voice activated and provide auditory information. Does your operation require this
capability? If so, how can your system
be designed to translate text to voice instructions, and how are those voice
instructions integrated into the information maintained by your system?
Does your system facilitate different languages? Regardless of how the information is received
and distributed throughout your operation, it is useless unless it is
understandable by the person with the mobile device. Can your system translate information to
Spanish? Vietnamese? What are your requirements? How can this be planned into the system?
How scalable is your system? Does it have the capacity to communicate with
an unlimited number of mobile devices?
The architecture of your system and the hardware (or cloud-based)
infrastructure must be planned at the very earliest stages to ensure that the
system can be scaled indefinitely in the future.
Is your system “intelligent?” Is there a functionality to adapt the system
to the individual needs of the user? Do
changes to the information output require expensive and time-consuming
interface with your software supplier?
Is you system designed so that your in-house IT personnel can adapt and
modify the system to ensure that the output is configured to the optimal use by
each employee with access to the system?
Does the warehouse worker need the same output as the CFO?
Have you designed output to give executives the key data needed
to make business decisions and immediately spot trends? Do your customers have access to the
information they need to know? Can your
vendors view your inventory and usage levels so that they can help you
anticipate supply requirements? Do your
sales and customer service personnel have the necessary information to be
jealous customer advocates? All of these
requirements ought to be identified and planned before a system is selected, or
designed.
Some of these observations may seem unrelated to the
topic of designing a mobile-friendly system.
They are not. Each of the areas
outlined above have unique and special requirements to be effectively used in a
mobile device environment. The future is
here. Mobile devices will become more
prevalent and effective. Screen
resolution and eyeglass monitor technology will offer us a whole new world of
access to data unencumbered by the physical restraints of desktop
technology. Build your system to be
optimally mobile-friendly today and as this technology inevitably arrives, the
adaption to new and more powerful tools will be simplified and accelerated.
We’re here to help you understand the opportunities and
the potential pitfalls.
We’re Avectous Integrated Software.
Take Control.
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TEL. (714) 656-2898 | info@avectous.com
http://avectous.com
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