Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group
Mobilisation has been top of the agenda this year, for those considering how to improve the service operation. The Service Management journal commissioned research into some of the basic issues to examine general thinking on the subject and what has been put into practice. The research was designed to answer some of the questions most commonly asked by service managers and directors wanting to investigate the "noise" behind mobile solutions.
The first question asked − "When considering a service management solution did they consider using a mobile solution in conjunction?" Not surprisingly, considering the publicity surrounding mobile solutions, nearly 80% of respondents were considering the use of a mobile solution. The reasons were many and varied but predominantly stemmed from a desire to explore the aspect of rapid access to data information from the field, coupled with closer communication with field staff. Some even cited the aspect of improving health and safety for their field staff and some raised the potential value of being able to monitor engineers. Of the 20% not taking a mobile solution into consideration, the usual excuse was that mobile solutions were not properly developed or integrated into the type of solutions they were considering or they did not want to further complicate the implementation process and saw mobile solutions as another cost on an already costly project.
These answers and the very strong positive response prompted the second question: "How has your opinion of the value of a mobile solution changed over the last 12 months?" In this case 60% said they assessed a value increase over the last 12 months, and attributed this to both marketing by the suppliers and their own networking with peers. Software companies push the value of the solutions, ensuring that they include a mobilisation solution in their offering, although concern was expressed about some of these offerings being more "fluff than content". More interestingly and significant was the experience of peers in other companies already using or researching into mobile solutions, and their positive comments.
This article is accessible for registered visitors only.
You can register here
Registered users can tell Noventum about which subjects they would like to receive email.
Without previous permission data will not be used by others.
