The biggest challenge of introducing electronic mobile working is not technological but human. Mobile professionals in face to face meetings or site visits require forms and processes that work in the way that they do and are easy and reliable to use.
Too many mobile initiatives fail because of the tendency to impose solutions on users that are not aligned with the realities of the mobile working process.
Some of the common issues are:
- Having to enter data into multiple screens (typical of systems designed for office use) is not practical in front of a client.
- Relying on constant real-time connectivity remains problematic as mobile professionals will not accept lost or slow connections when working face to face with clients.
- Scripted work processes and/or processes with extensive mandatory fields tend to cause operational difficulties for face to face meetings as clients like to have natural interactions (as opposed to regimented interactions) and there are always unforeseen circumstances which require the mobile professional to have flexibility.
Utilising Tablet PCs, the latest handwriting recognition and biometric signature technology our Fascia mobile working environment is almost as intuitive and flexible as pen and paper. It is designed so that mobile professionals can do all their tasks (e.g. work processes, scheduling, letter generation, etc...) and have access to their professional reference materials all through our easy to use interface.
Data capture is streamlined (using our pen input panel, driven by business logic) but the mobile professional always has the flexibility to jump around the form(s) and drive the process to meet their client's needs.
Critically the full system is always available, even if an online connection is unavailable or unsatisfactory due to low bandwidth or signal strength.
Fascia runs in .Net and has been built to be highly resilient to user errors or application bugs so that users can be very confident of completing their work processes without problems; even if the computer encounters a serious issue data collected up to that point is automatically saved.
While our key focus is on meeting the real life requirements of system users (so they feel ownership
of the system and start acting as business change agents) we have not neglected the corporate requirements for security, scalability, agile development, efficient user support and enterprise solutions capability. For example we provide local administrators with the facility to publish
changes to forms, letters, etc... via web services; we use the same facility to deliver program enhancements, etc... This provides a fast and reliable way of evolving the system and knowing that all users are using the latest version. For more information on our technology contact us.