GPRS in action
GPRS keeps copier technicians on the page
When your income depends on keeping customer equipment up and running, every minute counts. That's why GPRS has become critical to the business of imaging giant Fuji Xerox, which took advantage of a recent notebook PC upgrade to improve communication with field engineers using a modern mobility infrastructure.
Under the terms of its finance agreements, many of the company's customers pay a flat fee per page printed, with Fuji Xerox responsible for reading the meter and keeping the systems up and running. This task is handled by a dedicated team of more than 400 customer service representatives, who spend their days onsite at customer premises around the country.
Years ago, Fuji Xerox had implemented a rudimentary mobile connection for those technicians, using Telstra's DataTac network to provide effective, albeit slow, links to technician notebook PCs. Earlier this year, it had become clear that the notebooks needed replacing; at the same time, Fuji Xerox moved to retire its DataTac investment in favour of a faster and more reliable GPRS service from SingTel Optus.
With the new system in place, technicians use Bluetooth-equipped Ericsson T39 mobile phones to connect with Bluetooth cards installed in their new Compaq Evo notebooks. The connection provides an interface for FIRES (Field Information and REporting System), the company's internal client-side support application, which feeds into its primary Geac System21 enterprise business management system.
This approach gives field engineers full visibility into the day's job schedule, technical manuals about Fuji Xerox equipment, a view of on-hand inventory, and other resources. For example, they can instantly query the Fuji Xerox system to get a complete service history of any machine they're working for; in many cases, this information lets them walk onto the customer premises with the right part in hand.
-Everybody is immediately up to date with what's going on around the country," says Andrew Taylor, business and systems support manager in Fuji Xerox's Customer Service Operations business unit. -They remain fully interactive with our main enterprise system, and if a customer rings up to find the technician, the call centre can tell them exactly where he is. The success of this absolutely depends on technicians carrying this with them everywhere they go."
The system also allows the technicians to fill in the forms necessary to close off jobs, a task that used to be done by calling into a central dispatcher to ensure all necessary data had been lodged correctly. FIRES, on the other hand, automatically checks that entered data is correct. Since the GPRS system went live, says Taylor, the proportion of jobs closed without dispatcher involvement has increased from around 50 percent to more than 90 percent. That means technicians can finish one job, choose the nearest callout from an onscreen list, and automatically dispatch themselves to that job.
With more than 20,000 service calls a month, even small time savings can make a big difference for Fuji Xerox. Given the positive response to its GPRS-based FIRES interface, the company is currently developing FIRES Lightâ€"a slimmed-down version that will speed the process of filling in forms for the company's -valet service", which drops off dozens of replacement units at customer premises every week. Valets will use GPRS-equipped HP iPaqs to complete relevant forms online, significantly increasing their delivery rate without bogging them down in paperwork.
-It's got all sorts of positive implications," says Taylor. -It really is the next step in providing that efficient link where we're taking information and using it in a practical, positive, instantaneous way. It's definitely improved the way we service our customers."
-There is no such thing as a killer app in the wireless space. There is no application that's going to change your business and make you more profitable."
GPRS: a dynamic solution for freight handler
When you've got more than 70 drivers traversing the Melbourne area, it can get pretty tricky keeping track of them all. For freight handler Dynamic Transport Group, the Thales Telematics Orchid system and global positioning system (GPS) transmitters had long tracked the movement of its trucks. But in June, the company went a step further with a GPRS-based mobile computing solution that's revolutionised its workflow and driver communications.
The delivery process has traditionally been extremely paper-intensive, with a variety of forms tracking each shipment's progress from sender to recipient. There were forms for booking pickup times, registering customer signatures when the shipment is delivered, and many other documents. All had to be archived and made available to customers, with considerable manual effort, when needed.
Since drivers spend all of their time in the field, it made sense for DTG to give them access to key office systems while on the road. Working with mobile application provider iTouch and vertical integrator Supply Chain Systems, the company this year put together a new driver system consisting of a ruggedised Symbol Technologies PDA and Ericsson T39 mobile phone connected to Vodafone's GPRS network. The PDA connects to the phone using an infrared connection, with the devices held in place using a custom leather case.
Using the PDA, drivers now have access to the company's internal supply chain system just as they would at a fixed desktop. Drivers receive a list of jobs and all relevant details, and use the PDA stylus to enter details and capture customer signatures when the shipments are delivered. The system has increased data entry accuracy, eliminate double-handling of information, and saves drivers an average of 20 minutes on paperwork--translating into around $2.20â€"per consignment.
Because the system is integrated with DTG's Web-based front end, it allows the company's customers to instantly check on the status of a shipment and view the recipient's signature if the shipment has already been delivered.
This self-service capability reduces the burden on DTG to present customers with paper proof of delivery (POD) documents, crucial for the company to demonstrate it had fulfilled its contractual requirements. In the past, retrieving a single POD could take a worker up to an hour; with everything online, PODs are retrieved in seconds.
DTG spent around $250,000 on software, integrating the mobile technology with its own system thanks to well-documented source code. IT manager William Lorchirachoonkul says the system has delivered -enormous" cost benefits and will be introduced into time-sensitive business units (for example, courier deliveries and perishable deliveries) now that GPRS has proven itself to be a viable solution.
-The vision of having a mobile device for drivers was there many years ago, but we were looking at GPRS last year but knew it was early days," he says. -But now that the system is in place, turnaround time is a lot faster, and accountability is there. Most companies with PDAs aren't really real-time, but with the GPRS technology it's all in real time. If you think how much this costs versus moving pieces of paper, the benefits are clear."
Although the GPRS solution has already paid off handsomely, Lorchirachoonkul is eager to explore the new possibilities it presents. For example, the system will soon be extended into the company's warehouse and inventory management systems, and WAP support is on the cards. Even 3G will have its place once it goes live: drivers could use it, for example, to photograph damaged cargo and lodge insurance claims right from the field.
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