Data Mobility: Taking business critical information into the field
Data Mobility is a software application solutions provider that was formed three years ago by Simon Thomas,
technical director and Steve Lishman, commercial
director. The company was created with the express intention of specialising in mobile applications for the construction and utilities markets.
itwales.com chatted to Steve Lishman, who comments, "We have been able to carry out a great deal of research and development in the area of field force automation closely assisted and supported
by Swansea University and the Welsh Development Agency. Due to connections with these organisations we have also developed solutions in other industry sectors. One of the more interesting of
these is a solution in use by 150 sales engineers servicing vending machines. We also have an application in use by the old Milk Marketing Board that has 250 mobile field workers recording artificial
insemination data amongst cow herds for audit and accountability purposes."
Located at Technium on Swansea's new area of development, Data Mobility's first involvement with mobile applications for construction site reporting was in 1997 when it was asked by a leading
London based project management company, Mace, to help it flag up defects on the new GlaxoSmithkline World headquarters development.
After this basic 'snag management' system had been successfully implemented, it was then rolled out to a number of other sites throughout the UK. This solution was recently demonstrated at last year's
IT Construction Best Practice exhibition where it was voted as one of the top two most user friendly applications. Data Mobility is currently working on providing Mace with a fully networked solution for
use on the Terminal Five Heathrow contract.
Data Mobility has a collaboration agreement with one of the largest construction companies in Europe. The relationship is designed to assist their limited IT resources in the development of mobile data
capture applications such as health and safety, site diaries and quality control.
The company is also one of the founder members of the DTI funded COMIT, (Applications of Mobile Computing Technologies in Construction), giving the first community member presentation on the
opening day in September 2003.
Lishman adds, "We are currently involved with the construction applications working party whose main goal is to consult all aspects of the industry regarding the best policies and methods to ease
adoption of handheld mobile computing by the industry."
"Mobile wireless devices and communications are delivering the most radical changes to information collection and distribution technology that have occurred in a decade and are an essential
component of a real-time enterprise strategy."
ITW: What's unique/outstanding about the products/services you provide?
SL: Our expertise is concentrated on handheld occasionally connected solutions and we have gained considerable experience in mobile application middleware and development tools for the Palm OS
and Windows CE platforms. We have evaluated or used most of the major connectivity middleware tools such as those from Aether, Pumatech, Synchrologic, Extended Systems, Avant Go and Aligo,
integrating mobile systems to our own and to our client's legacy systems. We have also used mobile management tools from companies such as Aether and Xcellenet.
We have a wide range of knowledge on the hardware devices used in handheld computing solutions so that we are in a position to make informed recommendations as to device and platform
choice.
ITW: What one piece of technology has benefited your company the most?
SL: The development of Windows Mobile software by Microsoft.
Windows Mobile software is a rich and powerful platform for deploying mobile solutions. Windows Mobile software has enabled our developers to utilise their existing PC and .NET programming skills
and enabled Data Mobility to extend our clients' existing systems in a manageable, scaleable manner.
With Windows Mobile software, data can be captured more quickly and accurately and processed to a business system more rapidly than paper-based approaches. In addition, multiple devices,
such as walkie talkies, pagers, cell phones and PDAs, can be converged into one multi-functioning Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC Phone or Smartphone.
The result is that Windows Mobile-based business solutions help increase employee productivity and customer response rates while reducing business cycles and, ultimately, costs.
ITW: What one piece of advice would you give to start up companies in your field?
SL: Never rest on your laurels, always look to constantly improve your products by keeping abreast with the latest technologies. Always give your clients added value; if they are spending £100 with
you, give them £150 worth of return.
ITW:
What's been the key to your success?
SL: Being able to completely understand the business processes involved in our targeted vertical markets to enable us to deliver clearly defined benefits to our clients.
ITW: Where do you see your company going in the future?
SL:
Since the end of last July, Data Mobility has been working on a solution for a large West Country contractor that deals with civil work in partnership with all of the major water utility companies,
including Yorkshire Water, Severn Trent, Wessex Water and South West Water.
The requirement came about because of the recent huge capital investment in the UK's water utilities infrastructure, and the need to track that investment. This organisation uses mobile data capture
for maintenance reporting, and follows up actions on reported remedial work as well as scheduling and billing of reported information directly into their main database systems.
This application is being written for use on Psion Netpads running Windows CE and will be ready for implementation in April.
We are also currently creating a trial for a major Highways Agency contractor to record data into a mobile version of their own in-house ERP/MRP system.
Contacts
Data Mobility
Tel: 01792 602 070
E-mail: slishman@datamobility.co.uk
Web: http://www.datamobility.co.uk/
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