BT Business Moving business in a smarter direction. How mobility solutions are helping businesses meet customer demands for better service - and more.
Contents Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 5 Page 6 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Executive summary The potential to be more productive Meet consumer demand Transform and get the edge Good service is now a business basic Adaptation is better for business all round High-value benefits for low-cost investment Improve productivity Reduce costs Protect your business and your staff The cost perception Innovation for better business agility Conclusion
3 Imagine the scenario. An important package is being delivered. The sender is using Sat Nav to find the quickest and most fuel-efficient route and mobile communications to keep the recipient informed of arrival time. But this isn t a courier working for a well-equipped corporation. This is an individual delivering a birthday present. The fact is, consumers experience the benefits of mobile technology every day. While many organisations are employing these advancements to improve their performance and meet customer demand, some businesses are yet to take full advantage of mobile technology solutions Executive summary. Mobile communications have transformed our lives. But has the consumer revolution in mobile technology left some businesses behind? The benefits smart phones or mobile devices bring to consumers haven t been translated into business services at the same pace. For customers this can represent a frustrating or incomprehensible lack of service. For businesses the failure to embrace new mobile communications solutions can render them less effective, less efficient, more expensive to run, less green and less able to look after their workers. Fortunately mobile solutions to transform business exist. From better appointment scheduling to tracking lone workers. From cutting out tedious paperwork to helping with vehicle performance analysis. Major telecoms players such as BT have shown just how effective the right mobile strategy can be by rolling it out to their own workforce. Now BT and others are using their experience to do the same for organisations of all sizes. Innovative software providers are developing increasingly sophisticated ways to measure, monitor and track workers and assets. And hardware producers are incorporating the best features from the consumer market and making them relevant to business services. This paper will explore this in more detail, and more specifically: The growing expectations of consumers The pressures on business to consider new ways of working The benefits of mobility solutions, including how you can: Improve customer service Ensure a safer and therefore more productive workforce Implement greater efficiency and reduced operating costs The barriers to acceptance and how businesses can overcome these.
4 The potential to be more productive. For many businesses the perceptions of the cost or complexity of the introduction of new technologies are a barrier. Others may simply be unaware of the potential mobile solutions offer. Currently providers and manufacturers face the challenge of communicating the benefits and proving the return on investment, but as take up grows, the advantages offered by mobile solutions are becoming much more widely understood. Meet consumer demand. As consumers, we re all much more aware of mobile technology and the potential it offers. We use the technology at our disposal in a wide variety of ways: from GPS that helps us navigate new locations, to mobile web that pulls up the best restaurant on arrival. Not surprisingly, we expect businesses to match this level of capability. But, as Neil Laidler, Head of Mobile Solutions at BT points out, There has been a flip over. Previously business was the biggest market for devices, now it s consumers. You use to get a mobile phone because your business bought you one. Now consumer phones are the ones that get built. So consumer technology is leading development. A typical challenge. For Giles Kirkham, IT Manger at Space Engineering Services Limited, the shift has been an inevitable move as they look to adopt the technology to help them match customer expectations. With around 500 engineers nationwide to manage, they invest in a large number of devices. Originally they used a PDA linked to a Bluetooth phone to dial in for jobs. When Space Engineering wanted to move to a more sophisticated solution the market had moved from PDAs to smart phones but these lacked the screen size the company needed and were feature rich in a way that wasn t of any use to the engineers. Their challenge was to balance features they needed with practical use.
5 Transform and get the edge. The expectation on all businesses to offer improved service is fuelled by those already enhancing their customers experience. Once a customer s expectation is raised, they expect all businesses to offer a similar, if not better, service level. Think of it as a circle of delivery and expectation: Customer frustration leads to service improvement OR a business identifies an opportunity to get ahead of the competition Businesses adopt new mobile solutions to offer a better experience New service levels lead customers to expect more from every business More businesses have to adopt the technology to compete. When a business like Ocado is able to tell you a delivery time, refine that time nearer the appointment, contact you ahead of delivery to make sure you re ready, and tell you whether you have any substitutes, that puts pressure on other businesses to offer the same high standards. Good service is now a business basic. It s hardly news that poor service affects a business s reputation. But with a huge number of channels for customers to complain publicly, the pressure to give good service is rising. Feedback ratings on sites like Amazon and Facebook, or rants on user forums, put a very public face on what used to be an issue only seen by customer service. Consumers are helping each other, some 37% of respondents contribute to online reviews like Trip Advisor, and 51% said they trust online customer forums more than an organisation s website. The Autonomous Customer White Paper, BT 2010 In short, there is a growing expectation for all companies to offer higher levels of service. The good news is that service-focused mobile solutions can help any size of business do that at a low cost. Customer Frustration Business Change Successful businesses fuel customer expectations Higher expectation Improved Service
6 Adaptation is better for business all round. Customer expectation of better service isn t the only pressure driving businesses towards more sophisticated mobile solutions. Fuel costs. Rising costs in all areas, but particularly for fuel, are making businesses look at options to cut expenditure. Not so long ago fuel was a good deal cheaper and mobile devices were more expensive. Now the relationship is quite different. Soaring fuel costs and falling device prices have put the savings offered by mobility solutions in an impressive light. Regulatory pressure. Regulation will drive certain aspects of the market too. Recent significant legislation such as Duty of Care and Corporate Manslaughter bills has brought responsibility for lone workers to the fore and is driving the need for companies to re-evaluate how they approach lone worker solutions. Speed of change. Speed of change is another factor. BT s Laidler says, the new feature-rich world of mobile communications has blossomed in the last 4-5 years. We haven t been buying from Amazon and their likes for long but if you ask people, they can t remember what is was like before - when service wasn t this good. And that means businesses can be left behind very quickly. High-value benefits for low-cost investment. The range of opportunities for mobile communications to improve business efficiency and service is highly diverse. Solutions compromise: A field worker and/or vehicle with a connected mobile device Software that performs a business process or need A back office system or central control system that helps ensure the efficient running of the business systems from a central point (usually head office). There are three main areas where mobility solutions make an impact: 1. Moving paper to PDA. By removing tedious paperwork from field workers and replicating the process on a PDA, businesses can cut down on needless entries, wasted journeys, missed appointments. Not only does this remove paper from the equation but the process is handled in real time, and integrated with the back office. 2. Tracking. While many businesses use Sat Nav and its associated features, new mobility solutions bring a whole new dimension to tracking and telemetry (remote measuring and reporting). In the one device, businesses can track the vehicle and the user, look at driving behaviour, improve fuel efficiency and analyse vehicle performance. 3. Lone worker. Looking after your most valuable asset, your people, has never been easier. New lone worker mobile solutions monitor behaviour, track movement and launch an emergency response. With Duty of Care and Corporate Manslaughter legislation they ve become crucial to many businesses.
7 Improved service and care = an improved bottom line. We ve already identified the pressures a business faces to meet the service needs of a modern customer, and how the right mobile solution can help match those expectations. But these solutions can also enable an organisation to dramatically increase the productivity and welfare of its workforce, while helping to cut costs. Improve productivity. Mobile communications allow businesses to keep customers updated and tell them exactly when to expect service or delivery, and they enable companies to process their orders more efficiently. With the right scheduling software businesses can also make sure their field workforce are working as productively and effectively as possible. For Space Engineering the story was similar. New, rugged Motorola devices withstand the tough in the field environments that might damage a regular handheld device, while giving constant real time information to the company s scheduling software. So instead of engineers dialing in and cherry picking the jobs they most like the look of, Space Engineering know who s nearest and who s best suited, cutting back on overtime considerably. The customer perception of the business has improved as a result. Instead of taking three or four visits to fix a refrigeration unit because engineers with the wrong skill sets had picked the job, Space Engineering are more likely to fix the problem first time with the right engineer. Productivity increases by 20%. Solution in action Anglian Home Improvements had to manage 65 engineers over 25 depots spread around the country. Andy Browne, Communications Manager says: we had more jobs to deal with but it wasn t cost-efficient for us to employ more engineers. We needed to find a way to make more effective use of the people we had. Anglian solved the problem with a mobility solution comprising a centrally hosted job allocation application feeding information to handheld mobile computers. Browne says, the improved real time communications with our service engineers really helped boost productivity. We could save engineers time by avoiding the need to travel to the depot every day to pick up paperwork. Also, with dynamic job allocation, we could minimise travel time. As a result the number of jobs completed by each service engineer per day has increased by an average of around 20 per cent.
8 Reduce costs. With fuel costs averaging 6.00 per gallon anything a business can do to cut journeys or improve performance is going to help. A combination of better scheduling and vehicle tracking and performance monitoring can dramatically reduce fuel costs. Jan O Hara formed Talecom to develop software that transformed communication with and for remote workers by supplying intelligent and reliable wireless solutions, One of our customers installed a tracking solution, vehicle black box telemetry. They achieved savings through reducing headcount and reduced their mileage claimed by 30%. Now we have a driver behaviour capability that can look at harsh braking, cornering and save another 20% on fuel. A key advantage of mobility solutions is that they represent a low cost way to implement a service, tailored to the business, implemented on a small scale and rolled out quickly. And rather than pay piecemeal for different technologies and services (Sat Nav, camera, mobile etc) a set monthly fee makes it easier to budget and costs less. The idea that this technology is simply for larger corporates is no longer true. In fact, the true virtue of mobility solutions is that they apply to companies of all sizes as they are completely scalable to an organisations needs. Protect your business and your staff. With more and more workers working off site it s vital to offer the same cover extended to workers onsite. Despite legislation such as the Duty of Care Act or Corporate Manslaughter, businesses are often unaware of their responsibilities. Lone worker monitoring can be used in a variety of situations from estate agents to those in dangerous situations. The solutions can be used to track workers, monitor response, and even launch emergency services. Also a lone worker solution can link to technology advantageous to your business by being able to know exactly where your field workers are at any given time. Increased efficiency and legal compliance. Solution in action When Northumbrian Water needed a more efficient way of managing its scattered mobile workers, it turned to BT for help. Handheld mobile devices enabled field engineers to save an average of 40 minutes every day in paperwork. The solution has also enabled more efficient work allocation and rapid schedule updates. In addition, the utility can now easily comply with the European Working Time Directive. Lone workers now have added reassurance they are being better looked after, tracked and have the potential to raise an alarm instantly if they are in trouble. This peace of mind has helped increase field worker productivity.
9 The cost perception. Most organisations are still only playing on the fringes, unwilling or unable to translate increased access to mobile devices into real and sustainable business advantage. Paul Taylor in the FT. Businesses not taking advantage of new mobility solutions often believe that because it s IT based it will be complex or expensive. Or they may be unaware of the potential benefits, not realising how simple it is to make the technology appropriate to their needs. This is especially true in the lone worker space. But the truth is that businesses looking to survive, let alone grow, need to embrace mobility solutions or risk being left behind. Jan O Hara says, Barriers to entry traditionally were cost of hardware, cost of application design. In their mind the cost of deploying something like this has always been very expensive. Their customers wouldn t pay them more so they haven t pushed ahead. Too complex? Neil Laidler says, People looking at mobility solutions think: long development, long-time, big costs. And nobody likes change. In fact mobility solutions are simple to implement. They can be started on a small scale, for just a few people, before being rolled out on a wider basis. Any issues with integration went away about five years ago according to O Hara: nothing plugged together correctly. To try and make it work was expensive. For example, a global parcel delivery service spent millions and it still didn t work. Interfaces and connectivity have made that problem go away. To overcome resistance to change, businesses need to tailor their applications to replicate their paper process - follow the existing business logic and adoption is a lot faster. If you introduce change and different business logic, adoption takes time. Demonstrating a positive ROI. Solution in action Neil Laidler says BT commonly have to counter the idea that because it s IT there s a cost for this, that and the other, which eventually mount up to 500-1000 a day. The truth is that mobility solutions are cost effective and quick to demonstrate ROI. The technology has changed: software is now developed quickly and integrates easily so you are never left behind. It s extremely cost effective. In fact, some customers are enjoying the benefits of these mobility solutions from as little as 3 a day and that includes device, application, service and airtime. For Anglian Home Improvements the return on investment and benefits were soon realised. They started with 9 field workers trialing the solution. A third party came to ratify how well it was working and discovered the 9 workers had saved 130,000. The solution was rolled out to 70-80 more workers and saved a further 1.3 million.
10 The fear of getting it wrong. Despite the clear benefits, it takes an experienced provider to create the right solution. Take the case of a well-known windscreen repair company who recently went into receivership partly because they got their mobility solution wrong. The evidence showed their scheduling system had been sending repair vehicles in Coventry to London and vice versa resulting in unsustainable costs. Fortunately, mobility solutions are relatively straightforward to trial and roll out. BT worked with Anglian Home Improvements who got it right by trialing Talecom s Wireless service using its own field workers. Innovation for better business agility. The future for mobility solutions is positive but to unlock the true potential providers must generate a volume of users in different industries. Not only will this allow them to take advantage of greater economies of scale and thereby offer reduced prices for the customer, but it will also enhance the evolution of mobile solutions as providers respond to differing challenges within each industry. Jan O Hara is confident, we ve seen a massive increase in companies looking at this kind of technology. Once people realise what s out in the market and the price it s available at we ll see take up in much larger volumes. More features. Business devices will inevitably become richer in features as they rapidly gain ground on the consumer market. Already manufacturers are looking at more sophisticated Sat Nav that displays pictures of buildings to help identify locations. Not far away are tablet style devices that use blueprint site plans and video streaming support to help engineers complete the job. Another development will be the increasing use of embedded chip technology: a radio frequency tag embedded in an object to give a constant feed of data. For example, a chip in a van tyre can track pressure and wear, feed the information to the business, which can then use the information to get better performance and fuel economy from the vehicle. Or it may simply be a case of realising more of the existing functionality in devices. When Space Engineering ordered their ruggedized Motorola devices they had no requirement for web or email. However, increasingly their engineers want to use these features. Fortunately their devices already have the potential for these web services built in to them, all Space Engineering have to do is enable them. We launched into the courier market in 2003, in 2 years businesses were patently more competitive and now it s a requirement in tenders to have this technology. It s not that way in all industries yet but it s happening.
11 Conclusion. Mobility solutions are transforming the way businesses offer their customers better service. Thanks to the cost efficiencies and simple to implement technologies, these service offerings are no longer just the province of the largest corporate enterprises. Businesses of all sizes can improve their offering, save costs and care for their workers more easily than ever through low cost, monthly rental schemes that bring mobility solutions within reach of any organisation. The challenge for service providers is to build understanding of the benefits to the wider business community. By breaking down the misconceptions of IT costs and painful implementation, it should be possible to create a greater volume of users that will in turn dispel any notions of inaccessibility. The greater drivers to change though will be the pressure of customer expectation, rising fuel costs and increasing regulation. Providers such as BT are using their experience to help businesses cope with these issues through smarter technology and smarter services. For service providers the need to build volume is paramount and they can only do that by making solutions easy to buy, easy to understand, easy to use and without hidden costs. And that has to be good for everybody. Mobility solutions can help you: Re-define your customer expectations to create a point of difference Reduce your costs Improve your productivity Generate advocates, through happy customers, who will open a pipe line of new potential. Find out more For more information contact your BT account manager directly PHME 62362