The mobile workforce must live up to its name and have the ability to execute their jobs wherever they are. As a consequence, it is vital to provide that workforce the proper tools. If you are considering to take action in this domain, it is important to understand that there are some challenges to overcome.
1)Digitize Information on the Go
There are still a lot of organizations and institutes that equip there field force with only pen and paper. As a result, reports, contracts or any other data-capturing document are written manually and must be entered in the system manually. If a field worker had the possibility to enter information in the system immediately in an easy manner, he would be able to spend more in time in the field than in the office.
2)Get Correct Information Quickly
It is important to offer a better experience than pen and paper to convince the field force to replace those with a mobile solution. If the app helps in getting correct information more quickly, you’re on the right track.
Typical functionalities you might need are:
- Support for reading electronic identity cards (like the Belgian e-id card)
- Intelligent guidance. For example show & hide parts based on its relevancy or auto complete form fields based on previous selections.
- Use of GPS coordinates to prefill the form
- Use of the date & time to prefill the form
3.Include Evidence
At some point in time, every field worker needs to capture some evidence. Two examples. For sales representatives, this can be a better proposal from a competitor. For insurance claim assessors, this can be evidence of damage.
To be able to capture this evidence, integration with the camera of the tablet is the functionality you are looking for! The field worker takes a picture of the evidence and the evidence is included in the form.
4.Use Available Information
In a paper world, a field worker starts with a blank form, but this is not the best approach in a mobile and digital world. Available information should be gathered from your existing applications (such as case management software, planning software or workflow systems) and pushed to mobile. For most companies, this requires integration with on premises software applications and data sources.
5.Share New Information
Captured information in the field typically leads to new follow-up actions. The sooner the information is made available for other software applications, the sooner a follow-up action can be triggered. Therefore it is important to share the information as quickly as possible. Again, for most companies, this requires integration with on premises software applications.
6.Secure Access
The information that is gathered by the field worker can be sensitive, may contain personal details, which much be treated with care. Therefore it is of utmost importance that a solution in this area must be secure. Secure connections and encrypted data are the functionalities you are looking for in this domain.
7.Data Connection Everywhere
Pen and paper work everywhere. So should a mobile solution. A lack of data connectivity may not hinder the field worker to do his job. Therefore it is important that the mobile solution can work in offline mode.
8.Signature
Often captured information must be confirmed by a third party (a customer, an inspected party etc.) A good way to tackle this requirement is to require a signature. Depending on the requirements you could decide to use a visual signature field or integration with and electronic identity card reader.
9. Visualize & Distribute Data
Often it is necessary to visualize and distribute the data that is captured by the field worker. Think about a sales representative that completes a contract together with a customer. The (signed) contract must be delivered to the customer via the channel he prefers (postal service, email, portal etc.) and the organization the sales representative works for, wants to keep a copy in his or her archive. This highlights the importance of the integration with a customer communications platform.
10.Let Paper Go
It happens in digitization projects that people don’t spend enough time on rethinking the paper forms to web or mobile forms. I advise not to start from the paper form to design your mobile form. Start from scratch. And get into the user’s mind. What are the logical steps to complete the form? What input is relevant when? When to suggest information? This is the only way to gain the highest benefits from your mobile forms!
Contact for Solution@ sales@fieldmi.com or Call: +91-9021836764
