An increasing number of companies are choosing to improve the efficiency of their field operations by deploying mobile technology throughout their workforce. Unfortunately, as these companies rush to embrace the business benefits mobile technology offers, many are selecting the wrong device for their needs. Consequently, they fail to realise these benefits or see a return on their mobility investment. There are many considerations that should go into making a final decision, and they can be summarised as the ten rules to follow when choosing your mobile devices.
Application and environment demands
The physical ruggedness of any device is of critical importance, especially when deployed in harsh industrial environments, such as the warehouse or on the manufacturing floor. The devices must be able to withstand countless drops, accidental spills, extreme temperatures, and dust or dirt. In addition, businesses need to consider how the users will use the device and predict the challenges they might have.
Data capture requirements
Today, barcodes are everywhere. They are essential to enable organizations to track and trace different assets. Enterprises should examine how often their mobile devices need to double up as a scanner in the field and how intensive the scanning requirement is. If your device needs to read a high volume of barcodes or RFID tags every day, speed and accuracy would become the primary consideration.
Power needs
A device’s battery life directly influences operational efficiency. Different businesses will have different requirements in this department. For instance, a device might be shared by different users over several shifts, or the workers are on the move all the time and don’t always have access to a charging solution. On this front, the consumer-grade devices simply don’t have the power capacity as an enterprise device.
Training and the ease of use
Enterprises also need to consider if its new fleet of devices is easy to adopt for their workers, who might have different preferences and skill sets. This is especially important for industries that rely heavily on casual or seasonal workers. The right choice of form factor and operations system (OS) can help reduce the time needed for training to enable workers to become productive more quickly.
Security requirements
Risks and implications of a potential security breach stemming from your mobility deployment need to be factored in as well. While security may have started with a narrow focus around credit cards or personal health information, it now has a much broader scope – any information about your customers and operations is now of value to those with nefarious intent.
Manageability, control, and support
Your devices should always lighten the load on IT. The ability to centrally and remotely manage your device fleet is critical for everything from pushing upgrades to troubleshooting. Without the effective use of an MDM application, particularly in the case of a BYOD solution, your employees will either become responsible for finding their own support, or they will rely entirely on your help desk, forcing IT personnel to be familiar with potentially hundreds of models.
