Field Service Device Hardware
FieldMetrix is designed to run on rugged Windows Mobile devices.
Why rugged devices only?
The
benefits of a field service solution depend upon utilizing a mobile
computing platform that is well-designed and reliable - terms that, in field
service, have definitions very different from their equivalents in the
consumer markets. Just as the family minivan isn’t suitable for patrol duty,
consumer-grade mobile computers are a poor fit for situations faced by
mobile workers in the field.
The temptation to purchase consumer-grade hardware for mission-critical
applications is always there, particularly in lean times. After all, the
purchase price is significantly lower, the hardware lighter and prettier,
the brands familiar—and isn’t one smartphone the same as another? Field
service technicians subject their devices to unforgiving environments and
conditions; using a “low-cost” consumer smartphone is a poor substitute and
will turn out to be very
costly.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The Total Cost of Ownership is the amount of money spent on acquiring,
maintaining, supporting, and using the device. It’s one thing to understand
that “rugged devices cost money”; quite another to see how
the purchase price of a non-rugged smartphone is exceeded by the outlays
required to support and keep it running.
Then there is the cost of lost productivity, which is more difficult to
measure, but no less real. After all, you bought into the concept of a field
service solution to realize “savings in time, personnel, money and
accuracy.” If it’s not working, those savings are lost.