For today’s post, we’re going to turn things over to Field Technologes Online editor Sarah Howland, who has put together some thoughts about the common mistakes businesses make during a technological transition. Field service firms should take note. We’ve championed embracing mobile technologies and tablet computers as a valuable tool for field techs, but it’s important companies deploy these tools with a training plan in mind. 

Column excerpted with permission. Click here to read the piece in full.

The Most Detrimental Mistake You Can Make With Your Mobile Deployment

Happy New Year! You might expect me to use this column to discuss what I think the trends for 2012 will be, but I’m going to leave that up to the analysts this year. Instead, I’d like to use this column to revisit a topic that we’ve discussed many times — but one that somehow remains regularly ignored.

Let me share a quick story to illustrate the issue. This past week, while routinely visiting my doctor’s office, I had an interesting interaction with my nurse. The office recently switched over to electronic records, and instead of paper charts the nurses are now using laptops to gather and record all patient data. When the nurse came in and started talking with me, she was visibly frustrated with the laptop. While she refrained from venting her frustrations at first, she cut loose when I asked her about the laptop. She explained that she’s 65 years old, has been filling out paper charts for more than 40 years, doesn’t even have a computer at home, and didn’t receive much training at all on how to use the laptop.

Is her story a rarity? No. And that’s the problem. I can’t count the number of companies I’ve had conversations with that say if they could change one thing about their mobile deployment or offer one piece of advice to another company, it’d be getting user buy-in and properly preparing employees to use the mobile technology. It seems, though, that no matter how much we discuss this point there are still companies out there doing it the wrong way — purchasing mobile solutions to automate processes and increase efficiencies, but expecting to do nothing more than hand out the technology and wait for it to work miracles.

Click here to read the column in full.

ABOUT Field Technologies Online

Avatar photoField Technologies Online provides is a resource for the optimization of field workers, service and assets. The publication's goal is to provide companies in the field service, transportation/distribution, government, public works and utilities industries with information on mobile technologies that can be used to improve productivity and drive efficiency.