WiFi PDA Phone
What is a PDA and Advantages of PDA

The WiFi PDA phone has become an ubiquitous tool of the trade for mobile field force workers such as couriers, technicians, meter readers and order takers. While the arguments for equipping white collar workers with PDA's are typically soft and fluffy, that is not the case with field force automation. Not only can hard business benefits be readily identified, but it's also possible to measure their impact on KPI's including productivity, profitability and cash flow.

A WiFi PDA phone is simply an enabling technology or tool. Their deployment has no significant impact on KPI's unless rolled out in conjunction with a review of existing business processes. The objective of such an analysis is to identify steps that can be eliminated or compressed so that productivity can be increased, services delivered faster and cash flow improved.

In the case of field force personnel such an analysis begins with a time and motion study to identify the steps required to complete a transaction. The steps are then reviewed to identify those that can be compressed or eliminated by the application of handheld WiFi PDA technology.

Examples of WiFi PDA Phone Enablement

The ultimate objective of the exercise is to provide a means whereby field force personnel can complete transactions on the spot in the presence of the customer. Not only speeding up service delivery, but also reducing the incidence of data entry errors and associated costs.

While more difficult to measure than other KPIs, it's typical for a WiFi phone deployment to result in increased customer satisfaction. Many of us associate fast service with good service and if the incidence of errors is reduced so much better.

By way of contrast white collar workers have a more subjective approach to justifying an investment in PDAs or smartphones with WiFi. Their arguments typically boil down to the convenience of accessing push email, calendars and address books when on the road, rather than the efficiencies to be gained from a people management tool. That may change in the future as organizations progress toward integrating handheld WiFi enabled devices with CRM and sales force automation applications.

WiFi PDA Phone Adoption - the Tipping Point

Seemingly, the adoption of WiFi enabled PDAs as a field automation tool happened overnight. One day couriers were handing us paper dockets to sign and the next we were asked to scrawl our signatures on a screen with a stylus.

In fact several developments coincided to trigger the propitious moment when all of a sudden the technology became ubiquitous:

The effectiveness of the solution meant that once adopted by an innovative player a chain reaction was started that compelled all competitors in a niche to follow.

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