Enabling Enterprise Systems to Support Mobile Applications

Business Drivers

Historical Perspective
For many decades, utilities have communicated to their field employees via a voice network, usually through a proprietary radio frequency assigned to the utility. In the last decade, software suppliers have enabled the transfer of digital data over these networks to Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) in the vehicles. The implementation of this technology has been driven by emergency work such as gas leaks and power outages and uses designs developed for 911 services and service call driven businesses (such as taxicab). These RF networks have had erratic connectivity and slow bandwidth limitations.

Technology Trends/Concerns
Cellular networks, satellite communications, and better data compression techniques are all evolving to provide faster, more stable data links to mobile staff. MDT’s are becoming more robust and the premium for these models has significantly reduced. Hand-held devices with built-in 2-way communication capability are entering the market. However, the user interface for traditional back-office applications use screen, keyboard and mouse. These applications are not compatible with devices which use touch-screens and have very little real-estate for the display. The 911 applications were not originally designed to support the dispatching of 10,000’s of service calls per day. They also have difficulty with job dependencies and work with multi-day duration. The relationship between the asset management system, a supporting AM/FM/GIS application and the mobile dispatching application is critical to ensure that accurate job-site location information is available.