However, there are methods to successfully engage your employees and ensure a smooth and positive rollout. A significant investment in new hardware will end up collecting dust in a corner if not properly adopted and integrated into your workforce. At Panasonic we’ve established some best practices to garner employee buy-in early on and streamline the deployment process.

Understand the needs and pain points of your mobile workers
Many times the organization’s IT department has its own agenda and goals for a new technology deployment. This is often driven by the need to streamline IT processes or capture additional data in the field as the result of a new corporate initiative. However, it’s extremely important that you invest the time to understand the culture and needs of your workforce. This is a critical element of a successful deployment rollout.

We advise IT planning personnel to conduct ride-alongs with field teams or host focus groups in order to get a sense of the their day-to-day challenges and pain points. This allows you to observe redundancies and inefficiencies and collect feedback directly from the end-users. It also communicates to your workforce early on that you’re interested in addressing its needs and helping make their jobs easier.

Initiate small pilot or trial programs
Once you understand the needs of your workforce and began evaluating solutions, initiate pilot programs to test different solutions in the field. A small pilot program with a select group of users can be valuable. They can get a feel of the workflow with the possible devices and communicate their feedback. Tracking key information, such as the number of repairs/service calls per day or turnaround times, during the pilot phase will help earn management and financial buy-in and acceptance from the larger team.

Select partners that offer ongoing support once the solution is deployed
Choose partners that will provide support and services once the technology is in the field. As with any new rollout, it will take time for the devices and associated software to be fully accepted and usable. Partners that provide on-site assistance and support after the initial purchase will significantly reduce the time your IT department spends training and assisting workers with technology transitions.

Offer comprehensive training for all your mobile users
Once you’ve selected the best solution, prepare a detailed rollout plan that includes employee training. Without the proper training, we find users often don’t use the technology to its maximum potential. To get the most out of your investment, we recommend choosing a day and time to roll out the solution to the entire team. During this training, use advocates of the technology to share success stories from the pilot program and share the key improvement metrics that you captured and quantified. Using the participants from the pilot program to engage their peers will help create excitement and lower resistance to the new processes.

With any mobile technology investment, you are purchasing a solution, not individual devices. Without training and acceptance from your workforce, you’ll likely be facing an uphill battle. Engaging your field workforce early on and listening to your employees’ needs will create interest in the new solution and expedite your return on investment.

*David Krebs and Balca Korkut. “2011 Enterprise & Government Mobility Solutions,” VDC Research, June 2011.

In April 2009, Elemic introduced a customer relationship management (CRM) system that allowed maintenance tasks to be carried out in a prompt and reliable way. The Elemic Field Service System is a SaaS platform applying FieldBase, a CRM package made by TDC Software Engineering Inc.

Elemic evaluated a variety of notebooks and PDAs to run the FieldBase software. It was important the solution be simple and easy to operate, because many of the engineers were not technically savvy. After careful consideration, Elemic chose the Panasonic Toughbook U1 rugged handheld PC as the mobile device to be used onsite by service engineers. Elemic was looking for a mobile terminal that was compact, light weight and able to survive drops and splashes of water. The company recognized that standard notebooks were not suitable for this environment, and the screens of PDAs were too small to use comfortably. PDAs also had operating system restrictions since they did not run a full Microsoft Windows® OS, limiting software development.

With these considerations in mind, Elemic deployed Toughbook U1s with built-in barcode readers and wireless WAN. The Toughbook U1s are wirelessly linked to headquarters and automatically receive service requests and manage business tasks, including the necessary work order forms. Elemic also utilizes the Bluetooth® function to connect to mobile printers. This allows the service engineers to create a work slip and issue the paperwork to the customer onsite. In the warehouse, the company uses the built-in barcode reader to maintain a real-time inventory of products. This access to current inventory data allows Elemic to keep the right stock on hand.

As a result of the Toughbook U1 and Elemic Field Service System, business efficiency has significantly improved. Elemic can quickly issue transaction slips and has eliminated the process of faxing work orders. Customer satisfaction has also improved, providing more prompt and appropriate responses to address customers’ situations. Paper use is expected to be reduced in half and office supervisors’ overtime is down by an average of 70 percent. Through these cost savings and improvements in efficiencies, the investment has already paid for itself, delivering strong return on investment (ROI) to Elemic.

You can find more information on the Elemic Co., Ltd. case study on the Toughbook Global Site here.  A video about this Toughbook U1 deployment can be found below.

I recently wrote an article for Fixed Ops Magazine discussing how dealerships can deploy mobile technology in the service bay with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Dealers looking to purchase mobile computers must consider TCO and return on investment (ROI) to get the most out their investment.

When selecting a device, key factors to consider include: workflow, device reliability, environmental use (grease, oil, solvents) and feature set. Wireless connectivity and integrated features can significantly increase technician efficiency, allowing access to critical information and data capture right at the vehicle. However, without a notebook rugged enough to withstand the harsh environment of the service bay, dealerships will waste time and money.

True TCO analysis includes planned product lifecycles and the impact of failure. Indirect costs, such as lost productivity, must also be taken into account during the selection process. Deploying a reliable mobile technology solution with the right features will enable technicians to repair more vehicles and get your customer on the road faster.

You can read my article, “Deploying Mobile Technology,” and view the full December issue of Fixed Ops Magazine online here.

You might also want to read this case study highlighting how Nissan uses Toughbook mobile computers in its service bays around the world.

A recent PC Magazine article highlighted the embarrassingly high number of business laptops that require repair each year.   According to the publication’s 2009 report, industry-wide, an average of 22 percent of business laptops require repair on an annual basis.  Oddly enough, brands that have recently touted their heightened durability seem to be at the top of the list – with Dell showing a 26 percent failure rate, Lenovo a 25 percent failure rate and HP at 22 percent.  These numbers show little improvement from previous years (this is the 5^th straight year where the average fell between 22 and 24%) and are consistent with data found in reports from major analyst firms.

Even more unnerving, the Dell, Lenovo and HP laptops are likely failing in device-friendly environments. They are being challenged only by the rigors of going from the office to the conference room, or from the airport to the hotel.

What I can’t understand is why so many people have come to view these high failure rates as acceptable.  There is a lot of technology we rely on every day – our cars, cell phones, televisions.  Would you buy a cell phone if you knew that 26% of those sold would need repair every year?  Probably not.  Yet, many major corporations invest in these high-failure laptops because the focus is on the upfront acquisition cost versus long-term value of the investments.  This focus comes with significant consequences to the bottom-line.

A recent VDC report showed that a whopping 70% of mobile device costs come after the acquisition.  CFOs with mobile workforces and an eye on profitability need to start taking a much closer look at the TCO for mobile technology, and not just the acquisition price.

Fortunately, there is hope on this front.  A recent “Cash-for-Clunkers” story on Economist.com had this to say on the topic of TCO in America:

“Car dealers are now advertising the ‘total cost of ownership’ of vehicles, not just the purchase price, drawing the attention of consumers to differences in fuel efficiency between vehicles and estimating how much it would cost to fill them up with gas each year. This has long been a part of European and Japanese car culture…but until now Americans have never looked beyond the sticker price.”

People need to apply this TCO mentality to mobile technology, especially considering the critical role it plays in profitability, employee satisfaction and productivity.

At Panasonic, we have our failure rates audited by an independent third party, publish the information on our website and make it available to both existing and potential customers.  Across our entire Toughbook product line – a line that is designed to work in much harsher conditions than those our competitors are failing in – we show an average failure rate of under 2.5%.  This low failure helps to increase the return on investment and deliver a low TCO.

Why don’t you know about the lack of laptop reliability?  Well, laptop manufacturers don’t want you to know.  Obviously, they know. This is information they need in order to run their businesses.  As someone that has been in the industry for decades, I can say that this information is so closely guarded that often even the sales force is not allowed to know it.  Ignorance is bliss; until it costs you far more than you bargained for!

We challenge individuals and corporations to think about TCO and to demand third-party verified failure rate numbers when making mobile computer purchases.

As for our competitors and their “ruggedized” and “more reliable” mobile computers, we would like to suggest a new category of rugged – “Marketing Rugged”.  PT Barnum would be proud.

A critical element of the TCO/ROI equation is failure rates. A 2008 PC Magazine reader survey reported that 24 percent of business laptops had some form of hardware failure last year. This means that companies investing in mobile computers need to have more devices in inventory to replace failures and a larger IT staff to support these devices. Failures also equate to down time and lost business, negating the value of having a mobile workforce.

Warranties are another key consideration, with the average laptop accompanied by a single year warranty with the option of upgrading to a multi year contract. Even with the high failure rates of most business grade laptops, most companies are not deploying for a single year, so the one year warranty does not cut it. It is important to look for devices that offer a warranty that is in line with the deployment cycle of the product and that will provide support until the device has paid for itself. Three years is a good time frame to consider, although many Panasonic customers maintain our solutions for upwards of five years; significantly driving down TCO and increasing ROI.

There are other considerations to make as well, including battery life, integrated versus external mobile broadband solutions, shock mounted hard drives and spill resistant keyboards. If you are trying to get the most out of your mobile technology investment and minimize support costs, durability, connectivity, financing options and battery life should be key considerations.

Companies evaluating mobile devices need to clearly look at the price versus cost question, factoring in the costs associated with the device through the entire deployment.  As a result, your mobile employees will be happier and more productive, your IT department will be less strained and your bottom line will absolutely see the difference.

With reliable, long deployments, low single digit failure rates, industry leading wireless solutions, exceptional battery life, three year standard warranties and attractive financing options, Toughbook mobile computers are a good solution for companies taking a serious look at both TCO and ROI.