The same location-based services that help you find your favorite
Italian restaurant by using your mobile phone are now being used to
help business owners keep an eye on field workers.
There goes that extra coffee break.
 | | | | | That's not a Big Brother thing.
But once they know we have GPS, they know it's there.
Robert Taylor
merchandiser supervisorCrescent Crown Distributing
LLC |
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According to Gartner Inc., 63% of handheld mobile devices sold in
the U.S. this year will support
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.
And with GPS phones readily available, vendors are offering
modestly priced products to help with what is a growing concern
for business owners -- how to keep tabs on field and remote
staff workers.
About 45 million customers worldwide subscribe to location-based
services, says Gartner. The Stamford, Conn.-based research
firm did not identify how many of those subscribers are business
users, but it said vendors that offer enterprise applications have
a "significant opportunity."
These vendors are offering hosted software technologies, such as
time management and navigation, which integrate with GPS phones
from major carriers. The hosted model allows small and midsized
businesses (SMBs) to take advantage of the technology without
significant capital investments.
"This is definitely an up-and-coming area of adoption that is
attractive to small and midsized businesses," said Brent Iadarola,
industry manager for Frost & Sullivan Inc.'s Mobile
Communications Group. "With large enterprise deployments, most tend
to have more integration on the back end with whatever their
mission critical applications tend to be. And depending on the
vertical you're looking at, larger organizations are going with
in-vehicle embedded GPS solutions as a way to track both employees
and equipment."
Cost benefits of spy technology
Iadarola said SMBs are leveraging GPS-enabled phones to deploy
more affordable location-based services. He said an in-vehicle
solution might cost $800 per vehicle, plus software and
professional services fees and a monthly fee of $40 to $50 per
user. A hosted solution on the phone, in contrast, will have no
up-front costs aside from the phones, and a monthly cost of $25 to
$30 per user.
"Another benefit is that a lot of times the employees may
already have the devices," he said. "The field services fleet may
already have Nextel phones in hand."
Jack Gold, president of J. Gold Associates, a Northborough,
Mass.-based consultancy, said the hosted services will appeal to
large businesses as well. Although some large companies are
reluctant to invest in technologies that can quickly become
obsolete.
"After two years, the technology can change," he said.
"Rent-to-try is not a bad strategy, as long as you don't have to
sign a six-year commitment with these guys. Trying it out is not a
bad thing to do. Then you make the decision as the technology gets
better. You can bring it in-house."
Last spring Robert Taylor, merchandiser supervisor at Crescent
Crown Distributing LLC, adopted GPS TimeTrack from Xora Inc., a
Mountain View, Calif.-based vendor of location-based services.
Taylor supervises about 50 merchandisers at Crescent Crown, a
Phoenix-based beer distributor. The merchandisers travel from one
retail client to another, stocking customers' shelves with
beverages.
Given the diverse needs of his customers, which includes large
chain stores such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Taylor wanted to track
whether he was deploying his merchandisers efficiently. With Xora,
Taylor's employees use their phones to clock in and clock out at
each job site. The GPS confirms where the merchandiser is whenever
he or she checks in.
By knowing how much time his staff spent at each client, Taylor
was able to deploy his people more efficiently.
"We did find that some stores were taking longer and that some
stores weren't taking as long as we thought," Taylor said. "We
could take a store that took too long off of one route and give it
to another route. What it did was allow us to make sure [the
merchandisers] could spend the correct amount of time at each store
to service it correctly."
Using the Xora solution has also cut back on waste. Taylor said
his merchandisers used to call into the office from home to punch
in. Then they would drive to their first job site. Essentially,
Crescent Crown would pay those merchandisers for their commute. The
merchandisers would follow the same practice at the end of the day,
punching out once they got home. With the Xora product, those
employees punch in at the first job site. The GPS technology
ensures that they are at the site.
"Moneywise, we really haven't sat down and figured out what it's
saved us," he said. "But timewise we're guestimating about a half
hour per merchandiser, per day."
Taylor said there are other benefits to the tracking technology.
Through Xora, he can set up email alerts. If an employee is running
late and misses his first stop of the day, Taylor will receive an
alert. Then he can either call that employee or deploy a
replacement.
"It even tracks the speed limits," Taylor said. "The general
merchandisers, they're all in company vans. We have a very good
safety record. We're very proud of it. Anytime I want, I can pull
this up and make sure they're not exceeding the speed limit."
Iadarola said location-based services have raised some concerns
about privacy.
"A lot of employees use these phones as their primary phones for
personal use, too," he said. Iadorola said some larger companies,
particularly utilities, have been slow to adopt the technology due
to privacy issues raised by employee unions.
Taylor said he doesn't use the technology to look over the
shoulders of his employees, but there is a mutual understanding
that the information is there for management to look at. He
described it as "checks and balances."
"It tends to have that effect," he said. "That's not a Big
Brother thing. But once they know we have GPS, they know it's
there."
Vendors catching up to demand
Iadarola said major phone carriers are playing the wait-and-see
game with location-based services. They're waiting to see which
technologies win acceptance in the business market. Eventually the
carriers will partner with companies like Xora to bring these
technologies to a wider audience.
"TimeTrack is one solution in a wide variety of location-based
solutions," he said. "Eventually you'll see a broader
location-based platform."
Iadarola expects more interactive applications, such as one that
can match skill sets to certain job sites. Businesses will be able
to send to a customer the worker with the right skills, rather than
simply the nearest worker.
Gold said location-based services will also offer companies an
audit trail. GPS will prove to regulatory agencies that employees
were at certain locations that were required for compliance.
"The kinds of stuff you can do with location-based services are
endless," Gold said. "One reason companies haven't deployed it in
the past is it's hard. Now it's easier. Companies like Xora say
'We'll figure out the device, we'll figure out the interface for
the carrier.' They've basically become a system integrator."
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Shamus McGillicuddy,
News Writer