There is no question that mobile technology is fundamentally changing the way people work and live. In the utility industry, developments in mobile technology have created large returns on investment through the delivery of zero-latency connectivity between the field and the back office. This has driven tangible returns in a wide variety of critical functions like outage response, safety and quality of service, the number of work orders completed each day, asset management, and the accuracy and timeliness of field operations.
This is Part 1 of a two-part article introducing a dynamic new segment of mobile information technology that is increasing efficiency of the field workforce across a broad array of applications. Spanning the front line of effective customer service, these applications embrace field user groups including service, dispatching, construction, operations, maintenance, engineering and delivery, all of whom require rapid access to large amounts of dynamic, up-to-date information from a variety of enterprise computing systems.
These systems include work management, outage management, enterprise resource planning, enterprise asset management, computer-aided design and spatial data management, and it is only through ready access to the data from these systems that mobile workers can complete, post and close jobs in real-time. This ability can not only dramatically improve the productivity of field operations across the utility enterprise, but it has the added benefit of extending the value and ROI of investments in corporate information and assets.
The widespread availability of hand-held computers, wireless communications, the introduction of Microsoft Windows/CE, new data compaction techniques and the continual evolution of more powerful, less expensive hardware have enabled mobile personnel to display large volumes of complex data from any number of mapping databases or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on inexpensive, handheld wireless field devices. Dynamic downloads and uploads of all the customer, facility network, asset, and materials information can be efficiently completed for an unlimited variety of complex field operations.
Today’s technology combines wireless communications, enterprise information systems and location-based services to deliver information and support to mobile field crews and dispatchers using standard computers. Integrated GPS and location-based services graphically display the location of work to be completed, map out the best route to each location, guide the mobile worker to this location and then provide all the information needed from the customer information system, work management system, outage management system, enterprise resource planning, enterprise asset management, computer-aided design or other enterprise systems so field activities can be completed, posted and closed in real time.
Before focusing on specific technology trends that are impacting the use and viability of mobile solutions for the utility industry, let’s look at the business case for field information management.
Why Field Information Management?
A large percentage of the utility work force (30-50% according to several estimates) spends some or all of their time outside of the office, working in the field or supervising and supporting field workers. Reviewing their field workflow functions, there is significant time and activity spent on non-productive tasks or overhead—often estimated at 20-30%.
Typical "wasted" time includes travel or "windshield" time getting to and from work
locations, redundant visits to nearby or identical locations by different crews at different times,
filling out paper forms and then keying them in again at the office, errors and rework caused by inaccurate office records not matching the "field truth," maintaining multiple records of field information for different office uses, and above all, the creation, duplication, distribution, access and updating of large quantities of paper records, most of which contain listings from office computers and databases. Meanwhile important field information may be desk-bound in the office computer or database.
New mobile technologies are finding ready application and quick payback in individual tasks such as forms entry for asset management, GPS for facilities location and survey, wireless communications instead of communication via paper, CD or wired connection, even work status and time reporting. The cost/benefit is obvious, but the risk of change is high.
Obviously, most software developers and office staff use keyboard-based systems and are proficient with using personal computers for a large part of their job. Conversely, many field users wear gloves, work in adverse conditions and do not have a tolerance for finicky computers with hard to use software or systems that lock up. Traditional computers and user interfaces are nearly useless to field users, as evidenced by most "mobile computers" sitting unused in the truck most of the day.
What’s needed – and what modern technologies enable – is the unique combination of mobile technology integrated with the field user’s environment and work flow. These technologies are discussed in the paragraphs that follow.
Mobile Computers
A few years ago, the standard perception of mobile computers was a lap-top or "ruggedized" PC, typically with its baggage of unreadable screens, tiny menus and buttons, and unreliable operations. The recent deployment of daylight-viewable screens, touch-screens, voice prompting and even character recognition have certainly improved the usability, as has the ever-increasing power of these systems. However, the fundamental trend in mobile computing is toward a variety of custom "form-factors" and vertical applications designed specifically for field use.
The traditional Microsoft operating systems have been extended to support tablet PCs. The new series of "embedded" software has evolved and been extensively distributed since Microsoft’s declaration of support for "ubiquitous computing," resulting in Windows CE devices dominating the "Palm" in mobile business platforms. These contain field versions of office packages for word processing, spread sheets, slide shows email and internet.
Ranging in size from a small calculator to a full page display, these devices feature wireless connections to printers, modems, GPS, scanners, projectors -- with or without keyboards, character recognition, voice response, integrated I/O, gigabytes of stamp-sized memory, built in cameras, telephones and wireless networking.
Many utility IT groups have chosen to stay with the traditional ruggedized laptop PC and appear reluctant to support unfamiliar operating systems and hardware in the handheld computer market. However there is a strong trend in the software suppliers to provide true systems-level integration of the small platforms with traditional corporate applications. Meanwhile, the IT industry shows a strong move from custom applications to reusable, vendor-independent product software enabling a choice among a variety of different handheld computers optimized for field use.
Major manufacturers (HP, IBM, Panasonic and Intel) now have entire hardware lines dedicated to mobile and wireless computing, supporting the trend away from one-size-fits-all to individual computing. There are now more than 100 manufacturers of handheld mobile computers, compared to a couple dozen just a few years ago, with the trend toward convergence – providing more capabilities integrated with phone size devices, ever-smaller, more integrated and simpler for the user.
In the utility industry, handheld devices exist now complete with software for surveying, field data collection, vehicle location, customer contact management, laser scanners, RFID supply chain management, meter reading, imaging and many other applications, and the list will continue to grow as the utility industry evolves to embrace more ubiquitous platform software, with its many benefits.
Today mobile handheld applications tend to be standalone, and either small and inexpensive (calculator-like) or customized systems and applications software for specific vertical applications. Systems development on platforms is still expensive, so re-use becomes critical for economic viability. Mobile solutions have to be templated, repeatable, configurable solutions that reduce risk and speed time to deliver business benefit, customizable without software development and easy enough for user configuration and customizing.
Wireless Communications
As Hewlett-Packard stated, in the mobile enterprise, the office is everywhere. Requirements of remote workers extend the enterprise edge. Best-in-class mobility is meaningful—and achievable—for enterprises of every size and type. So why aren’t more enterprises fully enabled today? Because, while mobile solutions should be simple to use and quick to adopt, they are rarely simple to build.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (like cellular phones) and Wireless Local Area Networks (like WiFi) have experienced tremendously increased performance over the last few years, driven by wide-spread adoption of faster/better/cheaper improvements.
Wireless Local Area Networks have essentially been commoditized based on WiFi and its derivatives, offering performance up to 56 MHz, easy installation in the home and office, with and receivers built into most mobile computers. WiFi will essentially eliminate the need for data transfer by other means, if the mobile information software supports the interface.
According to In-Stat/MDR, a global wireless market research firm, some 16 million notebook PCs with embedded WiFi will ship to businesses by year end 2004, and by 2005, WiFi will be included in 95% of notebooks as a standard feature.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (digital cellular) has finally made substantial progress toward reaching the high-speed, "3G-type" technologies and performance that have been so widely anticipated for several years. Coverage is still spotty and likely to remain so for the near future, so the mobile field user cannot depend on having constant Internet access, unless the company or the city builds its own digital radio or broad-band network (as for instance, the City of Denver Ricochet wireless, or the City of Philadelphia municipal broadband award). Unfortunately, Telecom carriers are still split between incompatible GSM/GPRS-based standards and CDMA-based standards, each with incompatible upgrades to high speed digital data service. (Please refer to Table 1 for a guide to alphabet soup of modern telephone wireless industry).
WiMax. A new wireless giant has emerged and is now being tested. WiMax, (which has nothing to do with WiFi) is also known as the IEEE 802.16 standard, the "Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems" and the IEEE WirelessMAN* air interface. The term WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) has become synonymous with the IEEE 802.16, which is designed to provide wireless "last mile" broadband access. WiMax provides a wireless tower with a range of 1 to 10 miles supplying high speed broadband connection to computers, similar to DSL and cable. It provides a cost-effective fixed wireless alternative to conventional wire-line DSL, Cable or T1/E1 leased line in areas where those technologies are not readily available, and without the installation cost of fiber /copper lines.
WiMax Forum, a group of vendors and service providers, initially will certify products based on the 802.16d standard, designed for wireless base stations with a range as long as 50 kilometers (km). It is a point-to-multipoint technology, so it doesn't require a direct line of sight to the customer. A later version of the standard, 802.16e, will provide a relatively simple upgrade to access points to support mobile customers. The 802.16d standard should be essentially complete and approved in March certify service provider equipment starting the first quarter of 2005.
GPS
Compared to five years ago, GPS technology has reached consumer commodity levels, with mobile applications incorporating it routinely. From surveying to hiking, farming to construction, asset location to driving a car, GPS is ubiquitous and cost-effective, thus saving time and improving safety and security. The only real restrictions have to do with receiver accuracy and availability of signals used. These determine the answer to "where am I".
A "constellation" of 24 satellites maintained by the Dept. of Defense provides the signals. GPS provided only three navigation signals, and of the three signals, only the L1 C/A signal was designated for civil use. The Department of Defense added a new civilian signal (L2C) to "modernized" satellites starting in 2004. Although it will be several years before sufficient satellites are deployed with this new signal, the L2C is likely to become the signal of choice for applications like wireless emergency 911 (E911) positioning inside buildings, personal navigation in wooded areas or vehicle navigation along tree-lined roads. If so, embedded GPS in wireless phones alone would make L2C the most widely used of all GPS signals.
RFID
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several methods of identification, but the most common is to store a serial number and perhaps other information, on a microchip that is attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID tag). A reader sends a radio signal, the tag responds, and the reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers.
RFID technology has been around since the 1970s for tracking items on the move and security badges. Either the reader or the badge can be mobile. The reader records a radio signal identifier sent from the tag when it is within 1-10-100 feet of a reader, depending on whether the tag is active or passive. The big driver is the recent dramatic drop in costs of readers ($1,000) and tags ($0.20), which make the devices cost effective in supply chain management simply by being able to track each pallet, box or asset.
The impact on mobile computing is not just a new type of input to the mobile system (like a bar code), but rather a way of adding computer-readable intelligence to "dumb" assets. If RFID asset is combined with the spatial location, you could display a 3-D layout of the yard or warehouse holding the tagged equipment. Tagged equipment could automatically report being loaded onto truck, as well as when it’s installed or replaced, and provide the data to answer questions like "where was transformer 192-12-55 last reported?"
Combining RFID and wireless LAN software, IT staff can accurately (within 10 feet) track any 802.11 mobile devices with an active RFID tag as they move throughout a wireless network inside a building with appropriately positioned access points.
Conclusion
It is obvious that the hardware side of technology for mobile applications has exploded in recent years. Although many new applications are technically feasible, the critical success factor is the user’s "gloves-on" acceptance. This requires software to effectively harness the tools in a manner that is easily used and controlled by the field user or dispatcher, and easily interfaced to other, multiple, disparate information systems. Obviously, a truck full of gadgets will be rarely used, difficult to support and impossible to integrate. Thus, the fundamental work tasks need to be supported together and fully integrated. If software is not carefully architected for compatibility and expandability, we can easily end up with a jacket full of individual mobile hardware apps, which of course would not be used.
This article, Part 1 of the two-part series, focused on specific technologies that have been successfully deployed in a wide variety of industries. We described the changes currently underway that will fundamentally change the way the modern field crew does its work efficiently.
Part 2, which will appear in the March/April edition of this magazine, will explore the new software and system technologies critical for success of field information management.
About the Author.
Jim Hargis is president of har*GIS Field Information Systems, developer of the TruckMap* Field Information System™ (www.truckmap.com). His 30-year career has been dedicated to the innovation, design, development and implementation of spatial and mobile technologies for more than 200 utility companies and local governments. Prior to founding har*GIS Field Information Systems, he was actively participated and invested in the startup of several industry-leading companies, including Convergent Group, Intergraph Corp.'s Utility Group and Computer Graphics Company. Mr. Hargis holds a BS in Physics from Rice University and an MBA from the University of Denver. He is a past Board member of GITA and has contributed a dozen papers, presentations and seminars. Mr. Hargis has developed and patented essential technology for automated map generation from facilities databases. Mr. Hargis can be reached at jhargis@har-gis.com or by phoning (303) 220-0253.
This is Part 1 of a two-part article introducing a dynamic new segment of mobile information technology that is increasing efficiency of the field workforce across a broad array of applications. Spanning the front line of effective customer service, these applications embrace field user groups including service, dispatching, construction, operations, maintenance, engineering and delivery, all of whom require rapid access to large amounts of dynamic, up-to-date information from a variety of enterprise computing systems.
These systems include work management, outage management, enterprise resource planning, enterprise asset management, computer-aided design and spatial data management, and it is only through ready access to the data from these systems that mobile workers can complete, post and close jobs in real-time. This ability can not only dramatically improve the productivity of field operations across the utility enterprise, but it has the added benefit of extending the value and ROI of investments in corporate information and assets.
The widespread availability of hand-held computers, wireless communications, the introduction of Microsoft Windows/CE, new data compaction techniques and the continual evolution of more powerful, less expensive hardware have enabled mobile personnel to display large volumes of complex data from any number of mapping databases or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on inexpensive, handheld wireless field devices. Dynamic downloads and uploads of all the customer, facility network, asset, and materials information can be efficiently completed for an unlimited variety of complex field operations.
Today’s technology combines wireless communications, enterprise information systems and location-based services to deliver information and support to mobile field crews and dispatchers using standard computers. Integrated GPS and location-based services graphically display the location of work to be completed, map out the best route to each location, guide the mobile worker to this location and then provide all the information needed from the customer information system, work management system, outage management system, enterprise resource planning, enterprise asset management, computer-aided design or other enterprise systems so field activities can be completed, posted and closed in real time.
Before focusing on specific technology trends that are impacting the use and viability of mobile solutions for the utility industry, let’s look at the business case for field information management.
Why Field Information Management?
A large percentage of the utility work force (30-50% according to several estimates) spends some or all of their time outside of the office, working in the field or supervising and supporting field workers. Reviewing their field workflow functions, there is significant time and activity spent on non-productive tasks or overhead—often estimated at 20-30%.
Typical "wasted" time includes travel or "windshield" time getting to and from work
locations, redundant visits to nearby or identical locations by different crews at different times,
filling out paper forms and then keying them in again at the office, errors and rework caused by inaccurate office records not matching the "field truth," maintaining multiple records of field information for different office uses, and above all, the creation, duplication, distribution, access and updating of large quantities of paper records, most of which contain listings from office computers and databases. Meanwhile important field information may be desk-bound in the office computer or database.
New mobile technologies are finding ready application and quick payback in individual tasks such as forms entry for asset management, GPS for facilities location and survey, wireless communications instead of communication via paper, CD or wired connection, even work status and time reporting. The cost/benefit is obvious, but the risk of change is high.
Obviously, most software developers and office staff use keyboard-based systems and are proficient with using personal computers for a large part of their job. Conversely, many field users wear gloves, work in adverse conditions and do not have a tolerance for finicky computers with hard to use software or systems that lock up. Traditional computers and user interfaces are nearly useless to field users, as evidenced by most "mobile computers" sitting unused in the truck most of the day.
What’s needed – and what modern technologies enable – is the unique combination of mobile technology integrated with the field user’s environment and work flow. These technologies are discussed in the paragraphs that follow.
Mobile Computers
A few years ago, the standard perception of mobile computers was a lap-top or "ruggedized" PC, typically with its baggage of unreadable screens, tiny menus and buttons, and unreliable operations. The recent deployment of daylight-viewable screens, touch-screens, voice prompting and even character recognition have certainly improved the usability, as has the ever-increasing power of these systems. However, the fundamental trend in mobile computing is toward a variety of custom "form-factors" and vertical applications designed specifically for field use.
The traditional Microsoft operating systems have been extended to support tablet PCs. The new series of "embedded" software has evolved and been extensively distributed since Microsoft’s declaration of support for "ubiquitous computing," resulting in Windows CE devices dominating the "Palm" in mobile business platforms. These contain field versions of office packages for word processing, spread sheets, slide shows email and internet.
Ranging in size from a small calculator to a full page display, these devices feature wireless connections to printers, modems, GPS, scanners, projectors -- with or without keyboards, character recognition, voice response, integrated I/O, gigabytes of stamp-sized memory, built in cameras, telephones and wireless networking.
Many utility IT groups have chosen to stay with the traditional ruggedized laptop PC and appear reluctant to support unfamiliar operating systems and hardware in the handheld computer market. However there is a strong trend in the software suppliers to provide true systems-level integration of the small platforms with traditional corporate applications. Meanwhile, the IT industry shows a strong move from custom applications to reusable, vendor-independent product software enabling a choice among a variety of different handheld computers optimized for field use.
Major manufacturers (HP, IBM, Panasonic and Intel) now have entire hardware lines dedicated to mobile and wireless computing, supporting the trend away from one-size-fits-all to individual computing. There are now more than 100 manufacturers of handheld mobile computers, compared to a couple dozen just a few years ago, with the trend toward convergence – providing more capabilities integrated with phone size devices, ever-smaller, more integrated and simpler for the user.
In the utility industry, handheld devices exist now complete with software for surveying, field data collection, vehicle location, customer contact management, laser scanners, RFID supply chain management, meter reading, imaging and many other applications, and the list will continue to grow as the utility industry evolves to embrace more ubiquitous platform software, with its many benefits.
Today mobile handheld applications tend to be standalone, and either small and inexpensive (calculator-like) or customized systems and applications software for specific vertical applications. Systems development on platforms is still expensive, so re-use becomes critical for economic viability. Mobile solutions have to be templated, repeatable, configurable solutions that reduce risk and speed time to deliver business benefit, customizable without software development and easy enough for user configuration and customizing.
Wireless Communications
As Hewlett-Packard stated, in the mobile enterprise, the office is everywhere. Requirements of remote workers extend the enterprise edge. Best-in-class mobility is meaningful—and achievable—for enterprises of every size and type. So why aren’t more enterprises fully enabled today? Because, while mobile solutions should be simple to use and quick to adopt, they are rarely simple to build.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (like cellular phones) and Wireless Local Area Networks (like WiFi) have experienced tremendously increased performance over the last few years, driven by wide-spread adoption of faster/better/cheaper improvements.
Wireless Local Area Networks have essentially been commoditized based on WiFi and its derivatives, offering performance up to 56 MHz, easy installation in the home and office, with and receivers built into most mobile computers. WiFi will essentially eliminate the need for data transfer by other means, if the mobile information software supports the interface.
According to In-Stat/MDR, a global wireless market research firm, some 16 million notebook PCs with embedded WiFi will ship to businesses by year end 2004, and by 2005, WiFi will be included in 95% of notebooks as a standard feature.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (digital cellular) has finally made substantial progress toward reaching the high-speed, "3G-type" technologies and performance that have been so widely anticipated for several years. Coverage is still spotty and likely to remain so for the near future, so the mobile field user cannot depend on having constant Internet access, unless the company or the city builds its own digital radio or broad-band network (as for instance, the City of Denver Ricochet wireless, or the City of Philadelphia municipal broadband award). Unfortunately, Telecom carriers are still split between incompatible GSM/GPRS-based standards and CDMA-based standards, each with incompatible upgrades to high speed digital data service. (Please refer to Table 1 for a guide to alphabet soup of modern telephone wireless industry).
WiMax. A new wireless giant has emerged and is now being tested. WiMax, (which has nothing to do with WiFi) is also known as the IEEE 802.16 standard, the "Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems" and the IEEE WirelessMAN* air interface. The term WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) has become synonymous with the IEEE 802.16, which is designed to provide wireless "last mile" broadband access. WiMax provides a wireless tower with a range of 1 to 10 miles supplying high speed broadband connection to computers, similar to DSL and cable. It provides a cost-effective fixed wireless alternative to conventional wire-line DSL, Cable or T1/E1 leased line in areas where those technologies are not readily available, and without the installation cost of fiber /copper lines.
WiMax Forum, a group of vendors and service providers, initially will certify products based on the 802.16d standard, designed for wireless base stations with a range as long as 50 kilometers (km). It is a point-to-multipoint technology, so it doesn't require a direct line of sight to the customer. A later version of the standard, 802.16e, will provide a relatively simple upgrade to access points to support mobile customers. The 802.16d standard should be essentially complete and approved in March certify service provider equipment starting the first quarter of 2005.
GPS
Compared to five years ago, GPS technology has reached consumer commodity levels, with mobile applications incorporating it routinely. From surveying to hiking, farming to construction, asset location to driving a car, GPS is ubiquitous and cost-effective, thus saving time and improving safety and security. The only real restrictions have to do with receiver accuracy and availability of signals used. These determine the answer to "where am I".
A "constellation" of 24 satellites maintained by the Dept. of Defense provides the signals. GPS provided only three navigation signals, and of the three signals, only the L1 C/A signal was designated for civil use. The Department of Defense added a new civilian signal (L2C) to "modernized" satellites starting in 2004. Although it will be several years before sufficient satellites are deployed with this new signal, the L2C is likely to become the signal of choice for applications like wireless emergency 911 (E911) positioning inside buildings, personal navigation in wooded areas or vehicle navigation along tree-lined roads. If so, embedded GPS in wireless phones alone would make L2C the most widely used of all GPS signals.
RFID
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several methods of identification, but the most common is to store a serial number and perhaps other information, on a microchip that is attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID tag). A reader sends a radio signal, the tag responds, and the reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers.
RFID technology has been around since the 1970s for tracking items on the move and security badges. Either the reader or the badge can be mobile. The reader records a radio signal identifier sent from the tag when it is within 1-10-100 feet of a reader, depending on whether the tag is active or passive. The big driver is the recent dramatic drop in costs of readers ($1,000) and tags ($0.20), which make the devices cost effective in supply chain management simply by being able to track each pallet, box or asset.
The impact on mobile computing is not just a new type of input to the mobile system (like a bar code), but rather a way of adding computer-readable intelligence to "dumb" assets. If RFID asset is combined with the spatial location, you could display a 3-D layout of the yard or warehouse holding the tagged equipment. Tagged equipment could automatically report being loaded onto truck, as well as when it’s installed or replaced, and provide the data to answer questions like "where was transformer 192-12-55 last reported?"
Combining RFID and wireless LAN software, IT staff can accurately (within 10 feet) track any 802.11 mobile devices with an active RFID tag as they move throughout a wireless network inside a building with appropriately positioned access points.
Conclusion
It is obvious that the hardware side of technology for mobile applications has exploded in recent years. Although many new applications are technically feasible, the critical success factor is the user’s "gloves-on" acceptance. This requires software to effectively harness the tools in a manner that is easily used and controlled by the field user or dispatcher, and easily interfaced to other, multiple, disparate information systems. Obviously, a truck full of gadgets will be rarely used, difficult to support and impossible to integrate. Thus, the fundamental work tasks need to be supported together and fully integrated. If software is not carefully architected for compatibility and expandability, we can easily end up with a jacket full of individual mobile hardware apps, which of course would not be used.
This article, Part 1 of the two-part series, focused on specific technologies that have been successfully deployed in a wide variety of industries. We described the changes currently underway that will fundamentally change the way the modern field crew does its work efficiently.
Part 2, which will appear in the March/April edition of this magazine, will explore the new software and system technologies critical for success of field information management.
About the Author.
Jim Hargis is president of har*GIS Field Information Systems, developer of the TruckMap* Field Information System™ (www.truckmap.com). His 30-year career has been dedicated to the innovation, design, development and implementation of spatial and mobile technologies for more than 200 utility companies and local governments. Prior to founding har*GIS Field Information Systems, he was actively participated and invested in the startup of several industry-leading companies, including Convergent Group, Intergraph Corp.'s Utility Group and Computer Graphics Company. Mr. Hargis holds a BS in Physics from Rice University and an MBA from the University of Denver. He is a past Board member of GITA and has contributed a dozen papers, presentations and seminars. Mr. Hargis has developed and patented essential technology for automated map generation from facilities databases. Mr. Hargis can be reached at jhargis@har-gis.com or by phoning (303) 220-0253.
