5 Questions - Are You Ready to Mobilize Your Forms?

Have you been thinking about how a mobile app might help your business? If you have staff in the field servicing customers, doing inspections, delivering product or completing service tickets, it might be the right time to abandon your aging paper based system. But is now the right time?

Like any business investment, careful consideration about the different possibilities, options and costs must be thought out.  Every business is different.  So how do you know if mobile technology is right for you?  Here are 5 questions to consider. If you answer YES to most of them, you should be thinking about replacing your paper-based forms with mobile forms!

1. Do You Have More Than Five (5) Mobile Workers?
Our 10+ years in the mobile industry show the benefits of a mobile solution is best realized with 5 or more users in the field.  So, even a small businesses can reap the rewards just like companies such as UPS, FedEx or Schwan's.

2. Do Your Forms Come Back Incomplete, Improperly Filled Out or Difficult to Read?
This is the biggest headache associated with paper forms.  They often come back incomplete, with data in the wrong place or with handwriting that is simply unreadable. This takes time to resolve, often by placing a phone call to ask the employee to explain their scribblings.  With mobile forms, built-in rules can make sure the data is complete, is in the right place and handwriting is not a factor. What's the benefit:  Time Savings and better data!

3. Do You Manually Enter Form Data into A Database or System?
Data entry is never fun!  What's worse is when it's based on incoming data that may not be accurate or read properly. As the saying goes, "Garbage In, Garbage Out". Using mobile forms, data entry is history because the incoming data is automatically fed into your system where it can be immediately used for analysis, reporting, billing, etc.  What's the benefit:  HUGE time savings, and admin staff can focus on other tasks!

4. Are You Struggling to Respond to Situations Fast Enough?
Mobile forms allow workers to transmit the information they collect immediately! This means when things go a little off-track, you have actionable information within minutes, not 8, 15, 24 or ? hours later when the data gets entered.  Communication gaps are closed, customers get better service and hi-priority situations are resolved faster with less negative impact.  What's the benefit:  Better customer service, fewer high-impact emergencies.

5. Would You Like to Shorten Billing Cycles or Other Processes that Cause Delays Due to Data Entry?
In a best case scenario, hand-written forms are entered the day after they are completed. However, we've seen businesses wait weeks to get that data entered. This lengthens business processes, billing cycles and can put management out of touch with what's happening outside the office. Again, mobile forms bring data in faster and are not effected by other high-priority tasks or employees who are sick or on vacation.  What's the benefit:  Process business actions faster, shorten billing cycles, stay in tune with what's happening in the field.

Well, how did you do?  If you answered YES to 3 or more, it's time to rethink those paper forms.  Mobile forms have many benefits that we would like to talk with you about.  If you'd like to explore mobilizing your paper-based forms, we have a simple form on our web page where you can tell us about your needs.  Here is the URL: http://www.mobiledataforce.com/project_form.php

Thanks for reading!

Tim Cerami
Information Architect @ MobileDataforce, Inc.
www.mobiledataforce.com - 208-384-1200