Mobile technology for field workers

Knowing exactly what’s happening out in the field is possible - if you have the right field service mobile technology.

For many organisations, the field is where it’s at. If you’re in an industry like sales and service or agribusiness, that’s where your customers are at. If you’re in construction, it’s where your sites are. In transport, you need to move things from one point to another. And in Government, health and other industries, there’s a need to visit people in non-office settings.

No matter the industry you’re in, you know being in the field generates lots of data - and it’s often difficult to keep track of all that data. After all, much of it is paper. It usually needs to be taken to an office and then transcribed and uploaded to your computer systems - a time-consuming and expensive process. Yet this data needs to be kept track of.

Importance of field data collection accurately & quickly

Put simply, it’s important to capture information correctly for legal, safety and business operations reasons. For example, if you are in Healthcare, Tabral improves information access, enhances workflow and promotes evidence-based practice to make effective decisions at point of care.

Community nurses wins with mobile devices out-scoring laptops in all aspects: portability, connectivity and time saving.

Mobile platform for field services data collection is useful in documentation, medical reference and access to patient data.

Then there’s safety. If you’re in construction - like a scaffolding company - you need to do regular safety checks and keep track of any hazards, so your staff and the public don’t get hurt.

When it comes to business operations, it’s the simple fact disorganisation costs you time and money - hurting your business overall and adding unnecessary stress. You don’t want to make things harder for yourself if you don’t have to.

What is the need for efficient retrieval of data?

For safety, you might need to access information so everyone at a job site is aware of the hazards. For business operations, being able to get information quickly means that much more knowledge and to be able to make a decision more decisively and quickly.

This is more challenging and time-consuming, as well as costly, when done on paper. Initially, the data must be written down. Afterward, it must be archived, either physically or electronically. And all along the way it has to be done thoroughly and everyone needs to know where it is - which in itself might require more paper.

When your organisation has large numbers of people in the field, it’s a system that becomes all the more inefficient - as you may know all too well.

A better way to store and access information

If you want to get rid of paper forms, there is a better way: moving to easy-to-use digital forms accessible through mobile devices.

One of the best ways to do this is adopting Tabral’s field data collection platform to make the job of staying on top of what’s happening in the field much easier. Tabral transforms how your business captures and transfers information using mobile devices - in a way anyone can do, since no special IT skills are required.

Solutions can be customised, too, to meet your particular needs to help you succeed. It can even be used offline when there isn’t internet coverage. Here are some of the best use case examples of businesses across New Zealand and Australia that have gained significant benefits from using Tabral.

Construction industry improved operational efficiency

The construction field has many case studies of how tremendously helpful field service management software can be for field service businesses. Ashburton Contracting Ltd (ACL) had a contract with the Ashburton District Council that required ACL to monitor and maintain the region’s three sewage treatment plants and 13 water treatment plants. Chlorine levels, pumping performance and many other parameters had to be measured and recorded every day.

But filling out paper forms at all these sites day in and day out was a complicated and time-consuming process, as the forms had to be returned to the office and entered into several spreadsheets. But switching to Tabral allowed data from the field to be immediately visible to all stakeholders - saving lots of time and money. The process made such a difference and was so seamless, they created another more solutions to compile information when pipelines are built.

Mobile Technology helps to save time by improve Trucking data capture

Tabral’s mobile platform significantly improved TDM Construction’s trucking data capture process by reducing data entry time from six or seven hours per week to just one hour. Before TDM adopted Tabral they used an old paper-based system that involved drivers filling in a docket each time they took a load on board. Then a day or two later, all the information from the dockets would be manually entered into spreadsheets in the head office, and the process of accounting and invoicing could begin.

The process was simplified for all the workers with Tabral significantly improving business efficiency and saving time. All the drivers had to enter the source (for example, a quarry or building site), docket number, tonnage and destination. At the end of the job the virtual docket was completed, and then automatically dispatched via the mobile phone network.

The status of jobs could be checked from anywhere, whether the supervisor was in the field or at the office. The same information could be sent through other accountable workers to transfer job information into spreadsheets and enter it into the computer system. Instead of a two to three-day delay, current information would be constantly updated.

TDM has built more apps on the Tabral platform, including leave forms and mechanical workshop job sheets.

With mobile, field data collection needn’t be as complicated a process as the days of paper forms. Mobile data collection means gathering quality data from field teams in real time - a data collection process that saves time as well as money. It’s a win for businesses and customers alike.

Learn more about Field Service Process Automation for Businesses & Organisations.