August is always an interesting month for me at Sybase, as it’s the month when Sybase holds their User Training & Solutions Conference and employees like myself get to meet a lot of customers and partners face to face. This year was no exception – I was thrilled to meet the folks who I have believed for a long while are the leaders and responsible for the coolest weapons in the road warrior’s mobile arsenal. Who am I talking of? Why HTC, of course, one of our great sponsors this year. In fact, if TechWave were a Bond Movie (let’s forget Jason Bourne for a while, as I’m British and have been raised on the one and only JB), HTC would be Q, the guy with all the neat gadgets that look so normal from the outside, but pack an outstanding power punch. That’s a good analogy for these HTC devices and I was lucky to be shown the fantastic line-up of hardware by James Wu, senior manager, HTC.

When you load the Windows Mobile OS and Sybase products, such as the award-winning PocketBuilder for RAD 4GL Windows Mobile Smart Client Development (http://www.sybase.com/products/development/pocketbuilder), SQL Anywhere and MobiLink for Mobile Database & Data Synchronization, OneBridge for Mobile e-mail, and finally Afaria for device security and management, it’s like loading ammunition into your Walther PPK, strapping on your jet backpack, and you’re ready for the mission. In fact, the sky’s the limit and, in my honest opinion, it is now the time that we should see more mobile workers carrying handheld devices rather than carrying around large bags with high-powered and high-priced laptops or, even worse, separate pieces of equipment.

Several factors lead me to that statement… Battery life is getting better every day, along with processing power, memory, and built-in hardware. In fact the built-in hardware of mobile devices currently outpace their heavier and larger cousins – the desktops and laptops. Now that traveling can be so painful with security checks and carry-on luggage restrictions – think small.

Let’s take standard features first. The new mobile device can use mobile e-mail to communicate with the world just as well as a desktop version, even to the extent of sending and receiving attachments from products such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In fact, newer devices can plug straight into LCD projectors. Core operating system features include calendar, task, contact integration, voice recording, and the ability to write by hand straight into the device; and cameras for storing images in the database and synchronizing them back wirelessly via WI-FI or GPRS to the back-end systems. Then we have the Bluetooth-enabled external hardware such as mobile printers, barcode scanners, GPS receivers, and RFID scanners for the rapid input of data.

All of these can be used in applications that can be developed with Sybase software and will add real innovation to your mobile applications. Let me set the scene for my fictitious organization. My insurance company needs to speed up the flow and turn around in claims. Currently assessors are given their appointments in the office at the start of the day and then go out on the road. They may take a paper notebook, dictaphone, diary, camera, cellphone, and a map of the local area. Not a pretty picture of a mobile worker, with all this equipment, but a real possibility. During a full working day the assessor drives to each claimant’s location and takes detailed notes and pictures; these separate pieces of information then have to be entered into the back-office system on return to headquarters at the end of the day. Quite a task! The insurance company also has issues as they don’t readily know where each assessor is located; if any new important claims need to be visited as soon as possible, getting the flow of messages to and from the assessors is sometimes quite difficult.

For our innovative mobile application design, let’s first replace the assessor’s paper notebook, dictaphone, diary, camera, and cellphone with a Windows Mobile Professional device, such as one of the HTC devices.
 
Benefits of empowering with anywhere, anytime data access from mobile applications (see Figure 1):

• Dramatic boosts in productivity and efficiency, enabling assessors to manage more clients
• Reduced time intervals between submission of client applications and underwriting, ensuring that clients receive coverage faster
• Extraordinary customer service capabilities, resulting in higher satisfaction
• Ability to maintain security and confidentiality of client policy information
• Significant reductions in redundant data entry, administrative costs, and errors
• More efficient data delivery to remote users and central processing
• Increased/better communication to/from the field
• Work automation and tracking

Using the features of the device and the power of PocketBuilder we can easily create an application that encapsulates all types of data the assessor would wish to enter. So at the source the assessor can capture typed text, written notes/drawings, pictures, and voice notes. These can be saved directly into the SQL database on the device and easily synchronized to the back-end system. This synchronization could be achieved after each call to speed claim turnaround, or at the end of the day via WiFi or GSM/GPRS while on the way home.

Extending the application further to include input from GPS receiver hardware, such as from suppliers TomTom, Pharos, and Teletype to name a few, adds more innovative features. The PocketBuilder application could occasionally synchronize the current location (latitude and longitude) of the assessor to a back-end system. This would meet the requirements to know which assessor is the closest to that important new claim appointment; using the PocketBuilder application to link to navigation software from the same vendors, they could be routed automatically to the next location with efficient driving instructions.

Straightaway with our PocketBuilder application, we have added innovation with handwritten data, voice and picture data through software and hardware working in combination. We can also add phone-enabling features, so the assessor can call or SMS the next appointment automatically from within the PocketBuilder application if there is likely to be a delay in the appointment, without even having to look up the client contact details.

Summary
Now the mobile warrior can depart from the office, leaving behind the cameras, maps, dictaphones, diaries, and cellphones and go out prepared for all eventualities. Then with the added capabilities of a smart client application built with Sybase PocketBuilder, the daily business processes can be streamlined and achieved on the road.