Google I/O 2015 is over and its time to look back (or forward..). One of the most exciting updates for us for sure is the "Android M" with  launch expected in Q3 of 2015.  F eatures like native support for fingerprint sensors, better app-to-app communication, offline access to maps and new power management features can disrupt the way apps are built and consumed. Conserve with Doze Although the improvement seem to be incremental rather than disruptive, they can have significant impact on how our users can benefit. As our users tend to be on field for a really long time with minimal access for charging, the new battery mode 'Doze' could be a value adder.  With M, Android uses significant motion detection to learn if a device has been left unattended for a while. In this state, Android will exponentially back off background activity, trading off a little bit of app freshness for longer battery life. Native Finger Print Support Next up is  Android Pay  w

Excellence in Field service is no longer measured by how efficiently a field worker can be scheduled and routed. The focus has shifted to customer satisfaction and companies are focussing on providing collaborative tools for communication now more than ever. As this Aberdeen report rightly points : ‘In 2015, not much moves faster than social media, and organisations have begun to better understand the business use of social to deliver information and resolution.’ With a range of information at hand, customers have more power and have begun to demand improved service. If their expectations are not met, they have social forums to communicate under performance to the world at large. In a September 2014 survey, 82% companies (n=213) indicated that mobility is to be an important strategic initiative for the next 12 months. This continued development has brought to the fore social collaboration with mobile devices that are in the pockets of most technicians. Social collaboration

A large multinationals’ IT Business Unit in India runs a 24x7 field operations. A team taking care of critical power and cooling systems installed at various data centres across India. It is imperative to have a highly efficient and well-coordinated team in order to meet the strict Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) given the critical nature of their customer operations. The service team needed a mechanism to streamline and manage the new opportunities being identified by the Field Service teams. In their ongoing effort to achieve excellence the team adopted Vitamap’s mEdge for operations in January 2012. All the Field Service Engineers (FSE) are enabled with mEdge the Field Service mobility App. The Call centre team, service coordinators and inventory team are connected to the Field Teams through Cloudtrac a middleware. With this system, Field Team was enabled with: Real time notification of breakdowns to Field Teams Complete details of the issue and customer cont