Mobile Mentor

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business systems analyst for a forestry company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mobile Mentor?

Our core challenge was transitioning our manual logging system to a custom mobile application, improving logistics and supply-chain data flows. Our aim was to simplify processes for our drivers while improving validation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use a staged approach. Mobile Mentor started simple and refined later. Our haulage drivers log into the app using a basic security arrangement. The app has a lot of safety information about alcohol consumption and fitness for duty. Drivers can register for shifts, access the sources and destinations of logs, view information about routes and trucks, and indicate the products made from those logs and the species of tree used. 

It also has GPS features that track the vehicles at all times. We can analyze GPS data for every truck and gather information on road maintenance and engineering. The data uploads directly to our accounting system. Within 30 minutes of completing a load, we can generate a report. We previously needed up to 14 days before generating an account.

We’ve leveraged a lot of geolocation and geofencing technology. When choosing resources and destinations, the GPS reduces the number of options based on the user's location. We’ve also taken our devices into the field and recorded the tests to improve their understanding of bugs.

What is the team composition?

One of their directors initially managed the project. He was knowledgeable, professional, and had a good handle on the project. His development team consisted of a senior developer who doubled as operations manager and was also great. They were supported by six good developers.

During implementation, they changed their internal structure. Now the development and operations roles are separate, and the operations manager handles project management.

How did you come to work with Mobile Mentor?

We heard about them through regional forestry and technology forums. Mobile Mentor gave several good presentations. We engaged them for an initial consult on mobile strategies. They had the right attitude, so we evaluated them and compared them to alternatives on the off-the-shelf market. They were knowledgeable about mobile services and had done enterprise work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We didn’t have a fixed budget, just a set of goals. The cost was between $100,000–$120,000 AUD (approximately $137,000–$165,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Mobile Mentor in November 2015. We had a hiatus, but engaged them again in 2016 for preliminary workshops, design, and discussions around the high-level quotation. The project started around Christmas 2015 and launched in November 2017.

We’ve been live for 9–10 months and are starting the second phase. Now we're leveraging new technologies, integrating the device with weigh bridges at customer sites, and improving the UX. Mobile Mentor has helped us understand the transition from a manual solution to a mobile one and ensure that we provide the best options for our users.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The app drives efficiency and reduces our sales administration overhead. We've saved massive amounts of time and greatly improved our ability to gather data. We don’t have many hands-on functions and have removed filing from our processes. We've slimmed the team down, saved money, and changed our focus. Now we manage contracts and sales rather than worrying about data processing.

How did Mobile Mentor perform from a project management standpoint?

It's an exercise in daily communication and management. We meet monthly with Mobile Mentor. They’re always supportive, getting involved and learning about our business at the roots. This adds extra value to the solutions we design. We use Jira to manage agile sprints, track their development work, and we report bugs while we perform user acceptance testing. It's an efficient sorting method. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approach is driven by their passion. Mobile Mentor has a better way of doing things, and it’s refreshing. They’re responsive to requests and extremely passionate about their work. Mobile Mentor has offered a lot of free advice over the years with no expectation that we'll pay for their products.

Their support is also great. They support not only their products, but also the user, the device, the operating system, and any other user requirements, even if they’re not business-related. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, our main issues surrounded internet support service. We had trouble getting their service testers to learn our solution. We had close to 160 users who were all new to the space. Mobile Mentor is great with standard device issues and reports, but were slow to learn our custom app. 

They came to our site to facilitate the improvement. It took about six months for this to succeed. Over the last three months, their knowledge and our user feedback have greatly improved. We were heavily reliant on Mobile Mentor’s expertise for providing support. They fell short, but improved.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The key is communicating, getting the vendor in-line with the company, and ensuring that they understand ground-level processes. If a developer is punching code in a remote location, they won’t understand the scope.

We've worked with Mobile Mentor to get their people onboard. Give the developer a tour of your site, tell them what you need, and show them the problem that needs to be solved. This will make the whole experience far better. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project coordinator for the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales. We manage the state’s forestry assets on both plantation and native forests for a range of benefits, including commercial timber products and recreation environmental values.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mobile Mentor?

We’ve worked with Mobile Mentor on two projects, both dealing with our supply chain, increasing efficiency in business processes, and having accurate business information and data to make better management decisions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our first project together centered around moving to a digital docketing or receipt system. Traditionally, when we delivered a load of timber to a customer, there was a carbon copy docket. Those dockets would have to be distributed to all of the stakeholders throughout the supply chain, and then the customer would enter the dockets into their own management system. Mobile Mentor developed a mobile application that enables us to have one point of truth for that information. We now have real-time information as those dockets are automatically transmitted and everyone has the information they need.

Additionally, we can use the mobile app to identify where our trucks are and what product they are carrying. That tracking enables us—and our customers—to better, and more efficiently, manage our business operations.

The second project addressed how we manage our stock. Our operations involve putting all of the wood on the roadside, and then trucks coming to pick that up. Prior to our work with Mobile Mentor, it was difficult to get real-time information about how much wood was available. Once a week, someone would tally all of the wood and update the information through email, phone call, or spreadsheet, which took a lot of time and energy. However, 24–48 hours later, that information would be out of date.

With the mobile app, our drivers have real-time information, and through the mapping component, can see where they are relative to the product. That's improved efficiency in how we manage stock information, but it also helped our drivers and ultimately our customers.

We have an ongoing relationship with Mobile Mentor for app maintenance and updates. They provide a 24/7 call center so that our drivers and customers can call at any time. Every few months, we’ve found new features or functionalities that we want to implement, or there are changes in legislation or our business operating environment.

The app works on Android and iOS tablets or mobiles devices. We typically push iOS devices because that’s what we’ve had the most success with, but it works on both systems. They used the mobile app development platform, Ionic, MobileIron’s mobile device management systems, and all of the web services set up for their own business systems are hosted in AWS. The app is not available in app stores, because we control who it is distributed to.

What is the team composition?

We dealt closely with the project manager and there have been a number of different developers that we’ve worked with across the projects. The project manager interpreted our needs to the technical development team and made sure that everyone was on the same page. Mobile Mentor has always made sure that there are people on the team that are familiar with the project and our goals in case of any turnover so that we don’t suffer from any sort of skill gap or lack of understanding.

How did you come to work with Mobile Mentor?

I first heard about them at a forest or agricultural conference. They were one of several companies that I reached out to. We decided that Mobile Mentor was a good size in that they had the expertise to work with us on the solution, but weren’t so big that we would get lost as a customer. We wanted a team that could devote attention to the projects.

They offered a competitive package in terms of prices and development skills, but what really stood out to us was that they offered a service. They were willing to go beyond delivering the application and help us distribute it to our devices, as well as operate a 24/7 call center. That way, our drivers can call at any time if they’re having trouble with the application and connect with someone that has the expertise, resources, and familiarity with the application to give them the support they need.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015, the first project lasted 12­–18 months, we began the second project six months after that and are currently finishing that implementation, and we have an ongoing relationship with them for support and maintenance of the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The time that we spent managing our docket information reduced by roughly 20%, which equates to saving roughly five people several hours of work. However, the real power and impact came from the quality of information and our ability to now make better business decisions with this information.

We have 200–300 trucks driving at any given time of the day to pick up wood, and if they don’t have updated information they could waste several hours to a whole day—and lose hundreds of dollars—driving from location to location to find a load. Additionally, if the weather turns and we need to pick up a load before it begins to rain, we are able to see which route trucks are traveling and dispatch the closest driver. If a load is ruined, you are potentially missing that month’s sale and losing revenue.

We’ve seen an impact in safety benefits as well. If we receive a complaint about a particular truck, we can quickly locate the driver and address whatever the issue is.

How did Mobile Mentor perform from a project management standpoint?

They used their own internal project management software, and we use Smartsheet. We would keep track of all the issues and timelines, and communicate about them regularly. For example, if we were working on a change request, I would provide the request, they would provide an indicative timeframe of a week, and about midweek they would reach out to us for a progress update. It worked well for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I value the relationship that we’ve built with the project manager. Any time an issue needs to be escalated through the service desk, we can call him, and the few times that he doesn’t answer, he always responds quickly. Mobile Mentor has delivered a good, robust, well-designed business application that works 99.9% of the time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There weren’t any issues working with Mobile Mentor, but I can make an overall comment about working with call centers. They tend to communicate with end-users via email instead of over the phone, which causes problems with a less tech-savvy user base. Some of our drivers use email so infrequently that it would be more efficient to call them rather than send an email.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No matter the project, it helps when companies have an internal project lead that can dedicate resources to the project and act as the main point of contact for vendors. When you outsource a service, such as development work, it can be difficult for the outsourced team to manage all of the internal relationships. It’s much easier to have a lead person within the company that can coordinate between all of the different stakeholders and make sure the requirements are properly communicated.