Companies should consider 5 factors before deploying a mobile solution. The first blog in this series focused on the first 2 C’s of Mobility, Connect and Consume. If you missed part 1 please visit This blog will explore two more factors: Create and Consider.
Create
The value mobility delivers to your company is directly related to the effectiveness of your mobile applications. Although rapid development tools make it easy to create and deploy new mobile applications, it is essential that applications are created to be effective and beneficial for all parties. Developing mobile applications for mission-critical processes helps companies save costs, gain critical information for decision making, and provides companies with a competitive advantage. To make these applications attractive to employees and customers, companies should make sure these applications possess all the best qualities of consumer apps. This includes making apps with an easy-to-use user interface, making them easy to download, adding instant value for the user, and having a fast ROI for the company. Because of easy development and deployment, it is important companies take time in developing the mobile applications they plan on releasing. Applications should only be released if they offer a unique advantage to both the user and the company.
As you can tell from the 5 “C’s” of mobility there are lots of factors that need to be considered before deploying a successful mobile solution. In the chemicals industry, careful inspection of these factors is essential in avoiding a potential hazardous disaster. In today’s market having a mobile solution seems almost essential. However, to successfully deploy a mobile solution and join the market in the mobile world you have to make sure your pre-existing company structure supports the new changes associated with a mobile solution. Use this blog series as a guideline and checklist to ensure you don’t jump the gun and deploy an unsuccessful mobile solution.
Consider:
Different from many other industries, introducing a mobile solution in the chemical industry also raises questions of compatibility. Due to the hazardousness of the industry, companies deploying mobile solutions need to take into account that employees working on the plant floor need to have intrinsically safe devices. For example, consumer products like the iPhone and iPad can’t be used on the shop floor because if dropped these devices create
sparks which could cause an explosion if explosive vapors are present in the room.
To help companies with this issue the IEC/NEC has created a classification system for areas of hazardous gases or vapors. This classification system ranks plant areas in zones from 0-2. Zone 0 means that there is an explosive atmosphere continuously present, Zone 1 means an explosive atmosphere is often present, and Zone 2 means an explosive atmosphere may accidentally be present. The problem is that getting a mobile device classified as “compatible with Zone 0 or Zone 1” takes a long time. Due to the fast developing nature of the mobile industry, this means the system or device the company is trying to deploy will most likely already be outdated.
Companies should also make sure that the mobile applications they plan on using are available on the operating devices and mobile devices suitable for plant floor zones. Deploying a mobile solution and then realizing the applications they need are not available on the operating systems and
devices the company uses would be a giant waste of money.
Have you faced issues with mobile device compatibility? Do you have any tips for creating applications? Feel free to discuss/share stories about these questions along with mobility in the chemicals industry in general in the comment space below.
Or join the conversation at @SAP4Chemicals
