I know that this is a somewhat older thread at this point, but I hope it's not too late to chime in!
Chet, I think that's a really great article, and poses a lot of good and important questions about how to effectively mobilize a workforce. The question that I think may be missing from the list, is "why?" Why are you mobilizing your workforce? What are you hoping to improve/achieve by introducing mobility, and how will you know when you've done it?
Obviously, there are a million potential reasons that an organization would want to go mobile, but if there is no clear objective other than checking the "we're mobilized" box, then it will be hard to identify the best solution or approach. The reasons don't have to be complicated, but they need to be understood - are you hoping to speed data entry? Are you hoping to provide contractors with a low-overhead way of logging data? Are you looking to cut costs on maintaining an expensive fleet of ruggedized laptops?
Geoff Stokes outlines a few of the motivating factors for his organization ("a) reduction in travel time and associated issues of distance and fatigue management. b) Increase in efficiency and accuracy of data entered through capturing the data at the work site."), so I'm guessing that with clear objectives, they were able to recognize the finish line (of the first stage, anyway) and know when they'd reached it.
There's no "best" reason to go mobile, but it is important to understand the drivers (business, technical, or otherwise) that will shape your solution, and ultimately allow you to determine whether you've been successful in meeting your objective(s).
A long answer to the original question of when to go mobile with Maximo could be, "the time to go mobile with Maximo is when you can identify and evaluate the benefits that will be gained by going mobile, and determine that those benefits justify the cost (upfront and ongoing) of mobilization." The short answer is, like with a lot of things, "It depends."
It's not a very exciting (or clear-cut) answer, and that time will be different for every organization, but it's important to consider.
Of course, if "going mobile" (with whatever solution you choose) provides the opportunity to deliver new capabilities, or greatly simplifies the day-to-day work of the users, it can be a very simple calculation to justify the expense. If going mobile introduces new challenges or makes day-to-day life more difficult for the users (maybe there's limited data available offline, or it's not quick/responsive to user input, etc.) the calculation may not be so straightforward.
A lot of that leads to a bigger/different question, which is "what makes mobility successful?" - but that's a question for another time!
Full disclosure, I do represent a company that sells a mobile solution for Maximo, but this is fundamental to our approach, so I hope it's helpful for someone.
aaron
Aaron Hermes | Practice Manager, European Mobility
aaron.hermes@interlocsolutions.com | mobileinformer.com
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