It has been estimated that up to 80% of Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) installations end in failure (at least from the user’s perspective). In this $200-million / year industry how can this be?

From my experience CMMS adoption is signifgantly tied to pure usability: the ability to get information in and out of the system. You have to put a good tool in the hands of the skilled trades member that is is accessible, ergonomic, and easy-to-use - one that complements the role they are in, not complicate it. What better way to empower this than with a mobile device that can be used directly at the process? Other advantages include:

• Elimination of paper-based dispatch models.
• Ability to work offline in remote areas without wireless
• Scan equipment barcodes / RFID tags for asset information
• Replace expensive radios with voice over IP (VOIP) 
• Look up diagrams, job plans, spare parts at the touch of a button

David Berger of Plant Services writes an outstanding article called Tighten the Loop that elaborates on the advantages of mobile CMMS.

Panasonic has just recently released the Toughbook U1. It includes the following features:

• Intel Atom Processor - Can run full Vista or XP.
• Solid State Hard Drive, IP54 (4-foot drop to concrete)
• Barcode, GPS, Camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G Options
• 9 Hour Battery Life, Hot Swappable Battery
• 5.6″ LED Touchscreen w/ Full QWERTY Keyboard

I can see a lot of potential for these devices for both field workers and as vehicle mounts. They run about $3000, somewhat more than an industrial PDA; however the screen real estate is outstanding (1024×600 vs 320×240).

Also considering that this is a full OS (not a simple mobile edition) your existing desktop applications can be used and developed for it. Keyboard is a bit small on these types of devices, but the touch screen can definitely be leveraged instead. Here is the link the the product spec sheet.

Alex Iskold of AdaptiveBlue wrote a fascinating article on potential mobile applications that will be made possible by integrated GPS. Imagine the following:

• Take a picture of someone or something and have it automatically post to a map online. Add comments to the world wide “geo-wiki”.
• Take a picture of something and have a web service identify it and provide information about the object based off of your location.
• Have your mobile device serve as a tour guide giving you information as you walk in a particular landmark or establishment.
• Scan a product and literally see if there is another store nearby or online with a better deal!

What’s going to make Apple so strong in this arena is that they have both high-standards and now an open development platform (like Facebook) which will encourage thousands of quality companies and developers to market innovative solutions. A $100-million iFund (venture capital) has already been set aside for those seeking to provide mobile solutions relating to mCommerce (mobile commerce), social networking, and location-based services.

Another entrant in the arena is Sense Networks. They have an interesting application that tracks and pinpoints cell phone activity in metropolitan areas. May be scary but such can be used to analyze and predict a plethora of marketing trends. Q: What types of restaurants do people most frequent after school and where are they coming from (based off real aGPS/GSM activity)? A: “Oh yeah!” - another McDonald’s should do just fine over there. Sense Networks currently has an application, called CitySense, that tracks where the “hottest” night clubs are based off of these metrics. Get ready, this is just the beginning!

The latest craze in wireless routers is the draft 802.11n standard which boasts speeds upwards of 300mbps (megabits per second). Is it worth the hype? Should you enable your home or office for this new standard. That depends. Here are some factors to consider if you do choose to make the switch:

1. Most 802.11n routers have received mediocre reviews at best. This is still a fledgling technology and definately not ready for the enterprise yet. Best kept at home for the time being.

2. 802.11n can leverage the 5Ghz spectrum rather than the 2.4Ghz spectrum that older 802.11 standards leverage. The 2.4Ghz spectrum has a limited number of channels while it also shared with a slew of other devices ranging from your Bluetooth headset to your microwave oven. Interference is inevitable. If you invest in a 802.11n network make sure you get a dual-band router (like the LinkSys WRT600N to the left) that handles both spectrums.

3. The older and established 802.11g has maximum throughput of 54mbps. Please note this is theoretical. You may only get anywhere close to this when your computer or device is literally right on top of the router. Once you start moving a few feet away, the signal and throughput will degrade with distance. Actual 802.11g throughput is often under 20mbps. The same is true with 802.11n. You can add more routers/repeaters to your home network to boost the signal.

4. You may also want to consider a router (and corresponding hardware) that includes Gigabit ethernet since the actual throughput of a draft-N router is well above that of a standard 10/100 ethernet connection.

5. The only reason most people would ever need to use draft-N is for large file transfers from computer to computer. For just Internet access alone you probably do not need it. The actual throughput of the older 802.11g networks is already way above what most ISP’s can handle.

Now let me turn to my own review. I just recently purchased a NetGear WNDR3300 from Dell for less than $100. It supports dual-band draft N to minimize interference and has eight internal smart antennas that adjust to the client position. I purchased the unit after I found my existing 802.11g router too slow to stream media from the PC in my office to my HDTV in the living room. 

On the downside signal strength leaves much to be desired. The draft-N at 5Ghzdoes not seem to have the range that my old LinkSys G-router used to have; however once the client connects the antennas in the unit adjust and signal strength improves! Throughput maxes out at a theoretical 270mbps on my laptop network card, however my actual throughput for streaming media is around 60mbps which is more than enough to stream full HD (which requires around 25mbps actual throughput). At this point, I actually think the bottleneck is the hard drive on the media server which is an older IDE unit (rather than a newer SATA model).

One final note, I had to significantly tweak my laptop network drivers. There were some adjustments that had to be made to stream media from an older XP box to Vista. Here’s an article to assist.

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