I have just been made aware of a new piece of research undertaken by Ofcom entitled Tomorrow's Wireless world.
Background to the report
New technology in cars to help avoid collisions; wireless devices to remind patients to take medication; wireless food content scanners to change the way we shop …these are just some of the new technologies that are highlighted in Ofcom’s 2008 technology research report published today.
Tomorrow’s Wireless World scans the horizon ten to twenty years in the future to discover potentially significant advances and new, innovative technologies which are being developed that could improve healthcare and transport provision.
Wireless devices are now an essential part of our everyday lives. As well as transport and healthcare, wireless communications are essential to defence, education, entertainment, culture and commerce. Wireless communications are so integral to our lives that today there are more mobile subscriptions, at 70 million, than the 60 million UK population.
Ofcom’s role is to ensure the most efficient use of the UK’s radio frequencies – or spectrum – that these services use. Spectrum is a finite resource; Ofcom’s technology research helps it to better understand how this precious resource might be used in the future and allows it to plan how we manage the spectrum to meet these demands
To get your free copy of the report click on the link below.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/overview/randd0708/
Friday, 16 May 2008
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Mobility and the environment – bridging the gap in local government
Environmental performance across government is firmly on the political, social and media agenda. Local authorities in particular are faced with both the opportunity and the pressure to set an example and act in the pursuit both of long term sustainability, while also being mindful of current issues such as strongly rising fuel costs.
These are a unique set of circumstances, dictating radical change across a very wide range of local authority activities, processes and policies. Yet in some key areas the pace of change has been slow. With reductions in carbon output at the heart of the whole debate, it has surprisingly been the private sector which has moved more quickly in the use of technology to reduce amount of carbon produced by their workers operating on the move.
In local government in general, there are a huge range of job functions and activities to which mobile and flexible working technology could be applied to significantly reduce environmental impact. These range from social services activities, environmental services and building control to home care, parking services and housing – the list is almost endless. What they have in common is the potential to optimise how job schedules are organised and as a result by how much the overall amount of travel undertaken to carry out the jobs can be reduced.
These field workers perform vital roles across the country for local authorities – many of them travel a great deal to perform their duties. The adoption of mobility technology can radically improve efficiency of remote workers out in the field, and as a result eliminate unnecessary journeys, save very large sums in fuel and reduce the amount of paper used in day-to-day activities by a huge amount.
One recent private sector example offers an exact illustration of what can be achieved. By deploying a field mobility solution with fully integrated satellite navigation, one organisation was able to make more efficient use of their workforce and considerably reduce the average miles covered per job, resulting in a staggering saving of 3.6 million miles per annum. This equates to a carbon reduction of 1,159 metric tonnes of carbon per annum, or the equivalent of 26,953 light bulbs being left on for a year.The company was also able to remove 1.5 million pieces of paper from their business annually, equating to a saving of 17.5 trees’ (60 feet high) every year. Previously, the paper was shredded then incinerated resulted in the production of 7.2 metric tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of 171 light bulbs being left on for a year.
While the use of mobile phones is practically ubiquitous among field workers, effective and efficient use of broader mobile technology is another matter altogether. Yet the environmental and business impact using mobile technology to make improvements can be considerable, and are by no means mutually exclusive objectives.
Using a private sector example illustrates where we are, in general, with the adoption of mobility solutions across local government. For local authorities, the adoption of mobility technology to capitalise on these opportunities – and it’s not just environmental benefits, but performance and service improvements - has been less rapid.
Recent research carried out by The Mobile Data Association into this precise area found that although many authorities were seeking to pursue additional mobile and flexible working options, there remained some general barriers to success. In particular, getting projects from the pilot phase into full use has provided ongoing difficulties across the UK and as a result there are still relatively few really strong examples of mobility technology in use within local government to the benefit of the environment.
On the other side of the coin, there are just a few very good examples of local government leading the way. The London Borough of Lewisham has been a strong advocate of using mobility technology for environmental and service benefits for a considerable time. By implementing a mobility solution for its building and maintenance craft workers and replacing the previous job allocation and paper-based processes the Council has saved an estimated £6,000 per year in reduced paperwork, and over £5,500 in fuel costs.
In simple terms, instead of going into work every day to collect paper-base job schedules which have to be returned later for processing, the craft workers receive optimised job schedules directly to their handheld PDA and visit each site in the most efficient order. The mobility solution provides the intelligent communication to and from each worker, saving time, unnecessary travel and masses of paper. Their work hasn’t gone unnoticed, when the project became an award-winning example of best practise at the end of 2007 with a Microsoft People Moving Business Award,
In the great scheme of things, this is one of not very many case studies across local government. While research can provide the insight into the reasons why, ultimately there needs to be an acceleration of effort from within local government to adopt what is now proven and affordable technology in order to directly address these headline issues of long term sustainability and immediate fiscal benefit.
These are a unique set of circumstances, dictating radical change across a very wide range of local authority activities, processes and policies. Yet in some key areas the pace of change has been slow. With reductions in carbon output at the heart of the whole debate, it has surprisingly been the private sector which has moved more quickly in the use of technology to reduce amount of carbon produced by their workers operating on the move.
In local government in general, there are a huge range of job functions and activities to which mobile and flexible working technology could be applied to significantly reduce environmental impact. These range from social services activities, environmental services and building control to home care, parking services and housing – the list is almost endless. What they have in common is the potential to optimise how job schedules are organised and as a result by how much the overall amount of travel undertaken to carry out the jobs can be reduced.
These field workers perform vital roles across the country for local authorities – many of them travel a great deal to perform their duties. The adoption of mobility technology can radically improve efficiency of remote workers out in the field, and as a result eliminate unnecessary journeys, save very large sums in fuel and reduce the amount of paper used in day-to-day activities by a huge amount.
One recent private sector example offers an exact illustration of what can be achieved. By deploying a field mobility solution with fully integrated satellite navigation, one organisation was able to make more efficient use of their workforce and considerably reduce the average miles covered per job, resulting in a staggering saving of 3.6 million miles per annum. This equates to a carbon reduction of 1,159 metric tonnes of carbon per annum, or the equivalent of 26,953 light bulbs being left on for a year.The company was also able to remove 1.5 million pieces of paper from their business annually, equating to a saving of 17.5 trees’ (60 feet high) every year. Previously, the paper was shredded then incinerated resulted in the production of 7.2 metric tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of 171 light bulbs being left on for a year.
While the use of mobile phones is practically ubiquitous among field workers, effective and efficient use of broader mobile technology is another matter altogether. Yet the environmental and business impact using mobile technology to make improvements can be considerable, and are by no means mutually exclusive objectives.
Using a private sector example illustrates where we are, in general, with the adoption of mobility solutions across local government. For local authorities, the adoption of mobility technology to capitalise on these opportunities – and it’s not just environmental benefits, but performance and service improvements - has been less rapid.
Recent research carried out by The Mobile Data Association into this precise area found that although many authorities were seeking to pursue additional mobile and flexible working options, there remained some general barriers to success. In particular, getting projects from the pilot phase into full use has provided ongoing difficulties across the UK and as a result there are still relatively few really strong examples of mobility technology in use within local government to the benefit of the environment.
On the other side of the coin, there are just a few very good examples of local government leading the way. The London Borough of Lewisham has been a strong advocate of using mobility technology for environmental and service benefits for a considerable time. By implementing a mobility solution for its building and maintenance craft workers and replacing the previous job allocation and paper-based processes the Council has saved an estimated £6,000 per year in reduced paperwork, and over £5,500 in fuel costs.
In simple terms, instead of going into work every day to collect paper-base job schedules which have to be returned later for processing, the craft workers receive optimised job schedules directly to their handheld PDA and visit each site in the most efficient order. The mobility solution provides the intelligent communication to and from each worker, saving time, unnecessary travel and masses of paper. Their work hasn’t gone unnoticed, when the project became an award-winning example of best practise at the end of 2007 with a Microsoft People Moving Business Award,
In the great scheme of things, this is one of not very many case studies across local government. While research can provide the insight into the reasons why, ultimately there needs to be an acceleration of effort from within local government to adopt what is now proven and affordable technology in order to directly address these headline issues of long term sustainability and immediate fiscal benefit.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Water Meter Management best practice
The use of Enterprise Mobility by Severn Trent Metering Services is possibly the leading example of 'Best Practice' to date on how to maximise the use of technology. Their use of technology not only improves efficiency and productivity, but reduces their carbon emissions , protects lone workers and helps and health and safety compliance.
Enjoy the video
Monday, 4 February 2008
Deloitte Telecommunications predictions for 2008
During a recent conversation with Paul Lee from Deloitte, he informed me of a report they had published. I personally found the report very interesting. Paul has kindly given me permission to publish a link to the report from my blog to give my readers an opportunity to download and read the report for themselves.
ENJOY !
The annual Telecommunications Predictions report explore a number of emerging telecommunications trends that will have a significant impact on businesses now and in the future. The Predictions series has been designed to provide a diverse selection of views and thoughts that challenge, inform and engage industry leaders and executives.
Telecommunications Predictions 2008 Link to: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,cid%253D186522,00.html?WT.mc_id=uk_homeflash_read_telepred08
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Machine to machine technology
M2M technology is still emerging technology but what does the future hold ?
M2M is a very broad description of wirelessly connected telemetry technology, it includes anything from vehicle black box tracking systems all the way through to medical equipment, and uses wide area wireless technologies such as GPRS to near field technologies used in mobile payments. Today the majority of organisations will not be considering M2M deployment, unless they are either a transport, healthcare, security, utilities, or retail based business.
According to Berg Insight in 2006 there were 4.1 million wireless M2M units deployed in Europe, with this market set to grow to 24.6 million units by 2011. However the potential market size is huge, if you consider the number of devices that could potentially use this technology. Every car (250 Million in Europe), energy meter (354 million), security alarm system, POS terminals, household appliances and gaming machines, the total number of potential units is huge.
The majority of growth of M2M over the next 5 years will be in the established M2M technologies where cost of the device and the associated operating costs have an acceptable ROI model (vehicle tracking). The key benefits are the ability to use tracking technology to ensure duty of care and improve planning efficiencies through real-time location information. In the UK the Corporate Manslaughter Bill which becomes Law 6th April 2008, this could act as the catalyst for further growth in the vehicle and person tracking market as senior managers deploy this technology to assist in duty of care, safety on the roads and lone worker protection.
The area’s for significant growth such as energy meters, household appliances will not start to grow until new lower cost models are developed...
For example; an energy meter module must cost less than $25 and have an operating cost of around $2.50 per year and must have a low power consumption, such that batteries only require changing once every 5 years once this can be achieved the ROI models will stack up for mass adoption in energy utilities. Possibly the household appliances will be last to adopt
Compared to Mobile Internet and picture messaging M2M has kept a relatively low profile, and is simply down to the fact that this is still very much and emerging technology. The market potential for M2M is phenomenal because, if you think, the world population is 6.6 billion now and, if each individual has 10 machines, you are talking about 66 billion devices that could be mobilised. The key to the success of M2M will be the OEM's producing low cost units and the network operators developing new innovative telemetry tariffs that ensure low operating costs.
Once this happens then M2M will drive a “I want it now” culture, the immediacy of information and the market will be set to explode.
If you would like to know more about the current state of the Cellular M2M service provider markets. Please click on the link below to download a complimentary and well balanced report form Jasper Wireless.
http://www.jasperwireless.com/research_report.php
According to Berg Insight in 2006 there were 4.1 million wireless M2M units deployed in Europe, with this market set to grow to 24.6 million units by 2011. However the potential market size is huge, if you consider the number of devices that could potentially use this technology. Every car (250 Million in Europe), energy meter (354 million), security alarm system, POS terminals, household appliances and gaming machines, the total number of potential units is huge.
The majority of growth of M2M over the next 5 years will be in the established M2M technologies where cost of the device and the associated operating costs have an acceptable ROI model (vehicle tracking). The key benefits are the ability to use tracking technology to ensure duty of care and improve planning efficiencies through real-time location information. In the UK the Corporate Manslaughter Bill which becomes Law 6th April 2008, this could act as the catalyst for further growth in the vehicle and person tracking market as senior managers deploy this technology to assist in duty of care, safety on the roads and lone worker protection.
The area’s for significant growth such as energy meters, household appliances will not start to grow until new lower cost models are developed...
For example; an energy meter module must cost less than $25 and have an operating cost of around $2.50 per year and must have a low power consumption, such that batteries only require changing once every 5 years once this can be achieved the ROI models will stack up for mass adoption in energy utilities. Possibly the household appliances will be last to adopt
Compared to Mobile Internet and picture messaging M2M has kept a relatively low profile, and is simply down to the fact that this is still very much and emerging technology. The market potential for M2M is phenomenal because, if you think, the world population is 6.6 billion now and, if each individual has 10 machines, you are talking about 66 billion devices that could be mobilised. The key to the success of M2M will be the OEM's producing low cost units and the network operators developing new innovative telemetry tariffs that ensure low operating costs.
Once this happens then M2M will drive a “I want it now” culture, the immediacy of information and the market will be set to explode.
If you would like to know more about the current state of the Cellular M2M service provider markets. Please click on the link below to download a complimentary and well balanced report form Jasper Wireless.
http://www.jasperwireless.com/research_report.php
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