It’s a known fact that any app that is designed for industrial, business or personal use requires internet access to process transactions. But what if you have designed an app that works best when internet connectivity is good, while fails miserably when you try to access in remote areas with poor internet connectivity? Is it not frustrating when you want to execute a crucial task or get struck in-between when your internet fails suddenly.
Now, what if you have designed a solution for industrial purposes such as a mobile EAM solution that works even when there is zero internet connectivity and still be able to access data that is crucial to execute an emergency task? Looks wonderful, right? This blog throws light on the importance of having an offline support feature in a mobile EAM solution, and why this parameter plays a significant role in effective mobile enterprise asset management (EAM) adoption.
Overview:
How Mobile EAM Solution Helps?
Let’s apply the same analogy to an industrial setup where you need to manage and maintain hundreds or probably thousands of assets. If these assets are located in remote areas (with zero internet connectivity) and still need to be accessed, maintained or repaired, how will a technician manage? If a mobile EAM solution is designed to work in both online and offline modes for ERP applications like SAP or Oracle, that would really be a boon for plant maintenance staff operating in remote locations. Let’s explore the benefits of offline data synchronization.
Offline Data Synchronization
An indispensable feature of a mobile EAM solution is seamless synchronization of online/offline data, particularly vital for remote workforces operating in areas with limited or zero internet connectivity. So, your technicians will always have access to the latest SAP or Oracle data. In large industrial settings, where numerous assets are dispersed across various locations, accessing real-time data is pivotal for efficient maintenance strategies.
In this context, the absence of internet access renders a mobile EAM solution futile if a technician, tasked with repairing an asset, cannot retrieve essential work order information. Hence, a mobile EAM solution must always facilitate the reading, creation, updating, and deletion of data.
Mobile First Strategy
A vendor that is involved in developing mobile and desktop applications should always focus on the ‘mobile-first’ strategy, which means designing the applications for the smallest screens first, and then extending this technology to larger screens.
A mobile-first strategy, therefore, necessitates a robust offline mode, ensuring technicians can effortlessly access work orders and critical data from their backend ERP systems irrespective of online availability. However, determining which data to make accessible poses a pertinent query: should it encompass the entirety of the backend ERP (e.g., Oracle or SAP) data or selectively updated information?
Endowing the local database with complete backend data may result in sluggish data processing, hampering workforce efficiency due to the need to sift through extensive records. Conversely, limiting access to selected data may raise concerns regarding relevancy and completeness.
Scenario/ Problem Statement
Consider a scenario where a technician encounters a damaged motor en route to their next assignment; instant access to the motor’s operating manual and related instructions becomes imperative. Yet, with no internet connectivity, accessing pertinent notifications or documents becomes impossible if offline data is outdated or restricted to a specific timeframe.
In such instances, the approach of storing the entire Oracle or SAP database offline proves advantageous, enabling technicians to promptly access necessary instructions and notifications, thereby minimizing costs for the organization. Nonetheless, mitigating negative repercussions, such as prolonged processing times, necessitates the implementation of a smart sync architecture. This architecture facilitates instantaneous access to the latest data, ensuring technicians operate efficiently without delays.
The best Approach: Smart Syncing
Consider our previous example of downloading the complete data of your Oracle or SAP database onto your smart phone? Let’s assume that your phone has large storage, and it is possible to store complete data. But, as discussed earlier, the processing times becomes longer and the data you need to access may take lot of time, leading to inefficiency and frustration. Here comes the smart syncing approach. With this approach:
- A technician need not worry whether he is online or offline. The phone automatically switches from online to offline or vice versa, based on the status of internet connectivity.
- The transactional data gets updated to and from mobile phone instantly once connectivity is restored, while larger master data like operating manuals, locations and schematics can be updated using a syncing process that is primarily controlled by the organization.
To ensure whether data syncing works perfectly, it is important to test the mobile EAM solution in offline mode to ensure they support your plant maintenance operations. If the mobile solution is designed perfectly, it is bound to work for your technicians in all connectivity statuses, ensuring that your data is constantly synchronized in real time.
Explore Propel Apps’ mobile EAM solution that is the right fit for your business
Propel Apps, a leading digital transformation company, has developed an Oracle mobile EAM solution to automate your asset management workflows. Propel Apps’ mobile EAM solution ticks all the parameters of the perfect mobile app, while offering the crucial offline support for your asset maintenance operations.
The mobile solution’s offline-first architecture ensures app availability at all times without any data loss. Above all, with Propel Apps’ mobile EAM solution, you remove the guess work, while being the #1 solution for maintenance teams to ensure their operations run seamlessly. To know more about Propel Apps’ EAM solution, schedule a call with us today.
