Case study interactive session management meet the new mobile workers

A. Read the case study.Interactive Session: Management, Meet the New Mobile Workers. We are seeing this trend more every day in our digital society.

-What kinds of applications are described in this case?

-What business functions do they support?

B. Discuss how smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices can be used in running a business.Consider all types of devices, such as Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and Windows phones.What problems are solved in this case by using mobile devices?

Interactive Session: Management Meet the New Mobile Workers How much of your job can you do from the palm of your hand? Probably more than you think. Today there are many job functions for both rank-and-file employees and their managers that can be performed using mobile phones and tablets, including the iPad, iPhone, and Android mobile devices. Companies are enhancing their security systems so that mobile users can remotely access corporate systems with confidence. And they are developing more far-reaching applications to take advantage of the stunning mobile and graphic capabilities. Mobile technology is spreading to core work functions, such as marketing materials for pharmaceutical reps, customer account software for service technicians, and apps for farmers to test the quality of cow’s milk. McClendon’s Select, a Peoria-based organic family-run farm, relies on iPad for each stage of its operation: planting fields, picking crops, filling orders, loading trucks, delivering to restaurants, and selling products at farmers’ markets. Co-owner Sean McClendon uses a wireless camera on his tractor to ensure crop rows are as straight as possible. The mydlinkLite app on his iPad lets him watch the footage as he plows. The farm’s planting manager no longer needs to leave the field to handle the careful record-keeping required to maintain an organic certification. Using her iPad connection to the 3G cellular network, she is able to access the Web-based COG Pro management system to update her records of seed types and where and when they’re planted. Before McClendon’s went digital, orders were handwritten on a white board, a process that was too time-consuming, error-prone, and costly. Now each employee grabs an iPad when arriving for work in the morning and uses a proprietary app called Picker Entry to generate a list of products to collect in the field based on online orders placed by restaurants and consumers. Using AirPrint technology in the iPad, employees then wirelessly print their orders and head out to the field to pick product. After the employees return from the field, they add inventory that they picked using an iPad. They are able to see all of the restaurants on the screen, tap the restaurant name, and fill the orders right from the iPad. When employees load those orders on trucks for deliveries, Picker Entry on the iPad replaces a manual process that used to take 30 to 45 minutes. A single tap to the iPad generates a report telling where each box goes on the truck for restaurant deliveries. One of the main reasons restaurants use McClendon’s is because of its order accuracy.