Integration of Location Based Services with Mobile Business Processes Management

1. Integration of Location Based Services with Mobile Business Processes Management Supervisor: prof. Heikki HämmäinenInstructor: fm Ville Westerholm Master’s Thesis Seminar14.3.2006

2. Agenda • Introduction • Background • Location Based Services • Mobile Personnel Management System • Research Problem • Research Method • Requirements of Integration • Solution Architectures • Pilot Integration • Conclusions

3. Background • In many business areas, such as logistics, the mobility is compulsory • Traditionally the business process management has been more or less stationary and therefore mobile field force personnel may have had old or even faulty information of the task • Another area of interest, when working with mobile personnel, is location • When systems are not integrated, Location Based Services (LBS) cannot offer functionality that would seamlessly support the mobile field force management

4. Location Based Services • Services, which contain: defining location, location information transporting, and services, which are related to information of mobile device user location • Geographic Information System (GIS) studies the geographical information of world’s surface and man-made structures -> Used for digital maps • Positioning is location of an object in a specified reference system • Navigation is an action that helps finding the specified location based on the user choices • Tracking is defined as positioning based functionality that aims for reporting a position of the object in close to real-time fashion and may also contain surveillance of the object

5. Mobile Personnel Management System • Offers end-to-end solution for mobile workers to be connected to operative processes of enterprises

6. Research Problem • Required functionality of LBS to support field force management? • Architectural design of the integration based on current products? • Positioning method that can be used for locating the users?

7. Requirements of Integration (1/3) • Customer requirements

8. Requirements of Integration (2/3) • Functional requirements of LBS • Define Point of Interest • Define User of Interest • Show Map • Solve Coordinates for Address • Solve Address for Coordinates • Define Distance Between Coordinates • Define Driving Distance Between Coordinates • Define Shortest Route • Collect User Location Information • Store User Location Information History • Navigate to Coordinates • Update Maps • Download Special Maps

9. Requirements of Integration (3/3) • Other requirements • Have to meet common requirements set for mobile field force management system • Global • Support Distinctive Resale Models • Scalable • Secure • Reliable • Requirements that enable fulfilling functionality • Adequate positioning • Real-Time Tracking Information

10. Modules of Integration

11. Architectural Solution 1

12. Architectural Solution 2

13. Comparison of the Solutions

14. Positioning Methods [http://www.tekes.fi/julkaisut/paikannus_mobiilipalveluissa.pdf]

15. Pilot Integration • Indagon Leader tracking solution is integrated to Fujitsu mProcess field force management solution • Based on architectural solution 1 -> Fast to implement and only one point of integration with mProcess • Offers proof of concept • Most of the defined functionality was implemented -> Enables evaluation of defined requirements • Will be taken to production, after enhancements

16. Screen Shots

17. Conclusions • LBS can be used to enhance mobile personnel management • Defined functionality is sufficient, but further research should be done as new requirements emerges • GPS positioning is sufficient for most of the use scenarios. For greater accuracy, enhanced GPS or hybrid positioning is required. • Based on pilot integration feed-back, it is possible to take the concept to production after some technical enhancements