General Questions
What is JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ and how can it help my company?
The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ is a wireless software system that extends legacy software and enterprise applications to mobile employees, e.g., field technicians doing installation, maintenance, repair, or inspections. The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ allows you to continually communicate, track and coordinate with field staff. BusinessSuite improves productivity, is easy to use, is independent with regard to carrier and devices, and is customizable without programming. BusinessSuite pays for itself in 5 months or less.
What are the major benefits of using JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™?
The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ improves overall operating efficiencies by extending enterprise software and data to any employee no matter where they are. It provides an organization with the ability to:
Can I use JumpStart’s BusinessSuite to increase productivity and reduce costs for my mobile employees?
The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ enables you to make field operations more efficient. Employees can be more tightly scheduled by eliminating the burden of paper-work orders or delivery manifests. Unproductive downtime or wait time is eliminated. Field techs are provided with work history and parts history to help speed completion of tasks. End of day “paper work” is replaced with speedy digital forms, pick lists, and over-the-air reporting.
I understand how BusinessSuite can reduce costs but can it also be leveraged to increase revenues?
By getting more work out of current staff, squeezing in more tasks per day, and improving customer service, BusinessSuite customers can actually use wireless applications to enhance their revenues. Consider how much your bottom line would increase if each mobile worker was able to undertake one more job per day, 220 days per year. By providing management with improved supervision capabilities and employees with more accountability, additional work can be achieved with the same number of employees. Third party contractors can be scheduled more efficiently, supplies and materials can be managed on a just-in-time basis, and licenses and approvals can be obtained on a timelier basis.
Can automating field operations with BusinessSuite also generate cost savings by reducing office expenses and overhead?
The BusinessSuite™ helps you cut expenses in many ways. For instance, by increasing the number of jobs per day per field staff, you could reduce the number of field employees that you need to hire as your business grows. In addition, The BusinessSuite™ eliminates routine paperwork and phone calling to and from the office, reducing the workload on dispatchers and office data entry workers. Data entry operations in the office can essentially be eliminated. And because data is entered at the job site, data quality is improved, disposing with the need for re-dos in entering job and billing information.
How does JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ extend enterprise applications and data to mobile workers?
The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ allows your headquarters staff to continue to enter work tasks via existing service management, CRM, or other enterprise software. If you do not have service management software you can enter tasks via BusinessSuite’s own user-friendly Internet web screens. As work is entered, it is routed to the appropriate field tech via a wireless device carried on your field staff's belt or in their vehicle. All necessary job information appears on the device. As your field staff does their work, they enter information into the device, immediately sending start time, stop time, work completed, parts used, and other relevant information back to the enterprise server at head office. The application that runs on the wireless devices is the same application that runs of the enterprise server but reformatted for smaller screens (smaller form factor). This provides instant communication and knowledge of field staff projects to headquarters staff and provides field and office with the same real time data.
I have always thought wireless capability was too expensive for my business. How much does it cost?
Approximately $1-2 per user per day. Reduced travel, avoidance of high gasoline costs, fewer office staff, increased productivity, and improved response time generates a return many times greater than the cost. Our customers generally achieve break even in the first 3 - 5 months of use!
My requirements and business processes are very unique, so I need to customize my forms. Plus, I don't want to retrain my field staff on new forms when they start using JumpStart's BusinessSuite™. Is that possible?
Yes. One of the basic design principles of the JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ is that it offers a simple set-up easily adaptable to your business. In addition, you are able to easily customize and change forms without disrupting your business. Frequently during the set up and implementation process, field staff are involved with the design and workflow of the screens on the handheld device. Once implemented, BusinessSuite™ will wirelessly update and synchronize each device without any required steps by the field staff. Generally the forms and their use on the device are self-explanatory. BusinessSuite has been architected so that keystroke entry is minimized and field techs only have to scroll through pick lists and click their selections.
How do I get started with JumpStart?
It's fast and it's easy. Just contact your JumpStart representative, call 561-243-4700 (ext 200), or email to sales@jumpstartwireless.com. We will work with you to develop a deployment strategy, discuss the forms and work flow you require, work together with the wireless carrier, provide the connector to your enterprise software and you can experience the benefits of JumpStart's BusinessSuite™ within a matter of days or weeks.
In addition to financial benefits are there "intangible" benefits as well?
Companies can improve customer service as a direct result of using BusinessSuite™. For example, consider the value in being able to tell a customer the exact status of her job at all times or displaying estimated arrival times on your web site. Working capital requirements can be reduced if you use BusinessSuite data to reduce unbilled receivables. Being recognized as a technology leader by customers, peers, and competitors upgrades your company’s credibility and image. Eliminating the frustration of lost, mutilated, and illegible paper forms has a beneficial impact on employee morale.
Are other companies or organizations deploying wireless software applications in key business operations?
Many forward looking companies realize that wireless technology can energize operational improvements and enhanced customer service. FedEx, Sears, IBM and other Fortune 500 companies have similar services - developed for millions of dollars. In addition, custom systems integrators are able to develop services that have some comparability to BusinessSuite™, but it would take a lot of time and investment. The JumpStart Wireless BusinessSuite™ is offered as a monthly service, not a one-off development project. We will customize BusinessSuite to your needs and operate it on your behalf. No other company offers such a flexible service and compelling ROI.
Overall, I can see a clear return on investment from implementing BusinessSuite™. However, it doesn't solve all of my management and control needs for my mobile employees, so does it still make sense?
We have found that by solving some of your company's field management concerns, you can focus more time on unsolved issues and you can also work with JumpStart to develop additional, unique JumpStart-based solutions subsequent to the first wireless implementations. We would be happy to discuss your special requirements. In addition, wireless devices, networks, and peripherals improve dramatically every six months. So by starting with two or three wireless applications now you can build the foundation for more advanced and cost effective solutions in the near future. You can realize a positive ROI with today’s capabilities and be in a position to roll out additional functionality after proving the benefits of wireless.
How do I determine the potential savings from using BusinessSuite? Can I justify your system on an ROI basis?
JumpStart has numerous ROI models that you can use to determine the financial benefits of wireless applications in your company. Together with your CFO, JumpStart can prepare detailed ROI models that show the cost benefits of implementing the BusinessSuite wireless system. Savings include costs reduced in the field and the office, reductions in working capital requirements, and minimization of equipment and inventory shrinkage.
Is BusinessSuite available outside of the United States? Does BusinessSuite have foreign language support?
JumpStart is available in Europe, Asia and South Africa. Obviously different devices and levels of service are available outside the U.S. Foreign languages can be supported both for the application itself and for systems messages and prompts. Unicode based text allows icon based character sets such as Chinese.
What is my commitment if I contract to use BusinessSuite?
To sign up for BusinessSuite service, you must commit to a minimum number of users (generally 25 or more) and a minimum contract term of between 1 and 2 years.
Since BusinessSuite works across industries, do you have domain expertise about my vertical?
JumpStart partners with resellers and ISV (Independent Software Vendors) partners to specialize in specific vertical markets. JumpStart focuses its core competency on wireless data technology while our marketing partners provide the domain expertise.
How does JumpStart’s BusinessSuite stack up against competing wireless companies and systems?
Several JumpStart competitors provide some of the features found in BusinessSuite, but only JumpStart offers the whole gamut of features (disconnected operations, customization without programming, device independence, etc.) at a cost effective price point. Many competitors claim to have a product such as BusinessSuite but are really in the business of selling systems integration.
See also
Technology FAQ
Deployment FAQ
Using Wireless FAQ