The importance of workflow analysis

So often in business, we put our heads down and just plow through our tasks. While it is always good to work hard, sometimes we need to remember to allot time to find ways to work smarter. For those of us who have been at our current jobs for a longer period of time, this can become even more evident. 

We all need to budget time at least once a year to analyze our current workflows. People involved change, requirements subtly change, and technology certainly changes over time. Even if our long lists of daily responsibilities seem daunting, we need to take a step back from how we are doing things, get a little perspective and fresh eyes to see if there is a better way.

Lately at GeoSpatial Experts we have been talking to some of our larger customers about their workflows so that we can better understand their realities. We are learning more about field protocol, back office work and how the data is finally used in the boardroom or with their customer. We are acting as their fresh set of eyes to see if there are more efficient ways to use GeoJot+ for field data collection and reporting. Perhaps we have functionality they haven't discovered yet, maybe there are complementary products we know about that might make their expanded workflow easier or hardware that might be more effective. There might even be functionality we can add to our products that would make life easier for many of our customers.

Breaking away from our daily grind to help our customers break out of theirs has been a great experience for everyone - I highly recommend it. 

Best smartphones cameras 2015

GeoJot+ is photo-based field data collection, so camera quality is a concern for many of our customers. Below are links to 2 different articles about the best smartphone cameras this year.

http://www.cnet.com/topics/phones/best-phones/camera/

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-phone-cameras,review-2272.html

Both articles recognize the iPhone6 plus and Samsung Galaxy. These (or their recent predecessors) are the most common cameras we see among our customers. One of the articles also talks about the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1.

I like the idea of this because some of our customers have more detailed requirements for their photos, however, I am not sure this meets those requirements. I initially assumed that the Lumix would have optical zoom but it doesn’t. If our customers have specific camera requirements it is usually around zoom so this may not be a better fit. These camera phones seem pretty rare, has anyone out there used one? If so, what did you think?

Is Android for Work a viable answer for BYOD?

Both Android and iOS primarily target consumers not businesses. But ubiquitous in the workplace, the battle for dominance may be swayed by employers and employees concerns about the use of personal smartphones and tablets at work.

Google first introduced the Android for Work initiative in the summer of 2014 and began formally launching the program in early 2015, releasing details about how the Android program will make smartphones and tablets more secure in the workplace.  Take a look at this article for more information about last month’s release.

This is a big deal for field data collection. At GeoSpatial Experts we are seeing a mix, many of our small to mid-sized companies allow employees to bring their own devices but our government and larger companies tend to lean towards providing smartphones and tablets for their employees. Either way, everyone is moving is towards mobile devices in the workplace and how to best manage these devices is the burning question these day.