Who are your investors, are there plans to take the Company public?
Advanced Field Solutions® is currently 100% privately funded. As we build equity in the company and the financial markets stabilise, we will review our plans.
Who are your key competitors?
Since the mobility marketplace is still shaking out, with several potential competitors coming and going, we thought it would be best to break down the marketplace. As you begin to look at the mobility landscape, companies may look similar. Not so. There are four different types of companies, and here are a few differences to look for:
- Technology Platform and Applications : There are companies that are building a technology platform specifically for mobile applications, and in turn, can quickly create applications to meet your needs without having to invest in expensive custom solutions.
Some of the applications that are emerging are for field sales and field service, e-mail, calendaring, and many consumer oriented applications. Advanced Field Solutions® fits into this category by providing applications, using our ASP and .Net technology platforms, for field sales and field service professionals.
- Transcoding: Trandscoding companies reformat web content for display on smaller devices. Transcoding is a method that inserts special tags into your existing web pages to reformat web content for the smaller screen size of a specific device.
This solution requires a wireless modem (?200 - ?500 per device) and wireless data service (?40-?60 per user per month) and doesn't provide any ability to synchronize content for use off-line.
Although it appears to be a good solution for some types of information, early adopters have had usability, reliability, maintenance, and security problems.
- Enabling Technology: These companies provide a software development kit to help "in-house" IT departments and mobility vendors develop applications. Typically these kits come in two variations: wireless kits and synchronization kits.
Each kit has limitations and we are still looking for a good kit that can take advantages of the strengths of both wireless and synchronization.
Early adopters have discovered custom-built applications require extensive resources to develop and may require hiring skilled programmers or systems integrators to get the job done.
Additionally, maintaining these custom built applications can be costly and time consuming.
Choosing this option may result in the application you specify, however, it is often late to market, expensive, and does not produce the expected ROI.
- Professional Services/Integrators: With the huge complexities involved with any mobile solution many companies have hired system integrators or custom development shops to build applications from the ground up.
Usually, these companies build one-of-a-kind systems for clients. Design and deployment commonly takes more than 12 months to complete, costs more than ?750,000, and may be expensive to maintain.
What is the expected return on investment for customers who use an Advanced Field Solutions® product?
Typical customers can expect a six month ROI to their bottom line. The ROI will be noticed after a three month period. There are also numerous soft euro benefits, such as improved customer satisfaction, competitor differentiation and increased professionalism.
What industries do you support?
Advanced Field Solutions® is focused on the grey collar worker in field service, field commerce, and sales industries. Advanced Field Solutions® commerce is appropriate for any customer who wishes to improve their ability to do field-based product ordering, configuring, and service. Current customers come from many industries, including hi-tech, financial, distribution, and manufacturing industries. We also welcome design partners from utility, construction, and industrial equipment companies, as well as others with field service and sales representatives.
Do you sell the hardware and wireless components?
Advanced Field Solutions® recognizes the desire of some customers to look to a single source for all elements of a field service offering. We don't directly sell hardware and wireless services.
This allows us to remain impartial and use a variety of vendors in these areas. Based on your needs we will make recommendations and facilitate the purchase of the handheld computers, Advanced Field Solutions® applications, back-end integration, and the wireless networking.
This approach allows us to provide our customers with an impartial and best-of-breed solution.
Which handheld computers are currently supported?
Our solutions are supported on Pocket PC (Windows CE), Palm OS, and J2ME operating systems and associated devices. Devices using these OSs take the form of palm-size computers, handheld computers, mini-notebooks, cellular phones, two-way pagers, and hybrid devices that typically combine cellular phone capabilities with another device.
The mobile device market was dominated by Palm devices, but as of the second quarter of 2001, Pocket PC started out pacing Palm in device sales, and many IT organizations are considering Pocket PC devices for their ease of integration with existing systems.
Who are your key system integration partners?
Natively, we interface to back-end systems and other applications via XML. Many CRM, ERP, SFA, and other data-driven applications as well as database management systems support XML. XAware, a leader in translating data from database systems and legacy applications, is our integration partner to provide XML interfaces when necessary. Invoke Systems, a provider of totally non-invasive data transformation from one format to another, is our partner for interfacing with closed systems that don't offer an API.
How reliable are wireless data networks?
Wireless data networks tend to be reliable, but continue to suffer from several shortcomings, such as uncovered areas, spotty coverage or areas with low signal strength, bandwidth limitations, and network latency. Because field workers often encounter one or more of these shortcomings, Advanced Field Solutions® solutions leverage the advantages of wireless data networks without relying on them.
How do your applications work when wireless coverage is poor or not available?
Our solutions do not rely on wireless coverage. Advanced Field Solutions® created the FieldMobility Platform, our technology foundation that our solutions are built upon, to overcome several potential problems with using mobile applications. One of these problems is poor or unavailable wireless coverage.
Instead of depending on wireless data coverage, as many competitors do, our solutions can work completely without a wireless capability (information is synchronized via the device cradle and/or wired modem) , in a hybrid mode that uses local information stored on the device and information received wirelessly, or in a completely wireless mode.
The mode of operation is flexible and optimised for use with or without wireless networks. See mobile operations section for more information.
What training is provided with a Advanced Field Solutions® solution and how long does it take?
We have several options for training. We provide on-site or remote (via web conferencing) training as part of our deployment services. Typically, we offer train-the-trainer instruction for end-user training, but we can also provide complete end-user roll-out and training services.
Specialised training is provided to administrators of the system. Total training time for each group depends on the specific solution and its use, but end-user train-the-trainer instruction is typically accomplished in a single half-day session while administration instruction is conducted in a one-day session.
What language is your software written in?
The core of our foundation technologies in Advanced Field Solutions® Service and Advanced Field Solutions® Sales, are written using all MS .Net technologies using the components of the Visual Studio.Net allowing for our solutions to be deployed on a wide range of devices.
I already have an E-Commerce capability - can I continue using it along with Advanced Field Solutions® Commerce?
Advanced Field Solutions® will provide a mobile version of your existing capability. It will augment what you already have, not replace it. The systems you already use for product cataloguing, ticket tracking, and knowledgebase generation will be interfaced with to provide the mobile and web based capability in Advanced Field Solutions®.
How do you interface with other application software or back-end systems?
Advanced Field Solutions® solutions interface with other applications via XML (eXtensible Markup Language). XML provides many benefits over conventional data formats and is both human and machine-readable.
It is for this reason many vendors have universally accepted XML for use in their enterprise applications when exchanging data between systems. If an XML interface is not already available for an application, we will cost-effectively develop one during the deployment of your solution.
Can you interface with legacy ticket-entry or database systems running on IBM AS/400s?
Yes, we have successfully interfaced with legacy systems running on mainframe computers, including the popular AS/400. We have specific integration partners who specialise in integrating unobtrusively with legacy systems in ways that require little to no involvement from our customers' IT group.
What is included with a Advanced Field Solutions® solution?
All the required operational components are included with a Advanced Field Solutions® solution for your mobile field force. Specifically for Advanced Field Solutions®, you can expect:
- Deployment planning that will provide an overall project plan for your deployment, including tasks to be accomplished and milestones.
- Integration with necessary data sources and applications.
- Advanced Field Solutions® client application for each mobile device deployed.
- Advanced Field Solutions® Server software, installed in our data center or installed in one of our partner hosting facilities-this allows our customers completely outsource the solution and host it with a dedicated hosting provider managed by Advanced Field Solutions®.
- Training for your training group or direct training for users and administers of the system.
- Support and product upgrades for the life of your contract.
What hardware and software, if any, is required at my company's site?
Each user of an Advanced Field Solutions® solution will need a supported mobile device, such as a Pocket PC or a Palm. Depending on your business requirements and the need to receive updated information in the field, a wireless or wired modem for each device may also be used, but is not required by our products.
The Advanced Field Solutions® client utilises the very best of Microsoft .Net technologies and much of the added functionality is only available on Windows CE devices.
How are Advanced Field Solutions® products priced?
Products are priced by tiers or groups of field users. For example, a flat price is paid for the first group of up to 10 users, another flat price for 10-50 users, another flat price for 50-100+ users.
We use the Application Service Provider (ASP) model for distributing our solutions, which means that our customers pay a monthly subscription fee, which includes all costs associated with deploying and using our solution for the number of users needed.
