Codegate mobilises small firms for £1 per day

Codegate mobilevantage is aimed at companies with up to 50 workers

Mobility specialist Codegate has introduced a low-cost mobile application platform designed to let small businesses mobilise their workforce at a cost of £1 per worker per day.

Available immediately, mobilevantage is designed to eliminate paperwork by letting a business push out job schedules to field workers, and collect data gathered from completed jobs into a central database. It is aimed at companies with five to about 50 workers.

Unlike many other mobility solutions that are designed for enterprise use, mobilevantage runs on a single Windows PC. It also requires a software agent on each worker's mobile device, which can be almost any handheld or smartphone, although the company recommends rugged Windows Mobile PDAs from Motorola, Intermec or Psion Teklogix.

"It gives small businesses a cost-effective way to monitor and measure their mobile workforce," said Codegate director Terran Churcher.

The secret of mobilevantage's low cost is that it is an off-the-shelf solution that can be tailored to customer requirements with just a small amount of customisation.

"We can configure the whole system for a customer, but afterwards they can change it themselves at any time if they wish," said Churcher.

The mobilevantage office client allows a company to schedule jobs for workers, filling in information such as the details, parts required and activities to carry out. Jobs are then synchronised via a mobile network to handheld devices used by workers, who fill in the rest of the information and mark the job as complete to synchronise back to the office.

Captured data from jobs can be easily exported into accounts software such as Sage 50 to produce invoices, according to Churcher.

Codegate can also supply mobilevantage integrated with TomTom Navigator softw are to guide workers to their next job if the company uses PDAs with built-in GPS hardware.

The whole package, including installation, licensing, network airtime and support, costs just £1 per worker per day, according to Codegate. However, devices such as the Motorola MC55 cost extra, with a lease for 20 users working out at £1.86 more per day per user.

"It takes the industry to a much lower cost level when you compare it with the tens of thousands you would pay for a bespoke system," said Churcher. "It's a phenomenal deal that we're very proud of."