Cloudscape VI

MobiCloud will be presenting next week at Cloudscape VI, 24th - 25th February 2014 at the Microsoft Centre in Brussels, Belgium. Vladimir Bataev from EsperantoXL will participate in the session "Start ups and small business in the cloud" from 14:50 - 15:50.

As well as participating in the 30 minutes round table discussion Vladimir will also present briefly the topic of enabling corporate appstores in vertical markets such as Construction, Transportation and Field Services and will provide feedback on the lessons learned from the various MobiCloud initiatives taking place in Sweden, Germany, UK and the Netherlands.

We will also be providing live demonstrations at the event.

For more information check out  http://ow.ly/txwkn  and look out for our review of the event next week.

Utrecht Meeting & EU Review

This month the MobiCloud project members met at the offices of project member EsperantoX in Utrecht, Netherlands to discuss progress of the project and plan the main activities for 2014. 

EsperantoXL and MobiCloud also hosted a successful breakfast seminar where the technology and application was demonstrated to a number of interested parties that joined us from across the Netherlands in industries as diverse as recruitment, HR and logistics.

While in Utrecht the consortium members visited the Flora Holland Auction, the largest flower auction site in Europe. About 12.5 billion plants and flowers pass through the auction each year which employs over 4000 people. 

Because the flower industry is seasonal many of these employees are "flexible workers" - people on short-term contracts. EsperantoXL is currently using the MobiCloud platform to develop a solution for Tence, an agency which supplies a large number of these workers. The solution is unusual in that many of its benefits are aimed directly at the end-users and runs on their own personal devices - so cross-platform support and a very easy to use interface are essential.

After the consortium meeting the team then moved on to Brussels, where MobiCloud progress was reviewed with our sponsors at the European Commission. Maria Tsakali, Scientific Officer within the Communications Networks, Content and Technology directorate was responsible for the review. She praised the overall management of the project and the "Good technical work with very good involvement of the end-users." and commented that the consortium was working well together.

The MobiCloud Star is Shining!

We are delighted to announce that the MobiCloud project has won in all four categories for which it was nominated for Enterprise Mobile Solutions at the 12th annual Mobile Star Awards. So many thanks to everyone who voted to us! You can see details of all of the results here.

The Mobile Village Awards honor both industry-leading mobile products and cutting-edge new solutions in categories covering software, mobile devices and success stories as chosen by readers of MobileVillages bi-weekly newsletter GoMobile.

MobiCloud won in the following categories of the awards:

• Mobile Workforce Management – Shining Star
• Mobile Application Development – Rising Star
• Mobile Field Service – Rising Star
• Mobile Secure File Access / VPN – Rising Star

The human side of the MobiCloud Site Diary

It is very easy to talk about the benefits of mobile technology, but it is often hard to really understand them. The decision to invest in a mobile solution is inevitably a financial one, but any improvement in efficiency or cost effectiveness is ultimately due to the behaviour of the employees using it. For those individuals an improvement in efficiency is also an improvement to the quality of their working life.

Katie is a site engineer working for Costain and has first-hand experience of the difficulties of keeping accurate records in the frenetic environment of a construction site. Such records are important for many reasons, but not least to ensure the accountability of all parties and their adherence to a safe and assured method of working. Katie is one of the engineers who has been testing the MobiCloud Site Diary App and knows all too well what it is like working the “old way”...

"Typically I arrive in the office before the sun is up, determined to get a hot drink before venturing out onto site.  After a manic half hour ensuring all the paperwork is in place including permits, inductions, briefings, drawings and check sheets I finally get out onto site...without a brew.  Suddenly, it dawns on me that I didn’t write up my site diary last night for yesterday’s activities! I had been working late and by the time I got back to the site office getting home to bed was all I could think of. Its ok, I say to myself, I shall write it tonight along with today’s when I get back in.  I can still remember what happened yesterday...can’t I?"

“So the day starts…concrete deliveries, reinforcement deliveries, muck away wagons, excavator breaks down, fitter arrives to fix excavator, oil spill on site, clean up oil spill on site, take photos with camera, weekly SHE [Safety Health & Environment] inspection completed, actions from weekly SHE inspection handed out, problem with the design on a drawing, speak to designers about the problem, wait for a response, order in make-up load for the concrete pour, fill in inspection and test plan...at last morning break!”

"I frantically brew up during the half an hour ‘break’ whilst responding to the raft of emails that have come through during the morning.   In what feels like 5 minutes, the morning break is over and off I go out onto site again…"

"Arrive on site, speak to Foreman about works being carried out, check reinforcement schedule to make sure all the reinforcement has been delivered, realise there is reinforcement missing, ring supplier about missing reinforcement, subcontractor claiming setting out is incorrect, check setting out, back into the office for engineers meeting...now lunch."

"Again, eat over the computer whilst responding to queries and placing more materials orders for future works.  Half an hour up...back outside!" 

"The setting out is now ready for tomorrow’s work, check setting out and make sure it is all correct, confirm concrete orders for the following day, dumper breaks down, fitter out tomorrow to fix dumper, make sure subcontractor is happy with setting out ready for works tomorrow.  It’s now getting dark...head back to the office to close out all the paperwork." 

"After half an hour of completing paperwork and another sending out emails and uploading photos I’m exhausted and hungry...definitely time to go home!" 

"I leave the office after the sun has gone down, wave to the security guard to wish him good night...and then I remember...I haven’t done my site diary for today...or yesterday!  It’s ok, I tell myself, I will do them tomorrow.  Now what happened yesterday again...? Hmm…hang on...what happened today?!”

Site engineers typically work long unsociable hours – a twelve hour day is not unusual and when things go wrong the hours get longer. Any time that can be saved, especially on mundane tasks that are a waste of an engineer’s skills, is a blessing. An extra thirty minutes in the day can make the difference between a well-run site and a happy engineer and a chaotic site with an engineer headed for a breakdown.

One of the major benefits of the Site Diary App is that it allows records to be made as and when events occur and in a way that does not require writing up or transcribing later. This saves time, reduces the need for hastily scribbled notes and removes the stress of trying to recall events retrospectively. It also improves the quality of the record and provides something that has never been available before – a verifiable electronic audit trail. This can be extremely valuable to a construction company when it needs to prove a particular sequence of events, for example as part of dispute resolution or an investigation into an accident or unsafe occurrence.  However, on a day-to-day basis the greatest benefit to the site engineer is time…

“I arrive in to the office before the sun comes up. Brew up to ensure I get a hot drink before venturing out onto site. All the paperwork is in place including permits, inductions, briefings, drawings and check sheets from the night before. I pick up my iPad and head out onto site. 

The usual activities ensue, however I am now able to record each one in real time as they happen. Not only can I record the plant and labour used, I can record where it’s happening, how it’s happening and more importantly if there are any delays or issues with subcontractors! As well as these extremely useful features, the efficiencies don’t stop there! 

For each entry I can take photos and attach them directly to the information so they will be there as reference when reviewed (no downloading from a camera and trying to match them up later!). Also, I don’t need to remember the weather forecast! The app is directly linked to the local weather and records it automatically without me having to think about it!

The same goes for emails too...I can respond in a more timely fashion directly from my ipad!

I leave the office before the sun goes down, wave to the security guard to wish him good night...and I think...paperwork done, site diaries complete...bring on tomorrow!”

For more information about the MobiCloud Site Diary App, please visit our website. If you want to try out the benefits of the App within your own organisation then it is currently available on a free trial basis.

Report from ICT2013 - Vilnius

As we reported a while ago the MobiCloud consortium was selected by the European Commission to present the latest advances in mobile cloud technologies at ICT2013. This event was held  in Vilnius, Lithuania on 6-8 of November. It was an excellent opportunity to network with researchers and industrial partners, as well as to disseminate the first year project results.

MobiCloud booth in Hall4, Xone R3 industry & business for tomorrow
From left to right. The MobiCloud Team: Vladimir Bataev & Patrick Okkersen (EsperantoXL),
Maria Tsakali (EC project officer), Xavier Aubry (Appear) & Manu Auch (Nettropolis)

An impressive turnout of almost 5000 attendees was present as the president of Lithuania took to the stage to introduce the event.

On the MobiCloud booth, the team showed demonstrations of the ongoing trials: a mobile site diary application for the construction industry built in collaboration with Costain in the UK and a suite of workforce apps for the public transport industry built for Tågkompaniet in Sweden.  

Around 100 visitors expressed interest in following the MobiCloud project results and accessing the MobiCloud SDK, now available publicly. It is also possible to try out the site diary app for free for 30 days in your own operations. A large Polish construction group took advantage of this opportunity to test the power of mobile cloud applications for their own business.

MobiCloud was also represented in the networking sessions, with Xavier Aubry, MobiCloud project coordinator, speaking at the CloudWatch networking session. This session presented examples of existing cloud apps success stories and discussed how Europe can boost the competitiveness of its industries and SMEs with cloud computing. Thank you to our colleagues at CloudWatch for inviting us!

Xavier Aubry (MobiCloud project coordinator) presenting at the CloudWATCH session
at ICT213,  illustrating how the power of the cloud can be leveraged by SME's to serve
large customers in the construction and public transport industries

The MobiCloud was actively networking with other projects and was recruited during the event to join the beta program of E*Xelerator , a virtual eccelerator initiated by the European Alliance for Innovatioin.

Finally the event was a great opportunity to discover the ICT work programme 2014-2015 of Horizon 2020. The first call call has a deadline on April 23rd 2014 and features key topics in the field of mobile and cloud. The team is already thinking about a new project developing the results of MobiCloud further, so if you are interested to work on joint proposals, contact us!

In summary, ICT2013 delivered over and above all our expectations!

COMIT Mobile IT Conference - London

Martin Wilson from Appear presented MobiCloud at the COMIT Mobile IT Conference at the Institute of Physics in London on 7th November to an audience of around 100 delegates. The guests included representatives from software companies, integrators, government bodies and engineering organisations focused on the use of mobile technology in the construction industry. 

Aside from Martin's update on MobiCloud and the applications that would comprise the Enterprise Appstore for Construction, other keynote presentations were delivered from Cross Rail (who are using mobile to improve the efficiency of their ambitious project to build a major rail link across London), Costain (using Building Information Modelling in their operations) and the UK government - on the implementation of BIM in a number of UK central government departments.

Martin Wilson

At the start and end of the day delegates also saw two perspectives on the evolution and future of the mobile technology applicable to civil engineering and construction - from Phil Jackson of the Institute of Civil Engineers and Franci Rabuck (Technology Research Analyst and Futurist).

MobiCloud

The content of the keynotes and speeches which included device evolution, new technology and working practices confirmed that MobiCloud's approach of using cloud, cross platform and context would be key to the future success of construction at implementing mobile technologies for the workforce.

For more information about the conference, including more photographs and the presentation slides, see COMIT's website or their blog.

MobiCloud visit to London Bridge

Back in September MobiCloud held a meeting in London, which was hosted by MobiCloud partner Costain. As part of the event Costain arranged a visit to their construction site at London Bridge.

Costain were awarded the £400m contract to redevelop London Bridge Station in late 2011 by Network Rail. The redevelopment is part of the Thameslink programme, which will significantly increase the number of trains passing through the station.

Costain are carrying out the detailed design and delivery of this five year project (due to complete in 2018). It will include a new concourse at street level and redeveloped entrances with improved ease of access to and from the station. Capacity will be increased from approximately 50 to 70 million passengers per year.

The project raises a number of challenges, not least the need to keep the station open and fully operational throughout the duration of the project. Costain will utilize a number of new technologies to help in the process, including advanced BIM, augmented reality and the MobiCloud Site Diary app which is being deployed on iPads.

The Site Diary app is one of the MobiCloud trial applications. It is designed to make it easier and quicker for site engineers to record information about events on site, which historically has been done manually. It can include photographs and GPS location and to makes relevent records much easier to locate at a later date.