Mobile IT work support systems are now an essential part of most service and utility businesses. The staff who use them usually have a love-hate relationship with the software and the devices that impart the missives from the call centre, and which demand to be fed with data on jobs, assets, and all manner of tedious but essential things.

As mobile devices have become more available and their forms increasingly varied, so too have the options (and, in some cases, the lack of them) for stowing, charging, carrying or secreting them comfortably about the body whilst working in the less-than-ideal conditions common in the field.

When planning and designing mobile solutions the big picture focuses on the software, communications, and main hardware components; however, it is often the bags, boxes, straps, plugs and wires that feature most in user-grumbles; the little fiddly things.

Recently, one MCUG user started to change some of their mobile smartphones. These PDAstyle phones, both past and present, supported a very serviceable small-screen work management package, and the old ones fitted nicely into cradles on the van dashboard that left them within easy reach, out of the way, kept them charged, connected to an antenna so as to ensure a good signal everywhere, and they had a good loudspeaker so that the phone could be heard even when working outside in the street (which was, after all, the main workplace for many staff).

Progress was, it seemed, a nice new smartphone. The Bluetooth connection of newer mobile devices to the car-kit is very handy, but it needs careful thought as to which features are necessary, as it may define the range of aftermarket kit purchased.

Some car kits nowadays interact to your own pocket phone (via Bluetooth) and ask it what its SIM details are. The 'car kit' then takes over that identity, puts the mobile (usually in your pocket) in standby, and then does all the audio, transmitting etc itself using the car battery and electrics where there is lots of spare power available.

This gives a proper fitted kit – loudspeaker, power, roof antenna, etc. As long as your pocket mobile is in standby, and not completely dead, then it (the big car-kit) masquerades as your little handphone, saving power in the pocket device, but also, a slight snag - it doesn't charge it. An audio-only version lets your pocket phone do all the work – mainly transmitting which uses precious battery power – and just sends the sound via Bluetooth to a headset or perhaps to a modified car-radio etc. This means that for a field worker the hand/pocket phone goes flat quickly, as it isn't in a cradle to get charged. It's a subtle difference, but over a working day has a huge impact on battery life and, hence, the ability to work.

The ‘old grungy’ car cradles were not very nice, but they charged the phone, had a big loudspeaker, and an antenna for dodgy signal areas. So they were, in some ways, better. Modern smartphones don't always have any accessories or cradles at all, so choosing aftermarket devices is necessary, as is a careful analysis of work patterns and likely battery life.

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