Recently, several of us travelled to Barcelona Spain to participate in Inmarsat’s Global Partner Conference. The annual event is an invitation-only conference for Inmarsat’s Global Partners, where Skymira was also asked to exhibit several related services including our new Smartphone applications. We wanted to share some of our observations from the event.

By way of background, Inmarsat is the world's leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, including voice and high-speed data services to almost anywhere on the planet. Inmarsat owns and operates 11 satellites in geostationary orbit 35,786km above the Earth, controlled via ground stations located around the globe.

Inmarsat is clearly leading the market

As we listened to Inmarsat’s CEO speak, we couldn’t help but realize that this is a firm incredibly committed to its customers and partners around the world. For evidence, one has to look no further than the anticipated launch of three new Inmarsat-5 satellites constructed by Boeing. Self-funding the US$1.2 billion required for the satellites and infrastructure is sufficient demonstration of its fiscal strength. In a market where there are many questions about individual players, including perhaps their ultimate survivability, as far as we could see, there is no question Inmarsat will continue to lead its markets.

Inmarsat’s Global Express

Perhaps the cornerstone of the conference was discussion around Inmarsat’s Global Xpress, soon to be marketed as ‘The super-fast, Ka-band broadband network from Inmarsat’. Planned to launch in 2013, Global Xpress will offer downlink speeds of up to 50Mbps, and up to 5Mbps over the uplink, from compact user terminals. It will be the first time a commercial operator has utilized Ka-band radio frequencies to deliver a global satellite service. Inmarsat also envisions the added benefit of enhancing existing L-band services - including BGAN, FleetBroadband and SwiftBroadband, and their global handheld phone, IsatPhone Pro.

So what does it all mean? A truly global plug and play solution that is ready to go when you turn it on without any changes or upgrades required. In addition, we expect to see incredibly higher speeds, and added downward pressure on market prices for hardware and communication services costs. Finally, for the first time in the industry, Rain fade degradation will automatically go over to L-Band keeping communication constant.

As Inmarsat sums it up, “We see a future where mobile satellite services are delivered through a combination of L-band and Ka-band satellites, harnessing the strengths of each to offer an unrivalled package of services based on speed, price and portability”.

Inmarsat BGAN M2M

Another service highlight was BGAN M2M. Currently planned for launch in February 2012, the service will deliver a global, IP-based low-data rate service, for users needing high levels of data availability and performance in permanently unmanned environments. The service is ideally suited for applications requiring high frequency, very low latency data reporting. Chief among its benefits is its significantly lower cost for IP connectivity, and ease of use.

We believe BGAN M2M will prove extremely attractive for monitoring fixed assets. Further it should broaden the base of users and expand the applications users would now be willing to run unmanned. Look for more information from us as this service launch nears.

IsatData Pro

Inmarsat also highlighted its IsatData Pro Low Data Rate (LDR) satellite communication service. Since May of this year, when we announced the addition of this service [add link], it has remained a strong complement to our portfolio of mobile business applications, including: electronic forms, email and text messaging; as well as our machine-to-machine (M2M) services including, GPS tracking, SCADA, and vehicle/heavy equipment telemetry. With close to 37X data speed, IsatData Pro delivers a significant increase in capability over other services already in the market.

Inmarsat made it clear that they were committed to the long term success and development of this lower cost, higher speed service. From our vantage point, this means greater opportunity for more of our clients to benefit from access to satellite service that they may not have been able to previously afford.

We’ve been discussing for some time that the next big competitive advantage will come from mobility solutions -- smartphones, mobile business apps, M2M services and the like.

For the record, we define Mobility as something more profound than the traditional discussion around communications, hardware and software. Mobility as we see it is ‘business in motion’, physically untethered but still fully connected to the applications and information that assure successful operational performance no matter where your business takes you.

The value for businesses will not be often touted feature sets, but instead, how those tools are put to use -- especially for businesses that rely on remote workers, equipment and data to drive the bulk of their profits. As we see it, the future will belong to companies that compete on their ability to perform anywhere, anytime the market demands, regardless of how remote that might seem at the moment.

All good theory – now enter the quantitative proof.

A recently published Aberdeen report, Field Service 2011: Mobility and the Extension of the Service Enterprise, documents a very significant financial advantage for companies with Best-in-Class field service performance versus Laggard companies. For example, Best-in-Class field service organizations, with as few as 100 technicians, could save up to $8,000,000 per year by implementing mobility solutions that included key performance indicators.

Aberdeen’s methodology of comparing three categories of companies; ‘Best-in-Class’, ‘Average’ and ‘Laggards’, yields identified key performance indicators that contribute to being in one category or another. The top ranking indicators provide a roadmap of recommendations and solutions for companies seeking to utilize mobility solutions in their field service operations. Just some of the key performance indicators we thought worthwhile to point out included:

• Eliminate paper forms – the amount of time technicians spent on paper forms was more than 40 minutes, taking away from the actual number of visits they could make in a day.
• Ability to work in an offline mode – nearly 30% of technician tasks are conducted in areas with little or no coverage –it is vital that they be able to access apps even when not in areas of coverage.
• Provide real-time systems integration – Best-in-Class companies assured the field and back-end applications were in tight alignment.
• Accommodate varied platforms – with the increased availability of new device types and operating environments, it is essential to develop a flexible mobile strategy.
• Generate on-demand performance metrics – also essential was the ability for service leaders to track service performance metrics in real time via dashboards and other performance tools.

The report also provides justification for investment that is pretty sound.

• Consider the following findings:
  • Organizations defined as Best-in-Class exhibited the following:
  • 82% average first time fix performance and a 15% average decrease in service cost over the previous 12 months;
  • SLA compliance of 93% (compared to 66% for Laggards);
  • 76% average level of workforce utilization and a 16% increase in workforce productivity over the previous year.
• Firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance are:
  • More than two times as likely as Laggards to have a mobile application for field service in place;
  • Nearly two times as likely as all others to integrate field data with enterprise systems in real time;
  • 15% more likely than all others to have a standardized mobile strategy across the enterprise;
  • 49% more likely than Laggards to leverage a cross-functional team of executives and users to define, manage and support mobile requirements.

In short, there are some very tangible, highly achievable solutions that can add up to big savings and far greater performance for companies that implement mobility in their field operations. In future posts, we will drill down into some of these mobility solutions and address best practices for implementing them.

To download the Aberdeen Report, Field Service 2011: Mobility and the Extension of the Service Enterprise, Click here

As we look ahead over the next few years, we see several big areas of impact for business apps and remote data solutions, one in particular is the exploding market for Smartphones -- which will experience double digit growth rates into the foreseeable future.

How explosive? By all accounts, revenues are forecasted to at least double over the next four years. Even conservative estimates are as high as 10 billion-plus Smart Devices across a range of platforms and networks by the year 2020. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 90% of organizations will support corporate applications on smartphones and by 2013, 80% of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.

We've been saying for some time now that advances in hardware and communication technologies will drive the price of cellular and satellite services downward. Product and service innovation has been heating up for some time. Nothing is driving this trend more than Smartphones, bringing both cellular and satellite services into range for most any businesses.

Smartphones are also fueling a surge in new applications to better manage businesses. Given that most people use Smartphones in their everyday personal lives, uptime to adopt new mobile business apps on these devices will be much faster.

As for the many of the devices coming to market, we are seeing substantial increases in data speed. And if cost was once a consideration with satellite, not only are prices coming down, but Skymira offers applications programmed to intuitively shift between cellular and satellite based on the situational needs of the organization.

With all these devices, networks, data and communication services, Skymira immediately understood that a unifying platform would be essential to tying non-similar devices and information together. Skymira's mobiGatewayTM is our approach to cross-platform, application, and location unification. Leveraging our mobiGateway^TM ensures that users will get consistent look, feel and functionality in the mobile apps and M2M services deployed across the enterprise.

Expect to hear much more from us on this game-changing opportunity for businesses of all types.

There is little doubt the recent events in Japan will prompt a thorough review by 1st and 2nd responders as to their level of operational awareness and control in the aftermath of natural or manmade disasters; such mega-disasters always do.

This August will mark the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Whether the lessons learned by 1st Responders (Police, Fire, EMS, etc.) have made them better prepared for the next disaster remains to be seen. The consensus, however, of many in the satellite industry is that 2nd Responders (i.e. Utilities and other critical infrastructure such as Oil & Gas) remain extremely vulnerable due to their heavy reliance on terrestrial based communications for daily operational awareness and control of their field personnel and monitored machinery.

The reason for this dire prediction is that most 2nd responders have taken only token measures in addressing the lack of communication that typically occurs in the first 30 days after such a mega-disaster event. In his paper entitled, Hurricane Katrina: Communications & Infrastructure Impacts, Dr. Robert Miller, Senior Research Professor at the National Defense University, states: "The communications failure [after Katrina] severely damaged the control systems—known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems—that manage many other systems and infrastructures. These systems, many of which depend on the Internet, were often put out of business for prolonged periods."

I say token measures because many 2nd responder companies have only purchased a few satellite phones and portable satellite broadband terminals, and simply placed them on the shelf for use on that fateful day.

Companies whose critical infrastructure is vulnerable to these mega-disasters need to integrate satellite and dual mode sat/cell equipment into their regular field operations, SCADA and other machinery telemetry systems for use on a daily basis. I don't suggest ripping out existing systems but rather, blending complimentary systems into the mix. This type of integration would ensure communication with service trucks and field personnel, as well as basic situational awareness of surviving equipment on Day 1 after a disaster. It is important to note that they also offer day-to-day business value during normal operations (thus providing cost justification and returns on such investment).

In the past, many companies avoided making these critical investments based on the perceived high cost of satellite communications. The good news is that the recently concluded Satellite 2011 conference, held in Washington DC, highlighted a broad range of satellite solutions to address a variety of requirements; some of which now priced in the $500 range with equally cost effective service plans to match.

The cost of satellite terminals and airtime can no longer be considered a barrier to hardening our infrastructure against catastrophic events – and the day-to-day benefits and returns that can be realized from implementing such solutions can more than justify their cost. Perhaps now the last remaining obstacle to overcome is the lack of will to perform the work that needs to be done.

Remote communication technologies continue to prove out as highly reliable and increasingly necessary to companies who depend on remotely located operations for a large part of their revenue. Therefore, the time has come to spend more attention on the decisions that can be driven through the use of solutions that take advantage of these technologies.

What emanates from the field is typically data. Properly utilized, this data can be transformed into high-value decisions that can have tremendous impact on remote operational efficiency, speed and profit contribution.

In this first of several posts, I’d like to address the concept of how data can be transformed into high-value decisions. We call it the Data to Decision Cycle.

This cycle is repeated over and over countless times each day in every business with remote assets, and is made up of four basic steps:

1. Data is generated, most typically by field personnel and machines (M2M)
2. That data is collected, aggregated, and Analysis is performed by some method. Perhaps it is Excel spreadsheet, accounting software, a maintenance application or even push pins in a wall map
3. The analysis yields decision making Information
4. A Decision is then made based on the information

 There are two elements associated with the decision -- Time and Value. Time is the period from data generation to a decision. Value is driven by the importance of the decision’s impact on risk or profit. Value also increases when time decreases -- that is to say, the faster you can execute an important decision, the more valuable it is.

A key point -- data generation is not the same as data collection. For example, data is generated the moment a machine shuts down, but this data might not be collected for an hour, a day or even a month. Thus, speeding up the data collection, and moving it on to analysis faster, creates greater value.

In upcoming entries, we’re going to dig deeper on how time is shortened and value increased. We’re also going to delve into why most companies have not addressed this obvious opportunity, and the right ways for going about it.

During 2009, one the bigger announcements in maritime communications was the launch of the Sailor 150 FleetBroadband, a competitive high-quality solution offering voice and Broadband internet service on Inmarsat’s global broadband I4 satellite network.

Finally, the maritime industry had an affordable hardware solution for accessing satellite fleet broadband. Our belief is there are many more such announcements not too far off in the future for a range of industries and applications. That’s the good news. So is there bad news? Yes, unfortunately the lower cost of the terminal in no way assures lower satellite service charges. Anyone who has ever received one of those shocking satellite bills will surely attest to this simple fact. Deploying any satellite communication system without also establishing a method for controlling the more significant cost drivers is foolish at best.

Knowing this potential problem might put a damper on the party, we set out to create an effective solution that would enable maritime fleet managers to leverage the lower unit cost offered by the SAILOR 150 model, while also assuring far more predictable satellite carrier bills. We call it Intelligent IP Controls, and if you use it, there is far less chance of getting one of those shockingly expensive satellite bills.

Our Intelligent IP Controls is not a radical new idea. IP controls have long been used at the office and enterprise levels, but traditionally have not been implemented at the onboard satellite terminal device, where unintended use is far more common to occur. By locking in customer-specified proper uses, and locking out improper use, abuse and inexperience that typically results expensive hits, carrier charges are more effectively managed.

In short, don’t be afraid to leverage the tremendous benefit satellite communications can deliver in accessing time sensitive critical remote information, especially given the lower terminal costs we expect to see proliferate. Just protect yourself from excessive carrier charges with some intelligence.

Recently, we announced an enhancement to our TailorFitTM Solutions. Specifically, by combining our popular Electronic Forms and Telemetry/SCADA services, we’re now able to provide technicians with real-time operating status of remotely located equipment under their care while operating in some of the roughest terrain imaginable.

For years now, we have been providing remote field solutions for Work Order Automation using both our Electronic Forms and Telemetry/SCADA services, with each typically using separate satellite networks. For this new solution, we combined the services and separate satellite network data into a single powerful application. Field technicians are now equipped to keep a watchful eye on remotely located units they are responsible for, with the clear benefit of detecting early warning signs of failure and avoiding costly machine downtime. Better yet, they are now empowered to make better decisions about repairs ahead of even showing up.

Why is this important? It goes to an underlying Skymira philosophy that when data from multiple remote information solutions is combined, it produces exponential benefits for our clients. Time and again we have seen that the clients deploying individual point solutions typically achieve lower returns than their counterparts who have deployed multiple solutions and have tied the data together to solve big challenges.

That’s why we’ve always employed a comprehensive approach to understanding each client’s needs and details of how they operate. This assures that clients are presented with a complete view of all areas within the business where access to remote information will drive increased returns. While most companies will initially implement one or two high return applications, Skymira has observed that companies continuing beyond this initial set of applications realize exponential benefits. Chiefly driven by the increased reporting made available, new combinations of data can be used to solve increasingly complex challenges, unlocking value often hidden within a company’s existing processes.

Bottom-line -- more is better when it comes to gathering critical remote data. At least if you want to solve the really valuable challenges.