Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue go beyond MDM with Panasonic Smart Essentials

When the contract ran out on previous devices, DWFRS undertook a very detailed evaluation of the mobility marketplace. The Service selected and deployed nearly 200 Panasonic TOUGHBOOK33 tablets. These were placed in the front cabs of its fire appliances as Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) and in the rear of the vehicles as mobile, demountable Risk Information Tablets (RITs) to accompany firefighters when they leave the vehicles.

TOUGHBOOK Smart Essentials software was included, to allow DWFRS to maintain the demountable devices at multiple sites. This “Smart” range of applications are all part of the Elemez Platform, powered by B2M Solutions. Ithelps the IT administrators monitor and analyse data from each device, reviewing device performance in the areas of utilisation, signal strength, battery life, network performance and application usage. As new modules were releasedthe Service adopted them and, over time, have seen the use and potential of the data grow exponentially.

The real-time data displayed in the Smart Essentials dashboard:

• Gives the firefighters greater confidence in their supporting tech.
• Focuses on uptime and availability of mobile resources to ensure life-saving information is delivered.
• Gives insight into network usage, which enables adjustments to connectivity settings which, in turn, helps prevent data overages.
• Demonstrates the value of the investment to senior management via the utilisation data and better enables them to make future mobility investment decisions.
• Speeds up time for resolution by eliminating the guess work and Q&A necessary to get a full report on device health and quickly find the root cause of problems.
• Provides 24/7 insight and expertise to better deliver and maintain mobility provision for a round-the-clock emergency service.

Economic Benefits

Smart Essentials can lower the totalcost of ownershipof mobility by:

• Improving worker productivity by eliminating worker downtime and thus lost productivity costs as wages are paid for no output.
• Resolving challenging end-user issues by providing better tools to proactively isolate root causes and provide speedy resolutions to issues related to SIM cards, network connections, application bugs and more.
• Recovering and redeploying underutilized mobile devices, thereby eliminating the need to purchase replacement devices.

To learn more about Smart Essentials click here or try out our TCO calculator to see how much your business could save with better data and visibility.