FREMONT, Calif. @Road and Research In Motion (RIM) are working together to develop @Road Workflow Manager for BlackBerry.

@Road Workflow Manager will help to streamline the mobile workflow process by identifying and automating communications between the field service representative and the mobile workforce supervisor. The solution is designed to use GPS auto-detection to minimize task reporting and data entry by the field representative, automatically update work status and location, and provide dynamic routing to the next job site.

"The ROI and workflow advantages of the push-based BlackBerry platform are already well recognized by customers for email and other enterprise applications. We think our collaboration with @Road and the introduction of location-based services for BlackBerry will significantly increase the potential for workflow enhancements and productivity gains in the field," said Mark Guibert, vice president, corporate marketing at Research In Motion.

Offering seamless integration of dispatch, routing, navigation, and information flow, @Road Workflow Manager is being developed to automatically record job start and end times and locations based on dispatch messages and user behavior. When field service managers dispatch a new job, a message will automatically alert the worker that a new job has been assigned with an option to route the worker to the new job. Subsequently, based on the mobile worker’s current position, a dynamic map would be created to route the worker from present position to destination, actively and intelligently changing the map context as the worker proceeds along the specified route.

The solution is designed to provide application settings to define job start and end, as well as automatically update the job status when the field engineer reaches the assigned job location. This feature is intended to provide more accurate and timely information to the field service manager, as well as save the field engineer’s time for more valuable customer service delivery.

The solution is also designed to provide field service managers the ability to use the business intelligence in the @Road Workflow Manager to generate real-time reports highlighting areas of interest specifically linked to the company’s business operations. The reports can include productivity detail such as job time, overtime, start and end times, mileage and travel time.

For more information visit www.road.com