Retriever Communications, a Sydney-based provider of mobile field force automation, has expanded into the US market with the establishment of national headquarters in Texas.
An alternative to standard, inflexible field service management point solutions, Retriever’s Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) has a write-once, deploy natively approach. This allows enterprises to deploy any device running the iOS, Android or Windows Mobile operating systems, including tablets, rugged PDAs and smartphones for its mobile workforce.
While competing standard, wireless web-based apps have issues with out-of-coverage environments and achieving the workflow complexity required, Retriever addresses field workers’ dynamic work environments, marrying customised solutions and broad functionality with the ability to switch from one mobile operating system to another.
Retriever automates workflow, eliminates paperwork, reduces billing cycles and increases visibility and control over field workers, increasing revenue for service providers and improving service for the customer.
“We enter the US during a new era in mobile collaboration, when true mobile warriors can do more than ever before, but also demand better flexibility and workflow,” said Mary Brittain-White, co-founder and CEO.
“Our over 12 years’ experience with the mobile cloud make us a fit for the US, which is terrific at innovating itself out of a recession. Heavily focused on iOS and Android, the US has an aggressive lead in adopting cloud technologies. Through our expansion, we bring our mission to improve field productivity to the US market, changing the way companies think about customer service.”
Retriever is an answer to the weaknesses of HTML5, which is intuitive and a fit for B2C apps, but prohibitive in a complex field worker environment.
Without a database, field workers using apps built on HTML5 have a very limited ability to work offline. By contrast, Retriever can be easily tailored by abusiness to enable true mobile field collaboration within vertical markets.
A local GUI delivers a rich experience even when working offline. By moving field force automation tasks from the IT department to the field itself, Retriever empowers the mobile worker to do more in less time. It integrates with any back-end system and is offered in both SaaS and licensed software options.
“Today’s mobile supervisor needs the option to dynamically manage his workforce from a device rather than centralising job processing through a call centre,” said Robert Gunn, business development director, North America.
“Since many businesses currently use applications built on Microsoft, which has recently left the business mobility market, they’re sitting on applications that have no future – and updating product will be costly and time-consuming.
"Retriever customers can run what they had three years ago on Android today. Recognising that field workers are at the heart of a service vendor’s business, we streamline their work, creating a better experience by all in the service chain.”
Retriever’s customers include BP, Emerson Power, Foster’s beer, Otis Elevators and many utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing companies and risk-averse government entities worldwide. The company’s new US presence will increase its sales capability and extend help line features to North America.