Resource Article: GPS Hardware Finds Its Place In Field Solutions

By Brian Albright, Integrated Solutions magazine

GPS technology is rapidly being integrated into a number of applications in the field service, public works, and utilities markets, as well as for industrial asset management and facilities management. By incorporating handheld or vehicle-mounted GPS devices into field applications, companies have been able to expand their positioning and mapping capabilities, as well as improve dispatching, work order management, and job site inspection routing. GPS devices can also be used to improve inventory management for truck, heavy equipment, and container fleets and to perform bulk inventories of raw materials. "The primary motivator tends to revolve around work order management and crew deployment efficiency and time to completion," says John Florio, senior product manager at Juniper Systems. "If the customer is able to accurately deploy a work team to an activity more quickly and more accurately, then more activities or job tickets can be completed in the same amount of time."