Workshop 5 Admiring the scenery Forms, AJAX screen layout and mobile interfaces

Workshop 5 - Admiring the scenery Forms, AJAX screen layout and mobile interfaces

Topic objectives

• To reflect on what has been done so far with Ruby on Rails;
• To reflect on my role and decide to continue as EITHER a Developer OR as an IT infrastructure manager;
• To complete either the Developer’s Thread exercises or the IT Infrastructure manager’s Thread exercises below, according to my new role (NOT BOTH).
• To work with others in the same role via the subject forum or similar learning tool.
• To read and find out what those who chose the other role are doing each of the workshops 5 to 8 and discussing on the subject forum or learning tool.
• To be willing to change roles and share perspectives as developers learn from managers and vice versa.

IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER’S THREAD (BLUE team)

• To examine and analyse what the developers are doing in their thread;
• To investigate ideas for enhancing the customer experience through use Web 2.0 and mobile device technologies;
  
• To determining what IT infrastructure such as hardware, networking, software, systems, procedures and personnel would be needed to support the Developers if they were asked to provide mobile device interfaces to the OTBS in a stage 2 project.
  
• To develop and share a simple business process model for an improved taxi customer experience through use of technology.

IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER’S THREAD

1. Introduction

Many developers get mixed up and annoyed to find that resources are needed to extend the user experience to include mobile devices. As an IT manager you know that stage 2 of the Online Taxi Booking System (OTBS) includes mobile interfaces to handheld devices.

2. Online Taxi Booking System Stage 2

Discussion with the Taxi Company client has suggested the use of GPS to locate each taxi booked for a job and via the use of an SMS gateway to give the taxi customer a message when the Taxi is 150 metres from the pickup point. The GPS data can also be linked via Google Maps to provide visual feedback to both the company, the taxi drivers and the customer linked to a booking, depending on the capability of the mobile device.

To Do

Part A: Survey of mobile device capability and Web 2.0 tools

1. Find out and recommend what type of mobile devices are suitable for:

a. Just the SMS message service;

This workshop marks a departure from the previous workshops in that workshops 1-4 were appraoched for the point of view of a developer. At this juncture, students have been given the option of either continuing from the point of view of a developer, or switching roles to the point of view of an IT infrastructure manager. I have chosen to switch roles at this point to an IT infrastructure manager. This is for a number of reasons including my weak background in programming and development work and also the fact that this subject is being studied under an MBA for me and I am more interested in the general management side of the house as opposed to detailed development work. Having said that, I do find the development side very interesting and will be keeping an eye on those students taking the development path to see how it compliments the work being done on the It infrstructure manager side of the house.

A mobile device is a pocket-sized computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard. Examples of mobile devices include mobiles phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile computers, graphing calculators, handheld gaming consoles and pagers to name a few.

SMS stands for short message service. It is a method of communication that sends text between mobile phones, or from a PC or handheld to a mobile phone. The "short" part refers to the maximum size of the text messages: 160 characters (letters, numbers or symbols in the Latin alphabet).As per this definition, SMS is primarily the domain of mobile phones, including smart phones, or any other mobile device with built in mobile phone connectivity. Having said this, SMS may be sent from PCs with an internet connection using specialist websites such as SMS Pup. As such the most suitable device for use with SMS would be mobile phones, noting that mobile PCs (laptops, netbooks, PDA) could also be utilsied to send and recieve SMS, however this is not common practice.

b. The full user experience via SMS, GPS Taxi tracking and Google Maps

In order to achive the full user experience utilsiing SMS, GPS and taxing tracking using an application such as Google maps a higher degree of technology is required, which greater processing power. Mobile devices featuring such capabilities include Smart Phones, such as the Apple I-phone which permit the use of SMS, GPS technology and also may run a Google Maps application. In addition to Smart Phones, these features may also be utilised on a GPS enabled PDA running Windows Mobile with an internet connection. Finally, any mobile PC with an inbuilt GPS reciever, or added as a peripheral (such as a USB GPS reciever) may be able to utilise this technology.

2. Describe any new hardware, networking, software, systems, procedures and personnel that would be needed by the taxi company Website to support this stage 2 development.

In order to determine the hardware, networking, software, systems, procedures and personnel that would be required for stage 2 development a full blown Requirements Analysis would have to be conducted. A requirements analysis is considered critical to the success of a development project such a this. Requirements analysis, often used in systems engineering and software engineering, encompasses those tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as beneficiaries or users. Whilst the length of this workshop in no way allows for the conduct of a full requirements analsysis, which can take days or weeks with multiple meetings of stakeholders, a quick appreciation can be conducted in order to determine basic requirements for such a project. The key is to ensure that as many stakeholders are consulated as possible to ensure that all requirements have been conidered when mapping out business processes. In terms of a basic appareciation of requirements for the OTBS, the following is offered as a starting point:

(i) Hardware

• PCs for taxi booking staff and a range or peripherals including printers and faxes.
  
• Telephones for staff
  
• GPS devices in each taxi for GPS tracking.
  
• Mobile EFTPOS machines in each taxi for payment.
  
• Mobile printers in each taxi for recipt printing.
• Monitoring and booking devices in each taxi to allow drivers to recieve and action booking.
• Projector or large screen display for booking area to allow visibility of all booking staff of locations of all taxis to provide genral siutational awareness.
  

(ii) Software

• Basic operating system on PCs.
• Taxi Booking Software running on PCs.
  
• A GPS enabled maps application such as Google Maps.
• Basic POS software for recieving and processing payments.
  

(iii) Networking, Systems and Procedures

• Subscription to some kind of network that is SMS enable to allow SMS booking.
• Subscription for internet connectivity for PCs in HQ
• Either LAN or wireless network in HQ for PCs.
  
• Some for of banking system for mobile payment (EFTPOS and SMS)
  
• GPS System for tracking
  
• Business process for recieving bookings at HQ
  
• Business process for sending booking to taxi drivers
• Business process for recieving payments
  

(iv) Personnel

• Personnel working within the HQ taking bookings (number depends on size of comapny)
  
• Taxi drivers
• Management (number depends on size of company)
• IT support staff (may be outsourced)
• Finance staff (may be outsourced)

As can be seen from the very basic appreciation conducted about, requirements determine can be a complex tasks, but is essential.

Part B: The enhanced customer experience through Web 2.0 technology

1. Use a table to describe how the customer experience is improved by:
1. Horizontal scalability (eg ordering a taxi by mobile phone call or SMS, mobile Internet, desktop or laptop computer)
2. Service oriented features (eg SMS updates using location data, knowing the driver’s name before the ride and being greeted by your name etc)
3. Other customer services enabled by Web 2.0 (eg reputation system)

The term Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis and blogs. Obviously this technology brings with it great opportunities for e-commerce. The below table provides a simple overview of some of the services provided by Web 2.0 that may improve the customer experience. This is broken down into Horizontal Scalability, Service Oriented Features and Other Customer Services Enabled by Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 technology – Improving the Customer Experience
a.	Horizontal scalability
	- Allows customer to order taxi via various means (phone, web, SMS) - Provides almost immediate feedback to customer (order confirmation and taxi arrival estimation either by voice, web of SMS) - Allows customer online checking of order status via web - Customer account system setup so that detail may be saved for future order to save time.
b.	Service oriented features
	- SMS updates using GPS location data to keep customer informed of any delays caused by unforeseen event such as accidents. - SMS or web to pre-inform customer of driver’s name before the ride to allow for more personalised service. - SMS or web estimation of cost of fare prior to taxi arrival. - SMS or web estimation of journey time prior to taxi arrival. - SMS or web negotiation of route with customer to avoid unforeseen obstacles such as traffic congestion, accidents or weather. - SMS or web ability to alter pickup point or drop off in real time.
c.	Other customer services enabled by Web 2.0
	- The set up of a reputation system to allow customers to leave feedback on their experiences. - Social network recommendation and enabling the customer pooling to reduce customer cost if a number of customers require pickup from a similar location at the same time. - Various payment options such as mobile EFTPOS and SMS payment.

Part C: Online Taxi Business Process Modelling

Apart from the business basics of offering a clean car, safe driving, being on time, consider the business processes involved and construct a Simple Online Taxi business process model using any suitable drawing tool.

The following description is a helpful guide, but don’t be restricted from including your own ideas to extend or limit the business process model:

1. BEFORE the RIDE
1. The business process will begin with ordering the cab by telephone, SMS, or online and getting customer recognition if the customer has made a booking previously.
2. During registration, the company would collect data for good customer relations and the electronic payment method. All data collected has to also achieve a quick ordering process and be used ethically and securely.
3. SMS reminders, and updates via SMS, GPS and Google maps provide location-based information to re-assure that the taxi is on the way and on time for the booking.
2. DURING the RIDE
1. When the taxi arrives, the driver greets the customer by name and helps them with their luggage and then opens the car door.
2. The taxi driver would initiate a conversation and continue with it if they are interested or show interest if they started talking first.
3. END of the RIDE
1. At the end of the ride there is no delay for making a payment so the taxi driver would help the customer get out of the car and would have their luggage ready waiting for them and say goodbye.
2. The business process concludes when the company uses the taxi vehicle’s GPS location data again to send a final friendly thank you, suggests feedback via SMS and offers a goodbye message.

The creation of business process models can be quite complex, and even in the given scenario, whilst the intent is to develop a "simple" business process model, even only 15 minutes of playing around I had a model that looked like spaghetti. After some refining and (over) simplification I came up with somethat at least looks readable. I appraoched this model with the view that there are essentially three entities involved in the process, the customer, the driver and the booking centre. These are divided in my diagram by the shaded areas, yellow representing the customer, blue the driver and red the booking centre. As can be seen from the below figure, everything is initiated by a customer ordering the taxi.. This may occur by a anumber of means including by phone, SMS, or online. The booking centre would take this call and gather the details of the customer in order to determine whether their details are registered or not and so the process goes on a per the below figure. As can be seen below, the "busiest" process is the updating as this could essentially be a continually process in terms of the location of the car.