WAP happy

PCs and laptops are normally unavailable to installers on site, but WAP phones are much more portable and affordable. So Ideal Boilers, in conjunction with BT Cellnet, has developed the Mobile Toolbox, an Internet homepage accessible via mobile phones using the Wireless Application Protocol technology.

The company is issuing to CORGI-registered installers free Siemens 35i WAP phones configured with access to www.idealtoolbox.wap, the Mobile Toolbox address. From the site installers can retrieve detailed product information, installation guidance, help on problem solving, and even business leads. The phones also give access to the complete range of BT Genie services, which for example can be used to locate local area facilities, a useful tool if working in unfamiliar territory.

A Boiler Sizing tool is provided on the site. This uses the BRECSU industry standard for calculating the optimum boiler output for an application. The phone user merely inputs data such as the number of rooms, residents and size of building. The sizes of all the boilers in the range can then be called up to check whether a particular unit will fit into the available space. If a brochure is needed, an order can be simply e-mailed.

Since the launch in September 2000, one of the most popular parts of the service is that for post-installation work. Fault-finding guides have been developed for each boiler, and these lead the phone user through the recommended diagnostic process step-by-step by asking questions such as "What is the electrical current?". Information is offered on how to clear faults, and on part numbers for replacement of components.

These facilities enable an installer to make checks on a boiler without keeping a member of Ideal's customer care team occupied on the phone. But a speed dial service ensures customer care will call back if the problem cannot be resolved.

Ideal Boilers first considered using WAP technology as a servicing tool in April 2000. The company's customer care team receives over 2000 calls a day. Like other manufacturers it invested heavily in call centres during the 1990s, and now boasts a 30-strong technical team to answer queries. However, due to the uneven demand patterns of heating, matching staff levels to enquiries can be problematic. The Internet provides a solution that has been seized by the many companies that now offer complementary services via web sites.

But for installers who spend most of their time out of the office, web sites are of limited value due to the pc-based access. Ideal realised that WAP phones could provide a practical answer. Almost every installer in the UK carries a mobile phone. And, as BT has confirmed, professional tradesmen are second only to company executives in their early adoption of this technology. Furthermore, they are now showing interest in advances into SMS (Short Message Service) and WAP.

WAP phones take less than ten seconds from switching on to accessing the Internet, whereas even the most powerful pcs can taken a seemingly interminable five minutes to boot up. These new devices therefore form a natural ally to field-based personnel who need rapid access to information.

Trials of the Mobile Toolbox began in June 2000 with 22 installers in the Bristol area. Each was invited to an introductory evening session and issued with a WAP-enabled phone, pre-programmed with the Toolbox homepage. Weekly feedback from the installers was included in the subsequent development of the service. Mobile Toolbox was eventually launched in September after six months of development and an investment of £75 000.

Peter Briscoe, of A&PB Plumbing & Heating, one of the firms that participated in the trials comments: "At first I was sceptical about whether WAP could really help my business, but when I was stuck for boiler information on site I realised its value." In the first few weeks after the launch over 500 installers signed up to the service. Ideal hopes that eventually 8000 of the 90 000 UK CORGI-registered installers will be signed up. Applications can be made either by phone or by visiting the company's web site (www.idealboilers.com). There are two conditions: installers have to be CORGI-registered and they are required to take out a 12-month contract with BT Cellnet.

As the technology develops, further opportunities will emerge. For example, improvements in mobile networks will make image exchange practical, allowing remote diagnostics of boiler problems. By 2003, when 3G (third-generation) networks will come into operation, video link-ups with skilled technical staff will also be possible.

By then diagnostics may have become simpler still by direct links between microprocessors and remote diagnostic tools. Indeed an example of this is provided by Toshiba Carrier, which is carrying out trials in four European countries into the use of WAP-enabled air conditioning equipment. The company's Night & Day Console Split System units are fitted with Wireless Communication Devices (WCD), which recognise system fault codes and communicate diagnostic messages instantaneously. Alarms can be received by cellular phone, e-mail or fax.

With Carrier's launch of a service-oriented interactive web site called MyAppliance.com, customers with web-enabled equipment will be able to access the controls of their plant through their mobile phones and see the changes as they make them. A link is made by the installed WCD to the Internet and the information provided can be accessed by a mobile phone using WAP technology connecting to a private area of the MyAppliance.com web site.

It will also be possible to set and communicate all alarm functions via the Internet. If a parameter is exceeded or a malfunction indicated, the appropriate contact is made via the mobile phone by the unit itself. In the opposite direction, it is envisaged that Carrier dealers will be given access to check their systems without the need for a pc connection. Fault diagnosis, remote repair, spare parts ordering and messaging can all be undertaken.

Ideal Boilers' Mobile Toolbox won the company the Hewlett Packard-sponsored Mobile E-Business 2000 award, beating off stiff competition from the other short-listed contestants, Surrey Police and Woolwich. And the company's installer director, Simon Kujawa was declared Computer Weekly's E-Business Champion for 2000; his competitors included Virgin Atlantic and Sainsbury's.

Kujawa is now with MK Electric. Interestingly, Gordon MacSween, who was the e-business director at Caradon during the development of the Mobile Toolbox, is also in a new appointment, as managing director of Chloride Safety Systems. It will be interesting to see if any WAP-based developments occur in the two electrical companies. The nature of electrical accessories and the wealth of installation information necessary for the huge range of products listed in MK's catalogue would make it very difficult to fit it all the details onto a manageable WAP site. But perhaps emergency lighting would be as manageable as boilers? Technology is developing at such a fast rate that one can never tell. We will have to wait and see.