Searching Solutions for the Mobile WorkforceCollaborative Information Management for Mobile Workers
BT Innovation & Design
Géry Ducatel, Botond Virginas
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Content
• Context of what we are doing• History• Current solutions• Outlook
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Information Management for Mobile Workers
• Field engineers rely on mobile applications to– call colleagues/back-office– keep customers informed– access online documents– consult maps– report progress– Bill customers– submit timesheets, drivers’ log, etc
• Lack of application support drives performance down– Poor visibility on job history– no guidance– portal information not contextualised– job reports unexploited for sharing expert knowledge– poor data quality hampers analytics– hard to check/enforce schedule adherence– out-of-sync scheduler generates sub-optimal tours
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History
• Search Engine for User Manuals/Technical content– Based on lucene– Segment pages into smaller chunks– Good quality results– Personalised term association
• Query suggestion engine– Developed to support user forums
• Collaborative approach to Information Management– xMobile trial
2007 - 09
2009 - 11
2009
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© British Telecommunications plc
Search engine
Technical Health and Safety
Reference DB
Information Transformation Layer
Component Layers
Web Interface
Content Analysis ModulesNatural
LanguageAugmented
Query suggestionsQuery
Modeling/EditorSemanticAnalysis
Ontology
Index
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<SENTENCE><NO_MEANING>I</NO_MEANING><NO_MEANING>can</NO_MEANING><NO_MEANING>not</NO_MEANING><VERB><RAW_VERB>get</RAW_VERB><BASE_FORM>get</BASE_FORM></NOUN><NO_MEANING>my</NO_MEANING><PRODUCT><PROPER_NOUN>BT Hub Phone 1010</PROPER_NOUN></PRODUCT><NO_MEANING>to</NO_MEANING><VERB><RAW_VERB>register</RAW_VERB><BASE_FORM>register</BASE_FORM></VERB><NO_MEANING>to</NO_MEANING><NO_MEANING>the</NO_MEANING><PRODUCT><PROPER_NOUN>BT hub</PROPER_NOUN></PRODUCT></SENTENCE>
I can not get my BT Hub Phone 1010 to register to the BT Hub
Query analysis:Strong verbs: get, registerStrong nouns:Products: BT Hub Phone 1010, BT Hub
Figure 3
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Query:
Computer representation:
I can not get my BT Hub Phone 1010 to register to
the BT Hub
1010 phone registrationinstallationringconnection
1015 phoneHome hubVision
securitybilling
Indexed content
Query Building Engine
telephone
routerpayphonefaxConsumables
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xMobile
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Anticipated Benefits Reduce data overload and
information gaps.
Fewer requests to legacy sources and calls to back-office.
Improvements in RFT, and CT.
xMobile Unique Selling Points
What it does• Improve information flow across the BT
field force
• Exploit Web2.0 social communication tools in field-engineering:
– Support information sharing– Speed-up information capture– Support access to existing data
• Anticipate future mobility platforms such as smart phones, tablets etc.
How it does it• A Wiki-based tool to support Openreach
field engineers with context sensitive information capture and delivery.
• Provides tagged task-reports and geo-coded notes.
• Map view allows location sensitive information delivery.
• Exploit current field information sources.
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xMobile Overview
- Query suggestion
- Entity Analysis
BT OR / THIRD PARTYCONTEXT / CONTENT
SERVICES
PR
ES
EN
TA
TIO
N
APPLICATION LOGIC
INT. DBs
BT ORDBs
xMobile
Fault diagnosis?
Job history?
Where's the team?
Take a photo
Wifi hotspots?
Experts to talk to?
Best docs to read?
CP product to recomm.
Reroute my calls
Expected end time?
Core func.
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xMobile
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Wiki Interface for Laptops (web based)
Job Description
Search eAssistantSearch H&S
Job History
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Search Documentation
Query Suggestions
Search technical info or H&S
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Conclusions
• Re-focus on Information retrieval– Looking for vertical applications– Search, and present, information
• Multimodal interaction– Intuitive and creative interfaces (smaller devices)
• Closer monitoring of job execution– Information about job progress– Contextual information– Communication opportunities
• Stronger IT presence with mobile workers– Job standardisation– More complex business processes
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Future Work
• Focus on Management of Knowledge– Capture information– Share Information– Integrate knowledge
• How to respond to rapid changes of the data• How to extract relevant information
– Entity Analysis– Removing duplication
• How to identify documentation gaps– Add new documentation– Remove obsolete content
© British Telecommunications plc
Thank you
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