Vortex Connect Blog

Workforce Management Will Benefit By Betting on NFC

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Just this week NFC (Near Field Communication) technology got another boost when it was announced that Inside Secure will be providing technology to Intel. This good news for NFC is also good news for Vortex Connect, because we provide the mobile business solutions used on workers’ phones. With NFC there are just more ways phones can impact business.

For example, Mashable Editor in Chief Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) pointed out that RIM was smartly working to encourage NFC-enabled phones be used a security passes. 

To understand how that fits into the Vortex world there are a few things to grasp. Firstly, unlike RFID, NFC is bi-directional, and this opens the door to a world of functionality. Secondly, the pillars for NFC are sharing, pairing and transacting. Pairing in a business scenario could mean tapping your phone to sync to a network. Security passes, mobile payments, door keys etc. fall under transaction, and sharing tends to mean QR code style actions but without the need to fumble around with a camera. Typically, tap your phone and receive a URL. Finally, because NFC is powered and controlled by your phone, it can be password protected and modified on the fly or even remotely.

For businesses, incorporating a security badge into a phone is valuable for more than just cost savings and increased control.

• Workers will be able to use the NFC tap for countless time-saving/real-time-data creating actions and security can be incorporated every step of the way. 
• Furthermore these actions can trigger cascades of automated or smart reactions. 
• A worker could use their phone to enter a building and sync to its network, a tap of the phone could then turn equipment on and off. 
• Behind the scenes middleware will capture the time punch and any labor transfers and relay it to the time and attendance and workforce management solution. 
• Simultaneously asset depreciation data will be relayed to capital management software and speed to billing will be increased. 
• All of this will be augmentable because a phone can automatically layer on GPS data, prompt an inspection, provide a streamlined work order, enable multimedia to be attached, and inform a manager that work has been completed and the employee should be assigned to the next task.

While NFC is not in every device (Apple included), Lance is right to praise RIM (check out the video below where Andrew Bocking, VP Handheld Software Product Management at RIM gave his thoughts on the uses of NFC at Mobile World Congress 2011).

Businesses can benefit from supplying or subsidizing an NFC enabled smartphone, and Blackberry already has seven such devices on the market. Here’s hoping they stay ahead of that curve!