Licensing Microsoft Business Applications to external users is a commonly misunderstood area of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Apps licensing guide. Ben Vollmer, along with Jakub Bajla and Eduard Kesely from Resco, brings some common sense to this topic by guiding you through the core concepts and providing real-life examples.

The term “external user” has been part of the Microsoft vocabulary for about 20 years. Despite its longevity, it’s often misunderstood.

External users are individuals who interact with a system but are not part of the organization that operates the system. Examples include customers accessing a portal to view their account information or caretakers accessing a relative’s medical records online.

The webinar starts by breaking down the terminology. Ben explains the difference between an external user and an outsourced user and explains what it means to be working “for you” or “on your behalf”.

Do your users need licenses? Important points to consider

Ben encourages viewers not to skip the details when considering whether a user can take advantage of external user access to Microsoft Business Applications or not. The details draw the fine line between being in-compliance and out-of-compliance with the Microsoft licensing guide. He suggests considering:

• Who owns the license? 
• What is the external user doing?
• Multiplexing
• Access to graphical user interface (GUI)
• License reassignment rights

Good news: Resco supports all scenarios

If you use Resco, you can rest assured our products offer options to make sure you stay compliant with the Microsoft licensing guide – no matter which group your users fall into.

Ben Vollmer is joined by Eduard Kesely, Resco Head of Product. Eduard describes the three types of projects you can build with our Mobile App Development Toolkit:

1. Anonymous External Users: These users access the app without authentication, receiving the same content universally. Typically this is for marketing purposes involving publicly available information. Setup involves creating a common user in the backend and customizing specific projects in Woodford which will be used for these types of users. (Usage scenario is for customers who need to access common information of the company)
2. External (Portal) Users: These users log in to access CRM content tailored for them. This setup requires defining a security role in CRM and using Woodford to configure the project with authentication entities and registration methods. (Usage scenario is for suppliers of the company who are not part of the company and directly do not contribute to the business of the company)
3. Standard User Project: A project for authenticated users, with unique content for each logged in user based on security role and permissions.  (Usage scenario is for contractors, seasonal workers, and sales representatives directly working on behalf of the company)

For in-depth information about Resco and external users, please visit our Wiki: https://docs.resco.net/wiki/External_users

To discuss your specific scenario, please contact Resco at sales@resco.net.

Ben Vollmer, Strategic Advisor at Resco

With a distinguished 16-year career at Microsoft, Ben held several leadership positions within the Dynamics 365 business unit. His extensive background spans consulting, sales, product development, and product management, covering a diverse range of industries and markets. Ben is recognized as an industry veteran, known for his pragmatic approach to solving complex business challenges.

Príspevok External users demystified [takeaways from a webinar with Ben Vollmer] zobrazený najskôr Resco.

Secure your spot to view presentations, engage in discussions, and join our mission to make enterprise development both profitable and sustainable. 

Keynote: Productivity unleashed 

Resco CEO Andrew Lorraine and April Dunnam, Principal Cloud Advocate for the Power Platform, will kick off Resco Next with a keynote on this year’s theme: Productivity unleased.  

The rapid pace of technological change is dramatically impacting business and IT. The result is a radical shift in how we think about productivity – from implementations, development, and billable hours to partnerships, no-code, and results. 

Join us to learn how we are addressing these challenges and supporting our partners and customers by expanding our alliance with Microsoft. We’re delivering new products across the Power Platform in addition to continued investments in our flagship Resco Mobile product. 

Roadmap: Key product achievements and future focus 

Eduard Kesely, Head of Product, and Tomas Michalek, CTO, will join forces to present our roadmap from both a product and technical perspective. 

Since the last Resco Next in October, we have made significant advancements in UX/UI, productivity, and AI integrations. Now, we are laying the groundwork for future innovations in enterprise mobility and productivity solutions.  

We will reveal our roadmap plans, which aim to make our flagship functionality more interoperable, enhance productivity with Power Components and shine a spotlight on our renowned mobile app. 

Mobile App Development Toolkit: Breakthrough in sync 

Organizations with a frontline workforce need an app that guarantees speed and responsiveness under any conditions. Our Mobile App Development Toolkit allows for building enterprise mobile apps on Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Dataverse with an offline mode, thanks to a sync engine that keeps data accessible on the go. 

Watch our software developer, Matej Vanik, as he introduces a new generation of our sync engine, designed for even faster and more seamless data synchronization. Explore the pros and cons of connecting via WebAPI versus the new TDS endpoint, shedding light on the effectiveness of each approach. 

Mobile Solutions: built for industry verticals and use cases 

The Resco Mobile App Development Toolkit is utilized not only for building complex mobile applications for individual clients but also across entire industry verticals. We are taking this approach a step further, giving you an edge when deploying solutions for specific industries. 

Join Trevor Metcalfe, Marketing Manager, as he demonstrates how our new approach empowers you to create industry vertical and use-case specific solutions. Experience our latest innovation in action, with a walkthrough of Resco Property+ solution by Dusan Polach, Consultant. 

Power Components: Unleashing productivity on Power Platform

At last year’s Resco Next, we sparked considerable interest with the launch of our new Power Solutions. This year, we are taking productivity on Power Platform a step further with Power Components.  

Resco Power Components for the Power Platform are designed to empower app creators—consultants, developers, and solution architects—who craft both model-driven and canvas business apps for their clients. These components expand their toolkit and simplify no-code app development, making it faster and more efficient. 

Join Ben Vollmer, Strategic Advisor, and Michal Magnusek, Senior Product Manager, as they unveil first batch of Power Components. Discover how these components can speed up project delivery, save costs on developer hours and custom coding, and guarantee security, quality, and future compatibility of code.

Interested in taking part? There is still time to book your spot. Registrations close on May 23 — don’t miss out.  Contact your Business Development Manager or our team at events@resco.net to claim your spot. 

Príspevok What’s new in our product portfolio and how can it benefit your business? Come and see at Resco Next  zobrazený najskôr Resco.

1. Automated document generation improves operational efficiency 

With findings from a Zapier study highlighting that a significant portion of workers spend hours daily on data-related tasks, the whitepaper underscores the critical need for document automation. By adopting automated document generation, organizations can save resources, minimize errors, and enhance productivity. 

2. Analysis of Microsoft and third-party tools 

The paper presents a guideline for using Microsoft’s native tools versus third-party solutions for document generation. While Microsoft tools offer the advantage of having one supplier, potentially reducing compatibility issues, they may lack the specialization and ease of use provided by third-party solutions specifically designed for document automation on Power Platform. 

3. Advantages of third-party add-ons 

Third-party add-ons bring customization, advanced features, scalability, rapid deployment, and dedicated support to the table. These solutions are built to address the evolving and complex needs of businesses, providing advanced functionalities that enhance Microsoft’s native options. 

4. Key considerations when choosing a solution  

The whitepaper emphasizes the importance of considering factors such as the procurement process, data storage and handling, additional data management costs, and potential performance issues when selecting a document generation solution. These considerations are vital for aligning with regulatory requirements, ensuring cost-effectiveness, and achieving desired operational efficiencies. 

5. Highlight on Resco Docs+ 

Among the third-party solutions, Resco Docs+ stands out for its integrated Document designer, offering a no-code, point-and-click environment for template creation. Its performance, ease of use, and mobile application compatibility make it an ideal choice for organizations seeking reliable and complex document generation capabilities. 

In conclusion, the whitepaper serves as a comprehensive guide for organizations navigating the complexities of document generation on the Power Platform. By evaluating the pros and cons of Microsoft and third-party tools and considering essential selection criteria, businesses can make informed decisions that will aid them in their document automation efforts. 

Príspevok Document generation in Microsoft Power Platform [5 key takeaways from the latest whitepaper]   zobrazený najskôr Resco.

In this workshop centered around a common business case, our Success team will guide you through the journey of a fictional company Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning.  

Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 as its CRM. However, it has digitization requirements that go beyond a CRM solution and they’re looking for a way to grow on Power Platform. 

Through the Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning story, we will show you how you can use the same Resco tools you know and love for CRM on Power Platform to cover a wide range of business challenges. 

Our Success team will demonstrate: 

• Setting up Resco Inspections+ for non-CRM use cases 
• Building a solution for performing health & safety procedures and vehicle inspections, using templates and adjusting them to fit the use case 
• Measuring the impact of the collected data with Fabric and Power BI   

Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning is a fictional industrial cleaning leader with 80% of their workforce serving outside the office in roles such as drivers and inspectors. The company wants to consolidate multiple point solutions and pen-and-paper processes for health & safety and vehicle inspections into one business application with a strong long-term perspective. 

After completing the training, attendees will have a solid grasp of how to rapidly deploy an end-to-end mobile solution using Resco and Power Platform that helps make their non-CRM teams more productive in the field. 

Day 1: Setting up the mobile app  

Get to know the business case of Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning, a fictional industrial cleaning leader with a need to digitize non-CRM processes and teams. 

• Intro to Resco on Power Platform and the business challenge 
• Showcase of the final solution with screenshots and solution architecture 
• Setting up Resco Inspections+ for Power Platform 
• Setup of Resco mobile app  

Presenters: Nicholas Boxall, Knowledge Specialist, and Lukas Lesko, Support and Education Manager 

Duration: 1 hour (including Q&A) 

Day 2: Inspections solution low-code customization 

Dive deep into the process of customizing Resco Inspections+ through the lens of the Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning business case, see the mobile app in action, and discover how the solution achieves the business requirements. 

• Creating Health and Safety Assessment and Vehicle Inspections 
• Using advanced features: data mapping, OCR, tagged images 
• Showcase of scheduling and timesheets 
• Customizing the solution, including setting up rules 
• Backend work with Inspections data 

Presenters: Marek Ferenc, IT Support Specialist, and Lukas Lesko, Support and Education Manager 

Duration: 1 hour (including Q&A) 

Day 3: Fabric integration and data visualization in Power BI 

Join us for the final part of the Power Platform Masterclass, where we bring the data story full circle. In this session, we’ll delve into the data collected by Z.A.P. Energy Cleaning, through questionnaires discussed in our previous session. We’ll demonstrate the end-to-end process of data handling – from offloading and optimizing storage in Fabric to generating insights in Power BI.  

We will discuss the potential future impact of Fabric, including the cost of data storage and the possibility of reducing the data footprint. Then, we will look at the data processing in Notebooks and finally build a simple report. We will cover: 

• Best practices for working with big data 
• Using Fabric to prepare the data for analysis 
• Building a report with Power BI 

Presenters: Marek Rodak, Knowledge Specialist, and Matej Vanik, Developer 

Duration: 1 hour (including Q&A) 

Príspevok Build end-to-end mobile business solutions faster with Power Platform and Resco [short summary from a masterclass webinar] zobrazený najskôr Resco.

Focus on your goals, not on paperwork 

Regardless of your company’s progress in digital transformation, it’s likely that you still manually create numerous documents using the same template repeatedly. 

When it comes to manually generating service reports, surveys, acceptance protocols, contracts, orders, invoices, or compliance documents, people use various tools to get the job done. They copy and paste data from multiple sources into a text document and perform calculations on the side in spreadsheets. They save a copy of the document to a designated file and look for an e-mail to send the document to. This routine can get tedious, especially if they need to create the same types of documents repeatedly. 

Thankfully, there are ways to simplify this process. 

With Resco Docs+, our Power Platform enhancement, you can automate the generation and delivery of all your documents, no matter how complex they are. This means you can focus on meeting your goals instead of drowning in piles of paperwork.

How does Resco Docs+ work?

Resco Docs+ is a solution natively integrated in Power Apps that allows you to design your template and choose what data to add. It uses a Power Automate connector to automate the creation, sending, and saving of your documents.

Resco Docs+ is fully integrated in Power Platform. This opens the door for you to use all the tools the low-code platform offers, including the latest innovations.

Design your document

First, you need to choose what document you want to create and how it will look.

Resco Docs+ makes it easy to turn your idea into reality with an intuitive drag-and-drop designer.

You can design your document using a header block, a footer block, and grid blocks. Grids ensure that your data won’t overflow and your layout won’t break down. It will stay exactly as you intended. We call this pixel-perfect design.

Choose what data to use

Choose from a list of fields and variables and simply drag them to the document.

Add data from Microsoft Dataverse/Dynamics365 or those collected in the field. Use data from related and unrelated tables.

Take advantage of the rules engine to show or hide parts of the document.

The no-code system makes it easy for all business users to make changes. More complex requests from partners and skilled users can be satisfied with advanced tools.

Automate document generation, sending, and saving

When you are done with the design stage, use Docs+ to generate your document.

For this, you can use a Power Automate workflow. The Resco Report Connector fetches the document template, fills it in with up-to-date data, and generates a document in your preferred format automatically.

Power Automate also lets you set up what will happen with the document. You can either save it on your SharePoint or send it via email.

Need to schedule documents in advance? You can choose when the document will be created. For example, a monthly report can be automatically generated and sent to the stakeholders once a month. A service report can be stored on SharePoint and sent to a customer when the field technician finishes collecting data and hits a dedicated button. And an invoice can be automatically generated when an order lands.

How to try Resco Docs+?

Resco Docs+ works in a Power Platform environment. To use it, you need an appropriate Power App and Power Automate license, along with Resco Docs+ license.

Learn more on Resco Docs+ landing page and read detailed guidance on Resco Docs+ wiki.

Start a free trial and download the two solution packages from our website. Add these packages to your Power App project, and you are ready to go.

Príspevok Improve your business processes with Resco Docs+ on Power Platform zobrazený najskôr Resco.

In this article, we will delve into:

1. Power Platform’s role in simplifying app development.
2. How Resco Power Solutions enhance Power Platform.
3. The benefits of Resco Forms+, Docs+, and Steps+.

Understanding Power Platform, the democratization of app development

The Microsoft Power Platform is a low-code / no-code platform designed to simplify the application development process.

It makes digital transformation accessible to both tech professionals and business users. By enabling app development without coding, more people can be engaged in transforming their business in less time. This opens a world of new opportunities: any member of an organization can come up with an idea, develop it, and integrate it seamlessly with the existing framework.

How Resco Power Solutions enhance the Power Platform

The best suggestions for digitizing workflows can come from anywhere, not just the front office. They often come from the frontline, where business meets the world.

Frontline workers, always on the move, require efficient tools regardless of where they are: on the rooftop, in the basement or on the outskirts. They can’t afford to use tools that don’t align with their daily tasks. Simply put, workflows need to be tailored to fit their operations.

This is where Resco comes into play.

Resco is the product of 20+ years of experience, accumulating decades of frontline know-how and turning it into software solutions attuned to the needs of mobile workers.

And now, we are bringing the best of it to Power Platform.

As a seasoned ISV partner of Microsoft, Resco is built to natively fit Microsoft Business Applications portfolio – whether with Dynamics, Power Platform, or Business Central.

By using our solutions, businesses can satisfy the needs of their frontline workforce quicker, at a lower cost, and make their projects easy to maintain.

Exploring Resco Forms+, Docs+, and Steps+

We proudly present three inter-compatible solutions for Power Platform. Designed as modular building blocks, you can just reach out and use them whenever needed.

Resco Forms+ enables frontline personnel to collect data – from conducting surveys, audits, and inspections, to using guided workflows, to getting customer signatures. Everything can be done seamlessly within Power Apps and Power Pages. You can use simple drag-and-drop tools to make the form align with the needs of frontline workers. This maximizes user adoption, which in turn means higher data quality.

Resco Docs+  combines Dataverse and field data to automatically create invoices, contracts, and reports in PDF or any format you choose. Users can design pixel-perfect document templates in a drag-and-drop editor and use Power Automate to build flows for automatic document creation, data population, and distribution.

Resco Steps+ allows businesses to share knowledge in a simple, accessible form. You can create step-by-step instruction guides with text, images, and videos to prevent errors and speed up onboarding, making them available exactly when and where frontline workers need them.  

Why choose Resco Power Solutions

Let’s look in more detail at how the new solutions can cut your costs, reduce maintenance and pave the way for the future.

Use the advantages of Power Platform and the ISV community

Building in the Power Platform ecosystem means you can count on its longevity in futureproofing your projects.

The partner community is one of the biggest competitive advantages of Microsoft, providing a smart solution to almost any of your challenges.

Leverage native integration

With Resco, you can leverage Microsoft licenses and connect through Active Directory. Resco is not only natively integrated with Microsoft architecture but is also a part of the ecosystem it enhances.

Ready-made solution thanks to our focus on customers

Customers have always been our singular focus. Thanks to countless conversations with organizations that rely on hundreds of frontline workers, we know what the industry needs and have designed ready-made solutions for pressing problems.

We implemented the insights of clients working in the most demanding conditions and armed our solutions with advanced features to cater to their needs. Even if you won’t need every feature from the onset, you can take advantage of them as your company grows. Need new features? Deploy them instantly without any additional costs.

Cut time to market and cost to market, increase ROI

Having a ready-to-go, scalable solution means you don’t have to invest your time and resources in building. You can simply start using it.

When using Resco Power Solutions, you can get prototypes ready for testing within weeks, not quarters. This reduces your time-to-market, and consecutively cost-to-market, over a solution built from scratch.

By using fewer resources, your initial threshold for calculating ROI (return on investment) is lower.

Simplify Maintenance

Implement stakeholder suggestions without discarding your existing code. You can even re-use parts of your projects. Not having to maintain custom code lowers the cost of maintaining your whole project and the risks that come with it.

Use the offline mode of Resco mobile app on Power Platform

Resco is well-known for its mobile app with full offline mode. With an advanced sync engine, it is the mobile app of choice for businesses in the most demanding industries.

When offline is needed, you can always use the Resco Mobile App on top of your Power App license. Your users benefit from our offline-first architecture to avoid increased internet traffic/consumption, latency due to shaky reception (even in urban areas), or even shortened battery life.

If you want to learn more, you can visit the Power Solutions landing page, or watch a recording from our Power Platform masterclass webinar.

Príspevok What are the new Resco Power Solutions? zobrazený najskôr Resco.

ALIS, our new asset localization and identification system, leverages Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. Developed within resco.Labs, ALIS is designed to guide field workers and help them execute their work orders. 

The beacons have been tested at multiple sites. Read the anonymized use cases based on real-life scenarios that highlight their versatility and underscore their capacity to add value across various environments.

 Use case #1: Supermarket 

At a supermarket chain, everything needs to be streamlined. Our daughter company, Nivy Watch, deployed a system for managing tasks and activities of employees using a smartwatch and Bluetooth beacons. This integration allows management to use real-time data to ensure resources are used efficiently.  

The project started with placing beacons and handing out the watches to employees.  

Soon it was revealed that the employees were spending a lot of time at the machine for recycling bottles. Instead of doing their jobs, they tended to a machine that often malfunctioned. It became apparent it needed to be replaced. 

Also, employees spent significant time checking the fridge and freezer temperature. The cooling devices must go through regular checks to ensure the temperature levels are correctly set and the contents are kept within defined food-safe limits. 

Thanks to placing a beacon with a temperature sensor into each cooling device, temperature levels are automatically monitored 24 hours a day. Possible accidents have been minimized to almost zero.   

When a cooling device requires a service check, the beacon paired with inspections software not only directs the technician to its precise location but also provides access to the necessary documentation. 

By using the Nivy Watch system and the beacons, supermarket management could identify multiple weak spots, identify opportunities for automating processes, and save time and resources. 

Use case #2: Nuclear power plant 

We were involved in talks about improving the operations of all kinds of premises. One of them was a nuclear power plant.  

Initially, the assignment was to improve security. Service members are supposed to perform a security check on the same circuit every hour. They must document their presence at several checkpoints to ensure everything runs smoothly.  

In the past, they scanned a QR code at each checkpoint. Unfortunately, this system can be sidestepped by taking pictures of the QR codes, printing them out, and scanning them, pretending you are the serviceman on patrol.  

Using the beacons can significantly improve security because the designated person needs to be physically present at the asset to log the checkpoint into the system. If someone attempts to remove or tamper with the beacon, its sensor can pick up suspicious activity and notify the manager. 

While solving the security problem, we encountered other situations where beacons might be helpful. The equipment at a nuclear power plant must undergo many regulatory checks, and external contractors often perform these.   

When the contractor comes to the premises, she must find her way in labyrinthine corridors and shafts spanning multiple floors. She relies on employees to show her the way, but the environment can get very noisy, and sometimes there is no one around to give directions. 

If there is a beacon at an asset, say, a turbine, the contractor can easily find her way to it. It helps her make sure she is inspecting the right asset and has the documentation at hand. In a plant with thousands of assets, this might save a significant amount of time.  

Many of the assets need continuous monitoring of moisture, vibrations, CO2 levels, etc. Workers read the values, write them down, and enter them into the system. This ensures people working at the plant are safe and assured everything works as supposed, and it also cuts downtime. With the beacons, much of the monitoring can be done automatically. 

It is remarkable how simple Bluetooth beacons with the right software can improve the functioning of a highly complex system. 

Order an ALIS developer kit 

Do you have an idea about a similar use case? You can order an ALIS developer kit.

Try the beacons in real-life scenarios. We will be glad to help you develop a solution to your problem or the problem of your clients. 

Príspevok ALIS at a nuclear power plant: use cases for the Resco asset localization and identification system  zobrazený najskôr Resco.

Awards are an excellent opportunity for Resco to recognize partners that deliver outstanding business results and customer experience, innovate work processes, and transform their customer’s businesses.  

This year, we are celebrating three categories: 

• Partner of the Year 
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year 
• Business Impact of the Year 

You can apply for the Business Impact of the Year award. Don’t miss out; entries are open until September 30^th. 

This award is an opportunity for every partner to tell their customer success story, regardless of the country your company is based in, your size, or the length of our partnership. 

It brings you greater visibility and recognition on top of receiving two complimentary passes for the resco.NEXT 2024 conference, in market development funds and other benefits. 

If you are interested in finding out how to apply, read on. 

A closer look at the Business Impact of the Year award 

Any customer project that showcases how you used Resco to build solutions and made a real impact, delivering meaningful and sustainable changes, is a suitable candidate for this award. We are seeking such projects that have demonstrated creative problem-solving and leadership, not only successful technical implementation. Project creativity, strong business practices, and innovation are also factors to be considered. 

The award was created to celebrate partners that have empowered their customers and strengthened partnerships between them and their clients. 

Criteria: 

• Measurable (e.g., time saved; increase in clients revenue, number of customers visited, presentations made; decreased sync time, etc.) 
• Qualitative (proven by a customer testimonial or quote, e.g., improved collaboration among teams, increased data quality, increased worker satisfaction, etc.) 
• Project size: number of users using Resco in the client’s organization 

The most valuable entries are those that include as much detail and are ideally backed up by customer testimony. Metrics, numbers, and statistics are all vital. You need facts to describe the challenge specifically and show how you improved a client’s business. Tell your story and tell it well. And please make sure that the customer is okay with you sharing this information. 

Submit your application for Business Impact of the Year by September 30^th at this link: https://forms.office.com/e/0KFr1PspPC

The winner will be featured in follow-up press releases, blogs, and other marketing activities and will receive a marketing kit (award logos, press template, designation badge, photos & video, etc.), so they can promote their accomplishment. 

The winner will be publicly announced on October 24, 2023, during the Resco Partner Awards ceremony at resco.NEXT 2023 conference in Marbella, Spain. 

We’re looking forward to receiving your entries!

Príspevok Call to partners: Apply for the Resco Business Impact of the Year Award  zobrazený najskôr Resco.

At Resco, our focus is on providing software solutions for frontline workers. Can you explain why UI/UX is important for them?

Frontline workers operate in the field without the convenience of a fully equipped office. They are constantly on the move and often under time pressure. These people need to concentrate on delivering high-quality work they are experts at.

We don’t want to burden them with complicated work apps. Our goal is to make them intuitive.

The Resco Mobile App Development Toolkit works very well from a technical point of view. We have a top-notch offline mode and customizable synchronization. We strive to make all of this as user-friendly as possible for frontline workers.

Why is usability so crucial?

When an app is usable, it is easy for the workers to figure it out. They don’t require extensive training or support.

Using their work app should leave them satisfied and self-confident. They shouldn’t feel frustrated, as that could negatively impact their interactions with customers.

How does the UX/UI of mobile apps differ from desktop apps?

Mobile devices are ubiquitous. People rely on them as their primary devices for accomplishing tasks. For deskless workers, they are clearly the most practical devices in the field. They can’t imagine running around and doing their job with any other device.

My colleagues who worked at Resco two decades ago foresaw this trend and couldn’t ignore it. They adapted desktop applications for use on mobile devices. Supporting frontline workers is not new to us.

Thanks to our extensive experience, we know that mobile applications have different standards compared to desktop apps. Most importantly, mobile apps require users to navigate efficiently and quickly, even with gestures. With larger screen space, desktops can display more information. Mobile app interfaces often prioritize essential information and use responsive design techniques. Mobile apps are typically designed to adhere to specific platform UI guidelines and conventions, ensuring consistency with other native apps on the platform and providing a familiar user experience.

How does this translate to the user interfaces of mobile devices?

Let’s emphasize the usability concept once again: making the apps user-friendly is crucial so that anyone can work with them.

When discussing field service, our users work in challenging conditions. They often wear gloves or work in harsh sunlight. Therefore, the apps need high contrast, large touch targets, and so on. Workers should not struggle to tap exactly where they intend to. They need to have their apps in their hands and have complete control over gestures that help them accomplish their tasks.

Speed is paramount in the field. Everything must be designed to allow workers to operate their apps quickly.

Resco has been in the market for 24 years. During this time, user interfaces and the entire experience of using technology have evolved. How do user requirements change?

Users want their apps to be as simple as possible. In the past, there was a focus on creating visually appealing interfaces with shadows and gradients. However, nowadays, fewer people prioritize aesthetics. The primary expectation is for apps to be easy to navigate.

Additionally, users prefer having everything in one place, so they don’t have to use multiple apps. That’s why they can take pictures directly in Inspections+, use a QR scanner, or write notes.

When field users encounter a problem, they want to avoid calling colleagues or rummaging through Sharepoint. They can access Steps+, which provide all the necessary documentation directly from their apps.

You work as a UX researcher. How do you get to know the user’s needs?

To be honest, UX research is quite challenging in B2B.

While reaching people who use desktop tools is relatively easy and allows for direct implementation of their requirements, reaching mobile users is more complex. Typically, there are implementation partners and managers involved. However, this research is highly valuable as the ultimate goal for a UI/UX researcher at Resco is to see frontline workers using the application.

Apps created with the Mobile App Development Toolkit cover many scenarios. They are not single-purpose apps that everyone uses more or less equally – like social networks. With each case being unique, user requirements are very diverse. It’s fascinating to us.

We try to cover as many scenarios as possible in our research. On top of it, we are always thankful for customer feedback. If you communicate with your frontline users, everything they say is relevant to us. It is the most valuable feedback we can get. If you want to share it directly with me, you can reach me at adela.kovarova@resco.net

Most importantly, all our users are united by the fact that they want to work quickly and simply. We try to follow that.

What are the methods of UX research in Resco?

We ask a lot of questions. We perform user interviews, either exploratory or focused on a specific topic. Before we even get to the topic of Resco, we ask our users about their work, their scenarios, division of tasks.

We ask them what they want to achieve with our tools, what they enable them to do, and what we can improve.

These are not feedback loops but rather deep conversations about how they feel when they use our app, how they relate to it, or whether they are comfortable with it.

We also interview the admins that use our web tools to build and customize apps for frontline workers.

When we have new ideas for improving our applications, a UI designer and a UX designer develop a prototype. It all starts with a wireframe. UX design takes place in the Miro application, and UI design in Figma. We play with how everything should look so the design is consistent with everything we offer. We are striving to make everything look as simple and standard as possible.

We cooperate with the developers early in the UX design phase. We must ensure all the features we creatively design fit into our code and the data model.

Throughout the whole process, we are in touch with product managers. They are in charge of the product on a broader scale and evaluate the impact of the new features.

Then we test our prototype for usability. Basically, we watch how people react to it. During usability tests, we don’t ask questions. We observe users as they perform tasks and record their immediate reactions. We want to see how the prototype is worked with, where there are pain points, and if we can improve the prototype immediately in the next iteration.

After the usability testing, the features are coded and offered for preview. With our new release cycle, we have a preview each month. We encourage everyone to try it right away and give us immediate feedback.

The partner or customer must know what was done and how they can set it up. We provide documentation on our wiki.

What have you been working on recently? Is there anything you are especially proud of? Why is it important for the users?

We are redesigning forms. You can imagine a form as a detail of one record: for example, a screen with the name of the company and all the details about it.

Forms are an app component that every user works with every day. We analyzed how they are currently coded and how they should look according to the design system. We are making them more straightforward to interact with.

I would also like to point out our work on data mapping. Data mapping gives field workers, managers, and consultants an easy way to update existing records in a database directly from a questionnaire. They can also create new records or populate their questionnaires with data from the database. The update makes it easy to set up data mapping without coding using a simple wizard. A big part was released in January, and soon we will release more.

What else are you up to? Are there any exciting projects in your pipeline that you can already share?

I mentioned redesigning the forms. Admin users put the forms together in Woodford’s Form Designer, which has already got a significant UX change, and we plan to continue it. We want the people designing forms to do as little work as possible. We want to come up with useful defaults. And when the designers decide to change something, they will know exactly what they are changing in the application to prevent them from accidentally setting things they do not want. Also, there is a rather big conceptual switch between how we looked at the Style editor until now and what it will enable in the future.

One area we are focusing on is the color in the Theme editor. Until now, users could set any colors they wanted. They could have accidentally produced a colorful app that didn’t follow accessibility standards.

Of course, we want to accommodate customers who have their branding colors. They can choose one color, and we will recolor the entire app for them.

With this change comes the possibility of having a dark mode.

What are the trends in the UI/UX industry that shape your priorities?

We are implementing Material Design. It is an open-source design system from Google that standardizes every single component in mobile applications. As I see it, even Microsoft’s design system is largely influenced by Material Design.

We want the users that come into contact with our apps to experience the least possible shock.

We are also influenced by trends in features. AI is a big trend; of course, it is starting to be addressed in customer feature requests. We already took part in implementing AI in creating work instructions and automating inspection summaries, and there is more to come.

Príspevok UX researcher: Frontline workers require their apps to be straightforward zobrazený najskôr Resco.

The operation of ScaleAQ is so complex it needs tailor-made software. The field engineers rely on it when they do regular maintenance and inspection. The information they gather is integrated with finance, supply chain management, and other data.

From pen and paper to a robust software solution

ScaleAQ has been on the market for 40 years and started out using pen and paper.

The company owns a lot of internal equipment – forklifts, welding machines, etc. These assets need weekly or monthly service. As you can imagine, paper documents sometimes got damaged or even disappeared.

Christian Våge, Team Lead Electro/Automation, ScaleAQ, explains that they started to inspect their assets in 2017 with the help of Resco.
“We quickly saw the benefit and added customer equipment as well,” says Mr. Våge.

Inspecting the fish pens

Now they use Resco Field Service+ along with Inspections+ to inspect the fish pens too. Field engineers sail in small boats and fill in the inspection forms directly at sea. Resco Field Service+ mobile app, fully integrated with Dynamics 365, allows field engineers to work on any device, even with low or no internet connection.

A lot of maintenance work needs to be done on each recurring inspection. Sometimes the inspection is not finished in one go, and the engineers need to make a second visit. There can be different people on each visit. Information needs to be passed on.

Resco Inspections+ allow the field engineers to access the questions that have already been answered. All the answers are reused, only the ones they need to focus on are highlighted.

The technician does not need to reenter questions that have already been entered. It speeds up the inspection, saves time, and increases efficiency.

Data collected during the inspections are securely stored on the mobile device thanks to Resco’s signature offline capability and synced with MS Dynamics once the field engineer becomes online again. Once synced, the documents are stored on SharePoint and also at a customer portal, where customers can review them.

Assembling the fish pens

ScaleAQ has built many fish pens over the years. They come in different specifications, and many of them are unique. When they are being assembled, they demand a unique inspection every time. The inspections must be carried out with the correct template of questions.

To make it easy for the field workers, Resco mobile app pulls out the data about each pen from product cards stored in MS Dynamics and builds an inspection questionnaire dynamically. This process guarantees each asset is inspected with the right inspection template and questions.

Moreover, the questions dynamically change based on the answers that are already given.

Everyone can rest assured the collected data is relevant to the specific asset. This increases the quality and accuracy of the data. Accurate data account for better decisions that lead to the competitive advantage of ScaleAQ. The data is subsequently analyzed in the back office.

And when the pens are being moved between locations, field engineers see the exact info they need to assemble them.

Back-office workers do not need coding skills to put together responsive questionnaires and analyze the outcomes. They can take advantage of the Inspections+ no-code capabilities.

All data in one system

As ScaleAQ grew, its partner seamlessly integrated it with Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service. They have incorporated other back-office systems as well.

All the company data is created and stored in one ecosystem. This way, ScaleAQ avoids data silos and makes sure all the employees and vendors are on the same page.

Sustainability

ScaleAQ has overcome many hurdles thanks to its robust software solution. The biggest challenge at the moment is the state of the ocean and the fish. That’s why they promote circular aquaculture and are focused on sustainability.

With the Green Platform Project SirkAQ, they are developing solutions to reuse, repair and extend the life of plastic from fish farming equipment and to use recycled materials in new products.

Thanks to technology, they have a detailed overview of all the processes. That helps with good management of resources and sustainable operations.

After all, there can be no aquaculture without a clean ocean and healthy fish.

Field service+

Resco Field Service+ with Inspections+ help companies to become more efficient and sustainable – not only in aquaculture but also in manufacturing, property maintenance, or the energy sector.

If you got interested in the ScaleAQ story, in how they use advanced mobility to drive efficiency, and you’d like to explore how it can benefit your business, book a demo with us, and we’ll provide you all answers and tailored consultation.

Príspevok ScaleAQ makes fish-farming more efficient thanks to advanced mobility zobrazený najskôr Resco.