These kinds of questions are leading field service organizations to re-evaluate their mobile tool set. IT departments, looking for ways to standardize technology platforms and reduce mobile infrastructure costs, are exploring the use of BlackBerry® devices in non-traditional environments – like field service operations, where BlackBerry devices often offer a surprisingly close fit at a significantly lower price point. With this premise in mind, industry analyst research firm ABI recently published a detailed whitepaper (commissioned by Research In Motion®) examining the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of traditional ruggedized devices versus BlackBerry handhelds.

Historically, BlackBerry smartphones have been thought of as strictly for white-collar workers, while ruggedized devices were strictly the domain of hard hats and steel-toed boots. However, both stereotypes are incorrect, and there’s a lot of grey overlap.

Field force workers, despite the rough-and-tumble stereotype, actually include diverse roles, including potato-chip delivery drivers, photocopier repair technicians, and restaurant inspectors. Clearly not all of these need fully ruggedized systems. Hence, organizations, in an effort to cut costs and standardize, are outfitting field staff with lower-cost, industry standard smartphones instead.

The ABI report looks at the factors that organizations considered in switching their field service teams from ruggedized mobile devices to smartphones – specifically BlackBerry smartphones. It analyzes the total cost and breakdown in various scenarios as shown below.

Source: ABI Research 2011: Comparing the TCO of BlackBerry Smartphones and Ruggedized Handhelds for Field Services Mobility

In addition to the quantitative measures, qualitative factors like ease of acquisition, upgrade management, application variety, development options, data security, and employee preference sweeten the pot.

All told, according to the study, the total costs and performance gains in switching from ruggedized devices to BlackBerry handhelds resulted in a five-year average TCO savings of up to 30%! Want to see where exactly the savings came from and how your organization might explore a similar evaluation? Click here to have a look at the report!

I’m sure your fellow IT leaders would love to hear about your experience in dealing with field service line of business managers. Have you integrated your field service teams’ requirements into your overall mobile strategy, or are you focused strictly on mobile execs? How do tablets like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet factor into this discussion? What special considerations or accommodations were required?