SkyMail LBS documents every step

With location now driving its value proposition, wireless technology provider Pacific DataVision (PDV) is aimed at making enterprise life so efficient and accountable that no action goes undocumented.

Called Skymail, this location-based technology provides voice messaging, dictation and documentation services for mobile workforces to document events in real time. Mobile users share their location details, along with documented notes and field reports, by simply speaking them into the phone – no hold times or delays. The messages are ported from any mobile phone via email to dispatches, central offices or other mobile workers.

With the newest feature, Locator for SkyMail, enterprises can also attach an interactive map to show where they are making the call from, the location coordinates and the physical street address of their position alongside their message. For example, if a technician goes to a customer’s home, but gets no response, the map and attached documentation can verify his presence at the given time. Customized subject lines indicating action items, such as “customer not home” or “job closed” can also qualify the importance of a message, so that that the receiver can prioritize them.

The company was founded to solve an observed field documentation problem in the commercial construction industry. Its founder owned a construction business and learned the hard way that the “handshake” model of transactions was not solid. At the end of a job that included a number of change orders, the customer refused to pay for anything above the base contract. The case went to court, where the arbitrator asked to see documentation of the authorization to change the contract. Looking at his Nextel phone, it dawned on him that while he couldn’t prove it this time, the mobile handset would be the best bet to do so going forward.

SkyMail’s first phone was launched by Sprint Nextel in 2004. Called NextMail, it is tied into the carrier’s push-to-talk service, also popular amongst field workers. The service now runs over any mobile handset and any network. The technology is sold both to carriers, with Sprint being the primary partner today, and direct to consumers, through SkyMail.net. Carriers can use the E911 chip to do the location tags or through GPS data or cell sites, depending on the handset and carrier.