06
magazine
agenda
For commuters, Network Rail is associated
with frustration and delays, but for Apple
it provides a great example of how iOS
devices can be used to improve efficiency
and productivity.
A case study on Apple’s website describes
how Network Rail expects to realise over
£700m worth of efficiencies over the next 10
years through the use of Apple devices.
Since 2011, Network Rail has rolled out
more than 25,000 iPads and iPhones, including
18,000 to the maintenance, operations and
safety and engineering teams responsible for
delivering its Railway Upgrade Plan.
At the same time, in-house development
teams have created more than 60 mobile apps
that have enabled Network Rail to dispense
with paper-based processes, bulky manuals and
paperwork.
In the video, Philip Entwistle, a Network
Rail maintenance team leader based in Rugby,
said: “In the old days, you tended to leave stuff
behind as you didn’t want to carry reams of
paperwork, folders and manuals. Now, that’s all
accessible via our iPhone or iPad. I regularly use
the Close Call app to take photos of anything
I see that could cause a safety risk to staff or
passengers, and can quickly create a report in
the app and send it across to our call centre
who can respond. Nothing gets lost that way.
It’s a lot safer.”
Apps developed by Network Rail include:
n
Close Call
for the reporting of hazards.
Since the app was introduced in January 2014,
staff have used it 62,855 times, representing
80% of all close calls recorded over the period;
n
MyWork
for job scheduling. Daily job
schedules are delivered electronically to more
than 14,000 maintenance staff;
n
Sentinel for authentication.
This allows
field managers to scan ID cards electronically
and verify that everyone working on the
railway is qualified to perform certain tasks;
and
n
Where Am I?
for GPS data. Air operations
teams patrolling the skies above use this app
to locate faults and incidents, such as cable
theft, and send co-ordinates to maintenance
teams and emergency service units on the
ground.
/
Staying on track with mobile apps
Mobility raises security risk
The benefits of mobility are being restricted by worries about security, according to the
2015 Global Authentication and Identity Access Management Index
.
The global survey reveals that 92% of IT departments still restrict users from accessing
sensitive corporate data and resources from mobile devices and that 94% are concerned their
organisation will experience a security breach as a result of credential theft or compromise.
The risk of breaches is exacerbated by the rising number of mobile endpoints, with
organisations having an average of two mobile end points and three sets of credentials per user.
Facial recognition in card
readers
Worldpay is trialling the use of facial recognition
technology on card readers as a second layer
of authentication. A PED Cam (Pin Entry Device
Camera) embedded into a standard card terminal
takes a picture of the card-user when they first
enter their PIN, which it stores in a secure, central
database managed byWorldpay. Every time the
card user enters their PIN thereafter, their image
is automatically cross-referenced against the
biometric template already captured.
Charge while you wait
Mobile phone users in CanaryWharf are being
invited to charge their devices while eating a
sandwich or watching the world go by, following
the installation of four benches with integrated
solar panels and mobile charging technology.
The result of a collaboration between wireless
charging specialist Aircharge and Strawberry
Energy, the Strawberry Smart Benches harvest
and store solar energy that can then be used
to charge a mobile, via a wired connection or
wirelessly by placing a Qi-enabled device on the
integrated charging pad. A roll-out of additional
benches is planned for the future.
Tech workers are
among the most
confident multi-
taskers in the UK,
but how useful
is multi-tasking
anyway?
In a survey by
global recruiter
Randstad, nine out
of 10 IT professionals
stated that they were
either ‘very good’ (28%) or ‘quite good’ (64%)
at multi-tasking, with 82% viewing an ability
to multi-task as important for their work.
However, Beatriz Arantes, a psychologist at
Steelcase research groupWorkSpace Futures,
questions the ‘myth of multitasking’.
She said: “We can only hold one thing in
our attention at a time. As soon as people start
to keep track of multiple things they have less
attention for the things that matter. Listening
to the radio while folding laundry or walking
while being on the phone are things people
can easily multi-task. However, multi-tasking
attention is like a train driving on two tracks. It
is impossible.”
Radstad’s survey also provides evidence
that multi-tasking impacts productivity, with
IT workers experiencing an 11-minute lag in
working efficiency when moving from one task
to another, compared to a UK average of 6
minutes.
To minimise this dip in productivity, Radstad
advises IT workers to cluster similar activities
together and to avoid temptation, for example
by shutting down email accounts or silencing
phones.
Arantes recommends writing down one’s
priorities, tackling them one at a time and
taking regular breaks to regain the ability to
concentrate.
How beneficial is multi-tasking really?
Beatriz Arantes
