Can an augmented reality game teach us about the future of mobile workforce management?
Pokémon Go has got adults and kids alike staring intently at smartphones and muttering about mysterious creatures such as ‘Pidgeys’ and ‘Weedles’.
It's been downloaded by some 75 million people since it was released in July, making it the most popular ever smartphone game.
So what’s behind this phenomenon and why does a game about hunting cartoon animals help us to understand the future of mobile workforce management?
Out with the old...
The basic concept behind Pokémon Go isn’t new - it has been around for 20 years. It’s based on a card collecting game which was released in 1996 to tie in with a popular Japanese animated cartoon, Pokémon.
The game involves people collecting themed cards and using them to do battle against each other, using the various powers of the fictional creatures who inhabit the Pokémon world.
...in with the new technology
Pokémon Go takes that simple card game and brings it to life using all of the capabilities of a modern smartphone - camera, GPS, real-time tracking and cloud-based communications.
Players still collect and battle creatures but it’s all done virtually, using the real-world as a kind of playing board. From a card game played on a table, it becomes an interactive experience, played in the world around you.
It shows that digital technology is challenging and changing the traditional ways we do things, transforming just about every aspect of our lives - including how we work.
What does this mean for mobile workforce management?
While it’s Pokémon Go that’s grabbing the headlines, this exact same technology has been helping to transform many aspects of our lives - including the way we’re able to manage mobile workers.
The ability of handheld devices to track and monitor movement is at the core of job management software like MyMobileWorkers, which is changing the way businesses manage their mobile workers.
The emergence of Pokémon Go shows that this kind of digital technology is only going to become more prominent in our lives.
From carrying around a folder full of cards, to storing Pokémon on our phones, we can see how old paper-based methods are being replaced by fast and flexible digital systems.