Mobile clearly tells me when I am logged out

Prevent users from using Maximo Mobile when they are logged out

Preface

Sund & Bælt uses external contractors to perform work orders (WOs). Contractor’s technicians have Maximo Mobile installed on their (Android) smartphones. Access to WOs, paperless reporting on performed work, registration of hours spent, photo documentation etc. supports daily work processes.

Sund & Bælt has pretty good 5G or Wi-Fi coverage on all structures; i.e., rarely the technicians are outside network. Should that happen, the Maximo Mobile is very well constructed to work offline.

However, recently we discovered that technicians are able to work with and use Maximo Mobile even if the user is logged out. This has caused some unwanted incidents, which we kindly ask IBM to look into.

Benefits from implementing this idea

First of all, preventing the user from accessing WOs and making changes through a logged-out device strengthen IT security, since nobody without a legal purpose can access data

Secondly, having a logged-out device and by that (almost) always non-synchronized data, the Contractor Technician has access to change data (e.g., change WO status, add labor, add worklog entries) on WOs which have WO statuses outside the technicians scope

Saving administrative work on monthly basis in cleaning-up double registration of labor 
Sund & Bælt has seen multiple occurrences of WOs via Maximo Mobile being added labor when logged out. When the contractor supervisor does his bookkeeping, he can’t find all work has been reported as labor, and additional labor is added in Manage. 
When the Mobile user does a login, one of a sudden all Mobile reported labor is synchronized and to avoid overcharging lots of clean-up work is necessary

As-Is

As a Contractor Technician, I use Maximo Mobile in my daily work. If my session on the mobile has expired and I am logged out of the app, I can still work on the WOs which are available in the app. Being logged out won’t prevent me from registering labor, adding work log entries, changing WO status and alike information to a WO. However, being logged out, the WO isn’t updated and may (in Manage) have a status that I am not authorized to work on according to Sund & Bælt’s business rules. Moreover, work hours may already be registered in Manage, but I won’t know due to the non-updated WO.

In addition, working outside in different weather conditions, working nearby road/railway, often wearing gloves, getting dirty from performing the work, I’m not sure I always notice if Maximo Mobile is offline, since the crossed cloud icon isn’t that clear.

Please find elaborated examples in attached document.

To-Be

As a Contractor Technician, I expect – actually I need - that Maximo Mobile clearly tells me if I’m logged out and in same go prevents me using the app until I once again is logged in.

I acknowledge that working offline is a designed feature, which supports many Maximo Mobile users world-wide, but I should be prevented from using the app in logged-out mode.

We kindly suggest reusing the same functionality as the one existing already within the Data Update window (see screenshot below).

Please find elaborated examples in attached document.

Like having the existing info box from the "Data update" page, we kindly suggest reusing that and making it clearly visible on all menus in case the user is logged out, so that the user can quickly and easily see he is logged out and that he needs to do a login.

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