Have you heard of census device provisioning?

We can all relate to the excitement that accompanies the unboxing of a new electronic gadget, but we probably do not recall the following long and frustrating hours where we slog through installing and configuring our brand new device just the way we like it.

Now think of all the work you put into your fresh device and try to imagine doing that for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of identical devices!

It is an arduous and time-consuming task to accomplish manually by humans, which is why we here at ECA have built a set of software tools and a workflow to automate this arduous process.

Using experience derived from working with various African national censuses, we have built and now perfected an ecosystem of scripts, web apps, mobile apps, and some hardware that has been proven to get the job done reliably, and in a fraction of the time, it would have taken otherwise.

The problem, if it is not clear already, is getting your devices ready for fieldwork in a reliable and consistent manner. As if the task wasn’t already insurmountable, it happens that you usually need to put different resources (files such as area maps) on each of your devices; this means you can not use ‘at factory’ methods of mass duplicating the firmware/software of your devices.

Here is a brief and simplified walkthrough of the process. First, we set up a wireless network that connects the computers that hold all the resources (we like to refer to it as payload) destined for the devices. Then we put our agent on the devices and also tell the devices what geographic area they are destined for. The agent will then communicate with the resource stores (via the wireless network) and request all specifically relevant resources, which it will proceed to download and install in all the right places. We will also double-check the expected outcomes of the process and store this information for future reference. This process happens on hundreds of devices simultaneously thereby cutting down on the time it takes to provision all the devices. By the end of this process, you can be sure that your devices are ready for fieldwork.

Using our provisioning solutions, close to half a million tablets have been readied and used in the field successfully across many African countries.