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Showing posts from December, 2006

MobileDataforce Announces a Reseller Agreement with Abox for Mobile Software

MobileDataforce announces today a reseller partnership with Abox . In this agreement Abox will resell MobileDataforce's mobile software, the PointSync Mobility Platform in Spain, Portugal, France and many areas of Africa. We are very excited about this relationship. This will help us provide our customers and sales prospects with localized sales and technical support across a significant geographical area for our mobile software solutions used on handheld PDAs and Smartphones. MobileDataforce's market for handheld PDA and smartphone software has been growing rapidly around the world with offices in North America, Sydney, Australia and Den Bosch, The Netherlands. Our channel partners are the key to our success. They provide localized business knowledge as well as vertical expertise.

MobileDataforce Announces a Reseller Agreement with Sybase South Africa

MobileDataforce today announces a reseller partnership with Sybase South Africa for delivering mobile handheld PDA and smartphone applications. In this reseller partnership, Sybase South Africa will be reselling MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform to companies and government agencies interested in field mobility including, inspection software, work orders and asset management on handheld PDAs and smartphones. Interest in MobileDataforce's mobile software solutions is growing rapidly and we have a significant sales pipeline in South Africa that reflects an expanding market for mobile applications. We are very excited to work with Sybase South African. This partnership will enable MobileDataforce's mobile solutions to be supported locally with the highest level of professionalism and attention.

Airlines and PDAs

NEW YORK (CNN) -- From cell phone use to high-speed Internet access, the connected life is spreading to the skies. In January, Emirates airline plans to launch mobile phone usage in its planes, making it the first airline to allow passengers to make cell phone calls on its flights. And Australian carrier Qantas plans to start evaluating technology that lets fliers use their cell phones and PDAs during flight early next year.

10 Steps to a Successful Mobile Software Deployment on Handheld PDAs and Smartphones

Tim Cerami, a brilliant Mobile Systems Architect here at MobileDataforce , did us all a big service by documenting his thoughts on how to conduct a successful mobile software deployment on smartphones and handheld PDAs in the following article. Introduction: Companies around the globe are looking for ways to do more with less. Many recognize that their mobile workforce is being managed inefficiently and extending business process automation to mobile field workers is becoming a priority. The following 10 steps identify how you can get started automating and mobilizing these business processes. Step 1 – Understand the ROI/Scope of the Project and Plan Ahead “What’s the number one reason a mobile project fails?” is a common question we get asked. The answers are that many companies don’t put enough upfront thought into defining the requirements, scheduling testing resources and planning a deployment strategy. The results of these deficiencies are project scope creep, cost overruns, misse

Mountain Tragedies & Modern Mobile GPS & Data Solutions

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This last week I have been captivated by the tragic mountain climbing accident that took place on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Three experienced mountain climbers were caught in 100 mph winds and temperatures below zero on the very top of Mt. Hood at over 11,000 feet. It took over a week to find the snow caves that the climbers had used. Tragically it appears that they all may have succumbed to injuries and the cold. One of the climbers had been able to make a mobile phone call asking for help, but then went silent. As a person involved in the mobile data collection software industry, I began to think about the software tools and technologies that could be used to help find missing climbers, hunters, hikers and other outdoorsman faster. Today, many mobile Smart phones can be purchased with GPS receivers built in. Software companies like MobileDataforce can easily create data collection applications that would automatically report the location of the user at specific time intervals, distance co

Phi Data Announces Partnership with MobileDataforce

For all of you who speak and read Dutch - This is an announcement of a reseller partnership we formed with Phi Data in The Netherlands. We are working together on a number of interesting projects in the Benelux region. Even further down the blog article you can see a translation of this press release that was done with the translation software from Babel Fish . Altijd en overal mobiel met MobileDataforce & PHI DATA BV 19-12-2006 Woerden, december 2006. Recent heeft PHI DATA met MobileDataforce een amenwerkingsovereenkomst afgesloten voor de PointSync Mobility Suite. PointSync is een uitermate flexibel platform voor het creëren van betaalbare, prestatiegerichte mobiele oplossingen voor field data collectie, inspecties en werkorder management. PointSync kan in alle mobiele devices geïntegreerd worden die PHI DATA levert (Intermec, Symbol, Datalogic etc.) PointSync is specifiek geschikt voor toepassingen in de Field Service & onderhoud, gezondheidszorg, beveiliging, agrarische be

Palm Treo & Otterbox for Ruggedized on the Cheap

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The Palm Treo is one of the most popular smartphones now days. Palm's Windows Mobile 5.0 version enables enterprises that have standardized on Windows OS to extend that support out to their mobile workforce. Otterbox builds ruggedized cases for the Palm Treo . We have one in-house that we are very impressed with. I think the list price for one of these cases is around $139. Many of my sales teams are using the Palm Treo 700 W these days, and the case seals it up very nicely and will provide adequate protection from most casual accidents such as dropping it on the floor and using it in the rain and protecting it from blowing sand and dust. Nearly all of MobileDataforce's customers use handheld computers, laptops or Tablet PCs for field data collection, GPS, RFID , barcode scanning, etc. In all cases protecting the hardware investment is a critical issue. Otterbox has created some very useful cases for protecting Smartphones and PDAs that are not ruggedized on their own

Symbol MC35 Handheld PDA - More Smartphones

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I have been hearing rumors about a new Smart Phone from Symbol. If true, this would continue the trend started by Symbol when they released their MC70, MC50 and soon MC35. Symbol has historically been known for their large industrial grade devices used in retail stores, warehouses and other industrial environments. This new trend seems to point toward the business user. It is also worth noting that Motorola is in the process of buying Symbol. It should be finalized in January 2007. Motorola, of course, makes consumer handsets. It will be interesting to watch how these two companies merge their product lines and strategies. Here are some links to other blog articles on the MC35: http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/1047847-1.html http://mobile14.com/?p=2784 http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/17/symbol_preps_mc35_pda/

RFID on Mobile Handheld PDAs Not Quite Ready for Vendors

We have implemented several very nice RFID projects this year using mobile handheld computers and various PDAs for tracking assets, but these customers seemed to find us, we did not find them. I have tried several times this year, with various online ad campaigns, to find a market for RFID related software products . However, when I ran my ad campaigns they seemed to generate a large numbers of PPC (pay-per-clicks), but the online visitors were only interested in reading not buying. I found this article today that seems to support my findings: Frost & Sullivan recently reported that the total North American RFID market for manufacturing and logistics is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent over the next six years. Yet, about 75 percent of the technology companies responding to a CompTIA survey earlier this year said there are not enough people trained in the field. Eighty-percent said they believe that a lack of talent will hinder RFID adoption. S

Mobile Handheld PDAs, Inspection Software and The Journal of The American Society of Safety Engineers

I was sent an interesting article today from the Journal of The American Society of Safety Engineers . It is called Best Practices - Audits & Inspections:Improving Efficiency with Technology By Rob Retzlaff. In this article it identifies MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform as a key mobile software solution for developing inspection software applications for handheld PDAs that are used for "improving efficiency" when it comes to inspections and audits. Inspection software on handheld PDAs just makes so much sense. Many inspection companies are relatively small and the inspector himself is often the person re-typing the inspection data at the end of the day into a report. Using a handheld PDA the data could be quickly collected and fed directly into an inspection report without any re-typing. MobileDataforce develops many custom inspection applications for companies.

Symbol MC50 - More Smart Phones

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Smart phones are becoming more and more powerful. The MC50 from Symbol provides phone capabilities in a semi-rugged case with the power of Windows Mobile 5.0. Field service teams can choose to carry one device that acts as a database centric mobile enterprise database communicator to send and receive dispatched service orders, plus receive phone calls from the wife asking you to stop at the grocery store and pick-up a loaf of bread. What more can a guy want? The MC50 is not made to drop in the pond or from the 6th floor scaffolding, but it fills a void in the mobile handheld world. It provides a semi-rugged device for only a few hundred dollars more than a consumer grade device.

MobileDataforce Launches PointSync Mobility Platform 4.0

MobileDataforce Launches PointSync Mobility Platform 4.0 for Rapid Mobile Software Application Development for Handheld PDAs SYNOPSIS: New Version Features Visual Debugger, Data Mapping Wizard, Support for Hosted Environments, SQL Builder and 220 Pre-built Mobile Application Functions Boise, Idaho—December 12, 2006 – MobileDataforce® today announced the release of the latest version of the PointSync® Mobility Platform, the next generation of the company’s award-winning rapid application development solution for mobile software development environments. This major release includes over 150 new features, innovations and enhancements to PointSync Developer, PointSync Manager, PointSync Server and PointSync Mobile. This is a very significant release in MobileDataforce’s 7-year history,” said Kevin Benedict, CEO of MobileDataforce. “PointSync Mobility Platform 4.0 will change the way mobile solutions are developed and will reduce the time it takes for our customers to recognize a return on

Palm Treos and Grabba Card Swipers

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We are working on a very cool smartphone and mobile software solution at this time. It involves Palm Treos using the Windows Mobile OS and a Grabba Magnetic Card Reader . This allows mobile sales people and route delivery personnel to take credit and debit card orders as they walk through crowds of shoppers, concert goers, delivery routes and outdoor venues. My team is using MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform to design, develop and deploy the mobile software solution.

Smart Phones and Enterprise Database Applications

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Nearly everyone in our company has a Smart phone now days. By Smart phone I mean a phone with an operating system like Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows CE and typically includes a touch screen. These operating systems give you the ability to run powerful database centric applications that can synchronize with your company's business software and enterprise databases. This is important when you consider that 30-40% of the workforce is mobile or works remotely. For the past 40 years companies have been investing in software for automating their business processes and operations. The problem we have today is that most of these investments have been to improve operations within the 4 walls of the office, warehouse or plant and they do not extend to the millions of mobile or remote workers. Smart phones, however, make it possible to utilize these 40 years of internal IT investments and extend them out to the mobile workforce. My PSO (professional services organization) spends all their ti

HVAC Service Orders on Handheld PDAs

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In the last few weeks we have delivered 4 HVAC applications. The image attached is a recent application that was created using MobileDataforce's PointSync Mobility Platform and delivered to a Dutch company. The ROIs found from automating work and service orders are easily defined: Daily service orders can be wirelessly dispatched directly to the service technician in the field. Schedules can be dynamically changed on the handheld Driving directions can be included and wirelessly dispatched to the handheld and integrated with numerous GPS navigation systems available on PDAs Customer history and equipment warranty information can be included in the work order and dispatched to the handheld device Parts can be ordered on the application and wirelessly synchronized with the office Parts inventory levels and shipping status can be queried on the handheld device Completed service orders can be invoiced and printed on a mobile printer and left with the customer for fast payment Completed

NFL Scout's Job - Watching, Measuring, Assessing

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I read an article on a plane last week about how NFL Scouts do their job of finding talent for their football teams. Bob Morris spends much of the year traveling (20,000 miles per year) to different games, practices and workouts to analyze and evaluate players. The picture in the above right shows Bob carrying a reporter's notebook to collect this data. He evalutes over 500 players each year and records huge amounts of information on each player. Of course - from my perspective as CEO of MobileDataforce , I believe he should be collecting all of this data on a handheld PDA or a Tablet PC so this information can be instantly sent back to the team's database for analysis, comparisons with other players and past data from each player. The process of data collection that Bob Morris is using is not so dissimilar to many organizations that still collect huge volumes of inspection data and field tests on paper tablets or forms. MobileDataforce has developed 2 complete suites of data