Buy vs. Building Mobile Software Applications for Handheld PDAs

Several times a month companies call me to discuss the merits of buying a mobile software platform , to develop software for mobile handheld PDAs, with a development environment vs. attempting to build their own. My first answer is you can build it! MobileDataforce did. It tooks us 4.5 years and over 40 engineering-man-years to develop the PointSync Mobility Platform. It can certainly be done by others. The key questions are:

1. How much time do you have to develop the mobile software application?
2. How many software engineers do you have available to develop the mobile application?
3. Do they have any experience designing, developing and deploying enterprise quality mobile applications?
4. What is your development budget?
5. It is hard to develop your very first mobile application...are you patient...is the business unit sponsoring the project patient?
6. Are your software developers mobile application security experts?
7. Do you have software developers that eat, sleep and breath synchronization?
8. What are the time to market requirements. Are you losing business or money by not having the mobile application done?
9. Who is going to support the mobile application after the original developers leave the company?
10. Who is going to document the mobile application and know how it works?
11. Who will pay to update the mobile application next year when the available handheld devices require an OS upgrade and changes to the application?

Again, any smart group of software engineers can, given enough time and budget, develop a working mobile application. The real questions - is this your core business and is this the best use of your time and budget? Especially since a relatively low cost mobile software platform and development environment already exists and can be purchased and downloaded in an afternoon.

The following link goes to another blog article with a list of "buy vs. build" articles.

MobileDataforce Achieves Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status

Boise, Idaho - March 18, 2008 – MobileDataforce, a leading provider of mobile business applications for PDAs and handheld computers, announced today that it has earned Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner program, the highest level of partnership available. As a Gold Level partner MobileDataforce has demonstrated expertise in the use of and integration of enterprise mobile software applications with Microsoft technologies. As a partner of the highest level MobileDataforce will receive a great deal of benefits, which includes software, training, support, and access to many assets available only to Microsoft Gold Certified Partners.

“Achieving the Gold Certified Partner level represents a lot of enterprise mobile software implementations,” says MobileDataforce CEO Kevin Benedict. “Our mobile business applications integrate with a large number of different Microsoft platforms and business applications. Achieving the Gold level will give our customers additional confidence in our abilities to mobilize their existing business processes and field service automation needs.”

Gold Certification is the highest level of partnership available to Microsoft Partners who integrate with Microsoft products. Currently MobileDataforce integrates enterprise class mobile business applications with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, GP, AX, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Windows and Windows Mobile. The PointSync Mobility Platform has been Microsoft tested and certified.

About PointSync Mobility Platform:

PointSync Mobility Platform is an enterprise class mobile software platform used to rapidly design, develop, and deploy critical business mobile applications. It is architected to provide database centric mobile applications with bi-directional synchronization, connectivity, security, and enterprise database integration all within one product suite.

About MobileDataforce:

MobileDataforce is a global leader in the development of enterprise class and business critical software solutions for use on mobile handheld computers including Smart Phones, Tablet PCs, PDAs, and laptops. MobileDataforce has offices in Europe, North America, and Australia to support their ever expanding customer base and sales channels. Privately held, MobileDataforce has been mobilizing business solutions since 2000. For more information, please visit their website at http://www.mobiledataforce.com/.

Visiting MobileDataforce and Talking Mobile Software, PDAs and Handhelds

There are significant benefits gained from visiting MobileDataforce in Boise, Idaho. A recent visit by a team researching our enterprise mobility software platform, PDAs, Handhelds and mobile application development expertise included a fly fishing excursion to the South Fork of the Boise river. Many fish were caught and fun had by all!!!

By the way did you see that Boise is #2 on Forbes Magazines new best places for business and careers!

Mobile Applications, Handhelds and PDAs and Hog Feeding

Last month I watched an episode of "Dirty Jobs" that was about a pig farmer outside of Las Vegas that fed his pigs the food scraps from area casinos. I admit this is one of my favorite shows on TV now days, and this was one of my favorite episodes. The pig farmer had a great sense of humor and Mike Rowe got completely covered in food scraps and slop. How does this relate to mobile software applications, handhelds and PDAs? We received a call yesterday from a company wanting to implement a mobile handheld PDA software application for the drivers of trucks hauling food scraps to hog farms. Imagine my excitement!!! They wanted to integrate GPS data capture into the handheld software applications so they could track the location and status of each truck. My mobile software developers were all over this...like a pig at a......

QuickBooks, PDAs, Smart Phones and Handheld Computers

MobileDataforce provides mobile work order software to a lot of small to medium sized services companies with field service technicians. Many of our customers are using QuickBooks for their accounting software. As a result, MobileDataforce has integrated a variety of different mobile applications for PDAs, handhelds and Smart Phones directly with QuickBooks.

Using MobileDataforce's integration with QuickBooks, field service technicians can download parts and services lists, dispatched work orders, customer lists, inventory and more to the handheld computer. When work orders are completed, the handheld computer can wirelessly update the information directly into QuickBooks. This makes for a very efficient administration process.