InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
May 3, 1999
Windows CE DevicesGet Remote Data In SyncOperating-system upgrade has triggered increased interest among IT managers
By Tom Davey
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andheld computing devices that run the Windows CE operating system have received only lukewarm interest from IT buyers in their three years on the market. But that's starting to change.The most recent version, Windows CE 2.11, which came out last fall, significantly raises the capabilities of the hardware. CE 2.11 offers a Universal Serial Bus connection for attaching peripherals and better screen resolution with more colors. There are also more tools for porting Windows 98 and NT code to this version of the portable operating system, leading to a big boost in application support. But for many companies, one added feature has become the key selling point: the ability to remotely check server directories and synchronize data with servers.
"Like any Microsoft product, it has taken them about three releases to get it right," says Chris Fletcher, research director of the Aberdeen Group. "It hasn't been very successful to date. But that's changing, particularly in enterprise applications, sales-force automation, customer support, and field service."
Some Windows CE hardware vendors say they're seeing increasing interest from several major telecommunications companies whose field technicians often roam among job sites, logging in tasks with paper and pen, or lugging along DOS terminals that run proprietary applications.
For instance, CE hardware vendor Intronix Corp. has the potential to sell as many as 100,000 of its ruggedized CE systems to clients in telecom and similar industries, says VP of marketing Matthew Gerber, though other vendors are also in the running to win the same contracts. He attributes the growing telecom demand in part to CE's new ability to support remote access by field workers to everything from work orders to parts databases to maps for underground cables that reside on a company's servers.
Ameritech Corp. is a case in point. "We're getting ready to replace our handheld DOS terminals for our 10,000 field technicians," says Frank Gindraw, director of automated service support systems at the company, which supplies local U.S. telephone service as well as cellular, long-distance, paging, and other data communications services in the United States and Europe. He has examined products and prototypes from several vendors and expects to decide on a single supplier within the next few weeks. Gindraw has narrowed the prospects to two companies, but because he's still in negotiations he declines to disclose their names.
Ameritech will spend about $20 million--or $2,000 per handheld CE device--to equip its workers. For that, Gindraw expects to gain many advantages over the bulky DOS terminals that transmit data over a 1,200-baud wired connection. For instance, the CE devices Gindraw is looking at weigh less than three pounds and can be easily carried by workers via a handle or on a belt hook.
But that would count for little if users couldn't also synchronize the data on their portables with the server. The new CE devices let them do that via a Web browser and a 28.8-Mbps land-line modem. The technicians will be able to send reports describing jobs they performed and receive updates on customers' service records and billing information from Ameritech's intranet when a job is completed. Gindraw is also considering buying small printers that attach to the CE machines for on-the-spot billing. The server also notifies workers of their next task after matching their skills and location with remaining work orders.
Similarly, the ability to synchronize data on CE handheld devices with the server is driving change at Lesco Restorations Inc. The Spartanburg, S.C., company manages commercial properties such as banks and grocery stores in several states, subcontracting for property managers to handle everything from changing light bulbs to shingling roofs and paving parking lots. A team of 40 inspectors from Lesco routinely visits each of the 6,000 managed properties to report on needed maintenance and repairs.
About six months ago, Charles Garner, Lesco's director of IT and telecommunications, says he was holding off on purchasing Windows CE devices for the inspectors because they lacked the appropriate Internet capabilities. But now he's in the process of moving the inspectors to a CE device from LG Electronics called Phenom Express. With CE's enhanced capabilities, multiple users can simultaneously dial in through the Internet and synchronize with Lesco's server, keying in updates on the extent of damage to customers' buildings. "Before, the inspector would fill out a form and send it back to corporate, where the inspection form would be entered into the system," Garner says. "We needed fast ways to get that information into our Internet-based system."
Garner has also added digital cameras, which attach to the CE devices, to the inspectors' tools. The Phenom devices use Sierra Imaging software, which offers photo selection combined with text or voice files. Whereas a written report and photo from an inspector would once take a month to finally reach a customer, Garner says the new system has cut the time down to about a day, and that the productivity boost has been well worth the cost of around $1,100 per device.
A Sales-Force Tool
At Snyder Healthcare Sales, which specializes in pharmaceutical sales outsourcing, NEC's Mobile Pro CE handhelds help coordinate salespeople's information about the sample drugs they provide to doctors with a database on the server. The Somerset, N.J., company's 3,000 sales representatives are divided into about 20 sales forces, each of which works for a different drug company; about half of them are now using the CE machines in their daily activities.
"Before we went to CE, the reps filled out a paper calling card that a doctor signed after receiving samples," says Tom Pollock, senior director of IT for Snyder. "Those must later be scanned, and the process has a 10% to 15% error rate." The total scanning and error-correction time took 20 to 30 days. Now, the forms reside on-screen and sales personnel can use pull-down menus to fill in date, drug, and other information, and doctors can sign for the samples directly on the screen. Periodically, sales representatives relay the information, which is encrypted, through an Internet service provider to the corporate server. The remote synchronization has virtually eliminated the errors that resulted from re-entering paper information into the server.
Pollock says he expects the rest of his sales forces to move to CE within the next year. He's just waiting for the clients who use those sales forces to renew their contracts, which stipulate they conduct their transactions in a specified manner.
Indeed, companies using CE devices can expect to be the recipient of additional benefits as enterprise software vendors consider how they'll deploy their own programming resources. Analysts say that despite the large number of independent software developers committed to 3Com's PalmPilot platform, its proprietary operating system will keep it relegated mostly to niche applications, while CE will garner wider support from enterprise application vendors. "I doubt Palm will make inroads in the enterprise space," says Fletcher of the Aberdeen Group, noting that more than half the code used in some Windows 98 sales-force applications is being recycled into CE apps. l
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