Intelligent PDA Solutions?

Big Nothing asks: "My company is building a PDA solution for a company that makes industrial machines. Currently, all service technicians (some 1500 people) are handling the work orders and service reports by paper, and clerks are manually punching the data into the computer systems. The idea is that this that this could all be done on PDA's via GSM. When connecting to the company server, finished job reports are uploaded and new job orders are downloaded. Some time ago, I read an article in the NYTimes [free reg. required] on medical doctors using PDA's in their daily work . The impact of PDA's on various industries seems to be enormous, and I'm curious to learn about other success stories on PDA's and to hear your thoughts on possible uses of PDA's in the industry?"

Psion makes a sturdy handheld for the field

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Take a look at the Workabout MX [psionteklogix.com].. it's GSM-capable, has a TCP/IP stack, runs the excellent EPOC operating system. You can write software for it in EPOC's OPL or C++, even.

Enterprise solutions using PDA

[chunyan]

Yes, this is very much happening even in Singapore though the number of PDA users is still small.

Insurance and property agents are carrying a PDA to capture data such as personal info and even signatures.
These data are then uploaded to their central server.

IR connectivity can be achieved using Clarinet System at http://www.clarinetsys.com.
You wouldn't have the problem of expensive wireless data access to worry about.

Also the Compaq iPaq support PCMCIA which you can plug in a wireless lan card.
So why use GSM to increase your overhead?

The solution should really work in the direction whereby the device can be independent of that.

GSM? Cha-ching!

[PatJensen]

GSM will run up a real pretty bill and probably be the real budget killer in terms of airtime and equipment. WLAN's are the way to go - you said industrial so they will be within a warehouse type environment, correct? Just slap a few Access Points up in the roof, coverage will be fairly easy to maintain in a flat warehouse environment as well. No need to charge a GSM set or modem or have to deal with the extra power draw.

Take a look at Lucent's Orinoco products, and Cisco's Aironet products as well. They will do what you want and go up to 11Mb too. Most CE based or Windows Powered handhelds should have support for them.

-Pat