Everett, Wash. - Wireless LAN vendor Intermec is almost set to start beta testing a new family of handheld computers designed to collect data in warehouses and shipping docks and feed it into enterprise databases and applications.
The new wireless Data Collection PC uses the Microsoft Windows CE operating system and a set of standard, instead of proprietary, networking and communications protocols, such as TCP/IP and DHCP, to connect easily with corporate nets. The new devices, which are designed for one-handed use, also support bar code reading or other scanning technologies.
This combination of technologies is intended to let roaming workers at shipping docks, hospital bedsides, retails shelves and so on, collect data on the spot and at once move it to applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), inventory management and supply chain management.
A growing number of customers who are deploying such applications, from vendors such as PeopleSoft, SAP AG and Oracle, have realized the importance of feeding them quickly with accurate information, according to John Watridge, Intermec's product manger for the new line. "Companies see a faster rate-of-return on ERP investments if they can incorporate real-time data collection," he said.
The new devices will also carry an array of Intermec's own system software that applications can use to automate various tasks. For example, a worker may use a Data Collection PC to read inventory with a bar code scanner. The software can automatically recognize inventory codes and pass this data to the corporate ERP application. If the worker uses the PC to clock out at the end of his shift the software will recognize this different data and forward it, again automatically, to a payroll application.
The Data Collection PC is due out during the first half of 1999, in four models: a handheld device with compact keyboard; a version mounted in a vehicle, such as a forklift; a stationary model specially "hardened" for shop floors and similar locations; and a pen-and-tablet version. Pricing has not yet been decided. The devices will be intergrated with Intermec's line of IEEE 802.11-based wireless LANs.
Intermec chose Windows CE because of its compatibility with the 32-bit Windows API, the ability to use only a subset of CE's modules for each device, and the growing popularity of Windows NT as a corporate server, according to Watridge.
To encourage third-party developers and vertical application vendors, Intermec and Microsoft are sponsoring a February 1999 developers conference at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash. Campus.
Intermec: (425) 348-2600.
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