Sports Stadiums, Manufacturers, Community Service Organizations And Software Providers Target the Pocket PC for Any Time, Anywhere Information Access
NEW YORK, June 27, 2000 — Today at PC EXPO 2000, Microsoft Corp. announced that several new enterprise customers and software providers across a range of vertical industries are developing solutions for and deploying Microsoft® Windows® powered Pocket PCs to solve business problems and increase revenues in new and innovative ways. Companies such as The Pirelli Cables and Systems LLC and stadiums such as Madison Square Garden and Coors Field are finding that Pocket PCs can help them boost customer service and business efficiency.
“The power and flexibility of the Pocket PC platform is creating new opportunities for industries to realize the business value of providing real-time mobile transactions and access to essential information any time, anywhere,”
said Ben Waldman, vice president of the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft.
“Companies are finding that deploying Pocket PCs with customized applications that take advantage of the strengths of the Windows-based Pocket PC platform, the high-resolution color screens, large memory storage space, wireless capability and significant processing power can help increase productivity and efficiency and improve customer service.”
Pocket PCs Paving the Way in a Variety of Industries
Enterprises targeting the Pocket PC for development and deployment include those in government as well as the financial services, retail, manufacturing, business-to-business e-commerce, sports and entertainment industries. Below are examples of innovative Pocket PC software solutions and customer deployments in some of these key vertical markets:
Sports Stadiums
TekWare Solutions Inc. has developed an end-to-end wireless POS system for its sister company Binocs System Corp. using Pocket PCs. Initially for sports and entertainment fans at Madison Square Garden and the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field, but soon to deploy nationwide, the system allows fans to pay stadium vendors by credit card for binoculars secured under their seats. With these end-to-end wireless systems, stadium vendors with Pocket PCs can take orders for food, beverages, general merchandise and advanced tickets. Venue management benefits from improved customer service, increased sales and accurate transactions data that is compiled at the Windows 2000-based datacenter in its TekWare data facility. Wireless connectivity and end-to-end enterprise integration were key to the choice of the Pocket PC platform.
“By building our solution on the Pocket PC platform and harnessing the power of Windows DNA on our wireless infrastructure, we’ve been able to revolutionize the way food and merchandise are delivered to sport fans,”
said Thomas West, vice president of technology at TekWare.
“We expect our customers will enjoy the improved personal service enabling them to focus on the game, while we have a better tool to manage our business transactions.”
Manufacturing
Pirelli Cable is using Pocket PCs as part of a materials tracking system linking its North American manufacturing facilities. The system uses Pocket PCs from Intermec Technlogies and Abaco’s Varadero wireless framework and ultra-thin-client application server. Using the Visual Basic®
development system, the Varadero application tracks the materials used in its manufacturing process. Varadero’s thin-client technology is unique to Windows CE-based mobile devices and helps reduce the complexity and costs of deploying and upgrading the business applications used by the mobile manufacturing personnel. With Varadero and the Pocket PCs, the development cycle was an amazing 50 percent of the project plan.
Business-to-Business E-Commerce
Odyssey Software Inc. has teamed up with buyproduce.com, the leading e-commerce exchange for buyers and sellers in the $200 billion worldwide fresh-produce industry, to provide real-time order management and images of shipped produce to over 1,000 registered companies. The solution provides real-time order management using Casio Pocket PCs with digital cameras, bar-code scanners and Windows DNA technologies for hosting middle-tier business-logic components, as well as Windows 2000 and BackOffice®
family services for database infrastructure to capture real-time images of these perishable products and assist in helping buyers and sellers make informed transactions. Odyssey Software has extended the core Windows DNA technologies (ADO, MTS and MSMQ) for direct remote data access from Pocket PCs and other Windows-powered mobile devices. The transactional data integrity, high-resolution color screen with the plug-in digital camera, integrated Web browser and support for eMbedded Visual Basic were only possible with a Pocket PC.
Government
River Run Software Group used its OnSite inspection application to satisfy the requirements of the not-for-profit Connecticut Policy and Economic Council (CPEC). CPEC’s City Scan Project, which uses Casio Pocket PCs outfitted with OnSite software, allows inspectors to survey and record the condition of city services, such as public works, police, fire, and parks and recreation. Pocket PCs are used to enter information on specific conditions into a database and track those conditions against benchmarks set by the community. This project empowers citizens to set community priorities and hold city government accountable for performance goals. Once again, the inherent platform strengths, storage capacity and especially the capability of capturing graphic images via the color camera led CPEC to choose the Pocket PC against competing products.
Availability
The Pocket PC developer Web site is now available online and includes a Web builder section, with information on optimizing Web sites for Pocket Internet Explorer as well as information on using Visual Basic and Visual C++®
development system tools for Pocket PC development. The Web site can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/pocketpc/developer.asp.
Microsoft eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0, which includes information for developers writing targeted Pocket PC applications, is available free, plus shipping and handling ($7.50 U.S. and Canada, and $14.95 U.S. outside the U.S./Canada). More information about eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/developer/ .
About the Pocket PC
Windows-powered Pocket PCs offer customers the best way to connect to their most essential information while away from their desk, yet are flexible enough to satisfy the requirements of today’s busy mobile lifestyle. Pocket PCs were designed to be a secure extension to the enterprise, with core security processes and technologies. These include power-on password protection and support for SSL and PCT, 40- and 128-bit encryption, CryptoAPI 1.0, and Windows 2000 challenge/response authentication.
The companies listed above join a host of other previously announced companies deploying Pocket PCs in new and innovative ways to solve business problems and increase revenues. Other Pocket PC customers include Jamba Juice Co., Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Nabisco Inc., EMC Corp., Dresdner Bank Group, Husky Oil Ltd., Avis Europe and the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows, Visual Basic, BackOffice and Visual C++ are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
