Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

We have multiple satellite office scattered through out the USA in
most major population centers. Most of the employees have a Palm based
PDA. So for next years inventory, they want to automate the process
using the PDA.

The thought is that the current inventory record would be sent to one
of the employees in the office. The employee would then use the
current record loaded on their PDA and walk around verifying the
listed equipment as well as adding and deleting as needed. For some of
the more expensive items, they would also like to collect other
information, for instance serial numbers or maybe the size of the hard
drives. Once the inventory is completely entered on the PDA, the
employee would synch and the inventory record would be sent back to
the home office for consolidation and totals.

One of the ideas suggested was to just use a spreadsheet on a laptop,
but the folks in charge aren't keen on the idea of people wandering
around a large facility with an open laptop. They believe it will be
more convenient using the PDA. But using a spreadsheet on the PDA
isn't an option either, they would like to use an application designed
specifically to do an inventory.

Does anyone have any leads on such an application or know of something
similar? I expect that this is a commercial app and we may even need
it to be written. The key requirements seem to be Palm based and
having the record be automatically transmitted on synch. Not all the
employees are proficient enough to be able to extract or manipulate a
Palm file. But they are proficient enough to load an application.

Although a newsgroup response is preferred, feel free to send email if
a public post would be off topic. .
--
Erik
erikd@execpc.com

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

A quick google search on 'Palm inventory software' revealed a couple
of reasonably-priced candidates.

http://www.wakefieldsoft.com/doinventory/
http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/onhand.html

- Chris

"erikd@nospam.wanted.here" <e3news@spamex.com> writes:

> We have multiple satellite office scattered through out the USA in
> most major population centers. Most of the employees have a Palm based
> PDA. So for next years inventory, they want to automate the process
> using the PDA.
>
> The thought is that the current inventory record would be sent to one
> of the employees in the office. The employee would then use the
> current record loaded on their PDA and walk around verifying the
> listed equipment as well as adding and deleting as needed. For some of
> the more expensive items, they would also like to collect other
> information, for instance serial numbers or maybe the size of the hard
> drives. Once the inventory is completely entered on the PDA, the
> employee would synch and the inventory record would be sent back to
> the home office for consolidation and totals.
>
> One of the ideas suggested was to just use a spreadsheet on a laptop,
> but the folks in charge aren't keen on the idea of people wandering
> around a large facility with an open laptop. They believe it will be
> more convenient using the PDA. But using a spreadsheet on the PDA
> isn't an option either, they would like to use an application designed
> specifically to do an inventory.
>
> Does anyone have any leads on such an application or know of something
> similar? I expect that this is a commercial app and we may even need
> it to be written. The key requirements seem to be Palm based and
> having the record be automatically transmitted on synch. Not all the
> employees are proficient enough to be able to extract or manipulate a
> Palm file. But they are proficient enough to load an application.
>
> Although a newsgroup response is preferred, feel free to send email if
> a public post would be off topic. .
> --
> Erik
> erikd@execpc.com

--
(. .)
=ooO=(_)=Ooo========================
Chris McMahan | cmcmahan-at-one.net
====================================

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On 01 Dec 2004 13:21:23 -0500, Chris McMahan
<cmcmahan@thenumber1spelledout.net> wrote:

>A quick google search on 'Palm inventory software' revealed a couple
>of reasonably-priced candidates.
>
>http://www.wakefieldsoft.com/doinventory/
>http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/onhand.html
>
>- Chris
>
>"erikd@nospam.wanted.here" <e3news@spamex.com> writes:
>
>> We have multiple satellite office scattered through out the USA in
>> most major population centers. Most of the employees have a Palm based
>> PDA. So for next years inventory, they want to automate the process
>> using the PDA.

Thanks for that. Before I succumbed to the marketing pitches on the
web, I was hoping for some personal leads. Someone who was using such
an application, had knowledge of a successful application or maybe
worked at a company who produced such an app. There's a lot on the web
that MIGHT work, but I was hoping to avoid a little of the pain
eliminating the chaff.


--
Erik

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On 01 Dec 2004 13:21:23 -0500, Chris McMahan
<cmcmahan@thenumber1spelledout.net> wrote:

>"erikd@nospam.wanted.here" <e3news@spamex.com> writes:

>> We have multiple satellite office scattered through out the USA in
>> most major population centers. Most of the employees have a Palm based
>> PDA. So for next years inventory, they want to automate the process
>> using the PDA.

.. . .

>> One of the ideas suggested was to just use a spreadsheet on a laptop,
>> but the folks in charge aren't keen on the idea of people wandering
>> around a large facility with an open laptop. They believe it will be
>> more convenient using the PDA. But using a spreadsheet on the PDA
>> isn't an option either, they would like to use an application designed
>> specifically to do an inventory.

>> Does anyone have any leads on such an application or know of something
>> similar? I expect that this is a commercial app and we may even need
>> it to be written. The key requirements seem to be Palm based and
>> having the record be automatically transmitted on synch. Not all the
>> employees are proficient enough to be able to extract or manipulate a
>> Palm file. But they are proficient enough to load an application.

>> Although a newsgroup response is preferred, feel free to send email if
>> a public post would be off topic. .

>A quick google search on 'Palm inventory software' revealed a couple
>of reasonably-priced candidates.

>http://www.wakefieldsoft.com/doinventory/
>http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/onhand.html

Another approach is to start from your current organization's software
and look at a natural extension. I believe Oracle in particular has
a client or version that works on Palm devices. So if you are using
Oracle throughout your organization, you might be better off looking
into the Palm Oracle software. There might be similar integration
apps available for other databases as well.

Inventory is not a difficult program for most general purpose
database systems. A sufficient inventory program can usually be
written within "a couple of man-hours" work time.

Another approach is to create an interface for your main
organization's database in a Java web page and use a Palm
with a WiFi linked browser (most likely candidate would be a
Tungsten C, though any other handheld you can get Wi-Fi on,
possible by using a card would suffice), and update your
inventory in real-time.

--
The Moving Target: mobile information technology
http://www.pathcom.com/~jimomura/