Volume 1, Issue 5 / 2008

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Mobile Technology Innovation?...Just Blame Your Teenager

A panel of mobile technology leaders was assembled at IntelSat’s Global Telecom Meeting last week. Each presented diagrams of networks, future plans for more bandwidth and an increasing number of enticing feature rich applications around video, messaging, GPS and other technologies. Questions from the audience peppered the panel. What is driving all of this innovation? Answer: Teenagers.

There is a category of technology user called ‘Hyperconnected’. Network World Magazine published a recent report on worker trends. Sixteen percent (16%) of the global workforce is now hyperconnected, using at least seven devices and at least nine applications like instant messaging, text messaging, Web conferencing and social networking. This category is predicted to grow by 40% in the next five years. Teenagers and twenty-x-year olds today are using these types of applications, predominantly from their mobile device, at much greater volumes than other users. They will be entering the workforce in a few years and they are also in the technology development disciplines of academia. Thus, the innovation that you will see tomorrow will come from a generation of hyperconnected mobile wunderkinds.

We are already seeing this wave of mobile innovation in our daily operations. The software you use on your PC or over the Web is being reinvented to serve you through your cell phone, Smartphone or mobile computer. Social networking, GPS, video and text communications and other applications are being merged for the mobile business end user with promising value.

Anyware offers many opportunities for you to learn more and see if your company can benefit from going mobile. You can attend Anyware University, a seminar open to the public, or you can choose to participate in a private educational session online or in your office.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at clint.parr@goanyware.com.

Sincerely - Clint Parr
 

This newsletter has frequently referenced some of the ‘killer apps’, including mobile video, location based services (GPS), social networks and WiMax (Wi-Fi on steroids). One of our partners, Livecast Media is launching “Livecast”, a revolutionary ‘mash-up’ of these technologies in a single compelling product.

Livecast extends interactive live video into the mobile environment. With a handheld device, an end user can broadcast live video from any location with high speed cellular access to one or hundreds of people – in real time! The video can be seen by viewers on a PC either live or on-demand. The product has intelligence built in that shows the viewer where you are broadcasting from and other information such as time, date and search features. The video content and other information can smartly populate a social network website for text communication.

This combination of functionality incorporates features for those adept at using YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. With some modifications, it also has value for the business user. Applications of this technology include; first responders who arrive on a scene and transmit real time video and location coordinates to other support agencies; inspectors who are looking at assets needing to communicate by voice and video to management at the office; and shipping/logistics personnel who often need confirmation of materials and paperwork in the field.

Anyware can enable your product or service with this type of functionality, specific to your end user and device types. If you would like more information, please contact Mike Ishmael at 918-388-3526.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do." You probably recall those less-than-comforting words uttered by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in his 2004 resignation speech. Those remarks highlighted a problem that can't be ignored.

Of course, food manufacturers understand the potential for problems and constantly work to ensure product safety within their facility. But the [2002] FDA Bioterrorism Act imposes additional shipment tracking and reporting requirements, which can be difficult to implement. It has been estimated that up to 75% of the companies that touch the food supply chain are still managing their inventory with disconnected spreadsheets and paper documents. These concerns spurred a corn syrup distributor, Base Inc., to reevaluate its inefficient and mistake-prone paper shipment tracking system. Base approached Anyware with its problem and a custom application called SealTrac™ was the result.

Base Inc. supplies corn syrup to soft drink manufacturers and its parent, The Bama Companies, maker of bakery goods for major restaurant chains such as McDonalds and Taco Bell. Base relies on SealTrac to improve efficiency and cut costs of tracking 60,000 shipping container seals and to comply with the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness Act.

As shipments of corn syrup leave the facility seals are affixed to every container access point, including the loading, offloading and cleaning ports. Even the internal equipment used to handle the product transfer is sealed. Each year Base uses over 60,000 seals, checks each one at least three times – at placement, stops or transfer points, and removal – and logs all seal data.

Seal-tracking with paper was labor intensive, prone to error, and costly. For instance, to check the seals on incoming rail shipments, workers climbed over, under, and around every rail car, writing down the number and condition of every seal, then carried the checklist inside where a clerk typed the data into a spreadsheet. Once the product was offloaded and the container cleaned and refilled, new seals had to be affixed and recorded – all by hand. Down the line, if a seal number needed to be tracked, a clerk would have to sift through the spreadsheets – and hope the data was accurate - before reporting The findings to management.

The paper tracking process often resulted in errors, including data recorded incorrectly, paper lost to wind, weather, or mishandling – all of which led to increased expense. Workers spent too much time on the paper trail and an error could force a buyer to reject a shipment, costing Base up to $25,000 per rejection. “Our seal tracking used to involve a lot of labor and margin for error,” says Jim Youngblood, Base general manager. “Now SealTrac helps us reduce expensive errors, labor costs, and the time it takes to process shipment seals.”

Now when Base workers climb the rail cars, they carry a lightweight handheld computer with barcode scanner and SealTrac software. They simply scan each seal’s barcode, tap the touch screen to record the seal’s condition, and hit send. Complete and accurate data wirelessly uploads to the SealTrac log database. If a problem is detected, alerts go out instantly and the staff can stop a problem before it happens. This results in less time and labor, dramatically lower costs and almost zero errors. More importantly, Base knows the food product is safe when it enters their facility and when it leaves.

The Bioterrorism Act will soon require that all food products and shipments be traceable throughout the supply and distribution chains. With Anyware’s help, Base now has its container shipments in compliance, leaving them more time and resources to address other challenges. Just think what Anyware can do for you.

In the third quarter of 2008, Anyware will release ReForm XT™, the newest release of the ReForm mobile data collection platform. Rebuilt from the ground up, ReForm XT will extend more control to the customer – enabling any user regardless of technical experience or business size. Also, ReForm XT now works on Palm®, BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile Smartphone® and Windows Mobile PPC® devices.

Powerful yet simple to manage, ReForm XT replaces the paper forms traditionally used to capture data as part of a typical business process. Automating manual processes by electronically distributing forms over the air to a handheld device and transmitting captured data back to a central data center in real time, business processes become much more efficient and information to management becomes available in a more timely manner. Available as a hosted ASP platform or installed behind the customer’s firewall, ReForm XT can deliver value as a simple yet powerful data collection tool or as a complete product development platform by providing the ability to build unique applications specific to your business needs.

Developing, deploying and managing mobile applications now requires minimal technical skills. And the newly designed LogicLine™ form creation tool offers greater customer control features, a brand new visual interface showing form layout and question flow, and a greatly expanded number of question types. These new design developments also enable complex “logic-driven” forms to be easily built and supported. New tools have also been created to allow users to create custom emails or SMS messages that can be sent upon submission of a completed form. Additionally, each customer-developed application can now be independently branded with colors and logo for each user group.

ReForm XT is adaptable to countless peripherals, such as barcode scanners, temperature probes and GPS receivers. For those end users who require durability, ReForm XT supports and enhances the rugged computing environment. The platform can utilize any data network connection whether wireless or cradle synchronized and can be used offline until a network connection is available.

For more information on ReForm XT, Click Here or contact us.

With today’s ever-expanding mobile universe, we are all looking for the perfect mobile companion. If you’re like most mobile business professionals, carrying your five-to-ten pound laptop around and trying to work in a mobile environment, such as an airplane, isn’t necessarily convenient. You have to boot it up then hunch over like Quasimodo while it precariously rests on your seat-tray…and then hope your battery lasts long enough for you to read a few emails and edit a spreadsheet. And let’s be honest…trying to do any work beyond reading and composing emails on your BlackBerry® isn’t exactly a pleasurable experience. But a relatively new type of mobile device is gaining popularity, it’s called a UMPC or Ultra Mobile Portable Computer. In layman’s terms, a UMPC can be summed up in one phrase: “Everything you have in your office at your fingertips.”

Until very recently, UMPC devices have been very expensive. When first released, most UMPC devices were loaded with many features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth™, Microsoft operating system, high resolution touch screen, and more. Manufacturers like OQO and Sony were first on the scene, but because they retailed for around $2,000, they were primarily marketed to corporate executives.

Today, UMPCs have transformed into more affordable, compact units that deliver all the functionality of a laptop in a sleek, mobile and sometimes, rugged package. In addition, many manufacturers have left the confines of Microsoft and have started offering devices that run on more efficient and more affordable operating systems such as Linux or Symbian. Manufacturers like ASUS have introduced products like the Eee PC 1000 that run on the Linux platform, have built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth™, a battery life of 7.5 hours, quick and reliable solid state hard drives and pack a whopping 4 GB of RAM. In addition, Eee PCs are reasonably priced at less than $400.

In an even more exciting movement, manufacturers are starting to test the waters with mobile device companions. Where Palm struggled with the Foleo because of small adoption rates, other companies are introducing devices the size of UMPCs that connect via Bluetooth™ to emulate your Windows-enabled or Blackberry smartphone. This gives the benefits of a larger screen, coupled with the same features that your smartphone has – Internet access, Wi-Fi and “instant on” operating systems. More information on one of the more popular companion devices, Redfly, can be found at celiocorp.com.

UMPC and similar, smaller portables are beginning to transform the amount and type of work that a mobile worker can do. Now we can take our spreadsheets, documents and other applications on the road and have the tools to comfortably and efficiently work on them. With features like mobile video being added, these devices will not only offer a new way to do business but they will have the ability to generate new mobile solutions. Whatever the situation may be, UMPC or similar portable devices are here to stay and will revolutionize the way we do work on the run. If you would like more information on how UMPC or other mobile solutions can change the way you do business, just let us know.

MacroSolve CEO Key Panelist at GTM 2008 Conference
June 4, 2008

MacroSolve Appoints New CFO
June 12, 2008