Free configuration services target the data-collection novice
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2005 6:00:00 AM
To encourage more small and medium-size businesses to adopt automated data collection, terminal emulator middleware vendor Connectis offering free presale configuration services for implementing radio-frequency (RF) data collection solutions on IBM infrastructures.
Automated data gathering "puts the responsibility for entering data directly on the person nearest the data," says Connect's Sales Director, Jim Dooley. "It eliminates errors caused by manual data entry, and is much faster."
Terminal emulation software mirrors desktop application screens and allows data to be entered on smaller, handheld RF bar-code scanners, while the application itself—a warehouse management system, for example—resides on the desktop.
The target of Connect's offering is a small or midsize company just entering the RF arena. Many run on IBM's iSeries computer, described by Dooley as "an affordable midrange." Usually, small companies have not implemented automated data collection; rather, they are without the resources—or the inclination—to handle their own configuration and integration, Dooley observes.
Working through its reseller partners, Connect, an IBM business partner, will configure RF applications for evaluation and testing, allowing resellers to demonstrate how applications will work with their particular systems.
"Users can dial in remotely, gather the screens that are affected, and set up [the system] for the kind of terminal they want to use," explains Dooley. The free offer runs through the end of October.
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