TECH TIPS
Wireless handhelds redefining jobs
Michelle Kesser
USA Today
Every time someone plunks 50 cents into one of its 35,000 snack-vending machines, Aramark refreshment services wants to know about it.
The Philadelphia snack-supply company keeps track of sales by means of a wireless handheld computer carried by delivery truck drivers.
Each time the driver stocks the machine, the information is entered into the driver's Symbol personal digital assistant. Then, it goes from the PDA to a computer at an Aramark office, where workers study the data to better predict what customers want.
Driver productivity rose 40 percent during a two-year pilot program, because they were more efficient in stocking the right goods, the company said.
The company's use of wireless technologies in an old-line business is just one example of how wireless is changing workplaces — and, many say, improving them.
But the notion of wireless work won't free everyone from desks, analysts say, and it won't become widespread until costs come down and reliability goes up.
Twenty percent of the American work force is mobile, the Yankee Group estimates, and those employees will be able to do their jobs more effectively by having access to company records from the road.
Companies are using wireless to:
• Communicate with customers.
ServiceMaster of Downers Grove, Ill., a cleaning company that scrubs Greyhound buses, uses its handheld wireless network to keep track of customer satisfaction. After each bus is cleaned, a Greyhound supervisor rates the job using an electronic form on one of 60 Palm PDAs. The information is transmitted to ServiceMaster headquarters.
• Reduce mistakes.
Office Depot has cut the time it spends filing and searching for delivery paperwork by 50 percent, thanks to a wireless system that links trucks on 22,000 delivery routes. The drivers use a Symbol PDA to plan their routes and keep track of inventory.
Wireless devices can even make up for bad handwriting. Irnest Oser, an internal medicine physician in Silver Spring, Md., submits his prescriptions to pharmacies by using his Motorola cell phone instead of writing them by hand or having a staff member call them in. The automated system also works through his Compaq iPAQ PDA or through a personal computer.
Oser likes the system because it instantly connects to the pharmacy's database and pulls up a patient's medical history, alerting him to drugs that may cause a reaction.
More important, it cuts back on work for his staff. His assistants, who make $15 to $18 an hour, used to spend about 15 minutes on hold for each prescription. "Electronically, it's done in a minute," he said.
• Improving productivity.
Police officers in Coos Bay, Ore. — a community of 16,000 people — no longer have to make a couple of one-hour detours back to headquarters each shift, thanks to a wireless computer in patrol cars.
The custom-built device by Aether Systems allows them to submit entries to the police log through a wireless network without driving to headquarters. The wireless network also lets them run background checks.
There are hurdles to wireless work going mainstream.
The tiny screens and keypads are still a problem, said Bill Crawford, senior analyst for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. Wireless networks also need to be faster, reliable and widespread. Training also will take time.
Workers often resist new technologies, the Yankee Group's Bishop said.
And finding money to cover costs — one handheld unit for business often runs $500 to $1,000 — is challenging.
