Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Tradespeople and other mobile workers aren't renowned for treating gadgets with kid gloves. So why not give them technology that was designed to be rugged enough for the military?
That's the thinking at Telstra (Australia's largest telco) and mobile computing specialist AvanTEC. The two companies have teamed to provide tradies and others with a General Dynamics GoBook VR-2 complete with a 3G wireless broadband module and the option of lockable in-vehicle installation.
"Productivity for vehicle based employees and tradespeople is often hampered by poor job scheduling, as well as the use of old fashioned, time consuming work practices for billing systems and inventory management," said Ross Fielding, executive director, Telstra product management.
"This solution will benefit these customers by allowing them to stay connected while working in the field. It can help them to complete work faster, bill clients instantly, look up information, and order parts online," he added.
AvanTEC general manager Dave Cawsey suggests the bundle may provide a partial answer to the shortage of skilled staff by improving productivity. "To prosper amid a skills shortage, vehicle based service engineers,
contractors and tradespeople need to lift their productivity. Our new solution gives field services organisations an affordable way to improve their productivity, and benefit from the latest Internet technologies," he said.
Hardware features include a Core 2 Duo CPU, and an LCD screen that's visible in direct sunlight. You want rugged? How does meeting military standards for resistance to shock, vibration, dust and humidity sound? The GoBook is supposed to withstand a 75cm drop onto a hard surface.
You probably wouldn't want to throw in into the back of the ute, but the GoBook sounds capable of withstanding moderately rough handling, and Telstra says its NextG network covers 99 percent of the population, which should help users keep in contact.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
LATEST HEADLINES FROM YOUR IT
