Power to the PDA!

"I am used to working only with ambitious business executives on the
move and IT professionals. Our breed is fortunate in having worked for several
business magnates. Those who used my ancestor, digital diaries, and dumped them
later are now happy that they have someone who also connects easily to the
Internet and the PC. Now I am being told that even common people with no or a
little computer knowledge will start using me for applications that will
ultimately benefit common man." -Excerpts from the autobiography of a
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

PDAs
are now shedding their elitist role and coming down to earth. Taking the first
step towards this direction, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) will deploy
PDA for spot billing on a pilot basis in Thiruvananthapuram. A senior official
in charge of KSEB said that this would lead to efficiency in billing, minimize
errors and provide better service to customers.

A large number of PCs now used at the back end for entering energy
consumption data and other relevant information can be replaced. Data collected
by spot billing clerks can be fed directly into the computer system of KSEB
without any manual intervention. Moreover, one can also save on labor involved
in data entry. Once the pilot project is found successful, the electricity board
would require 1,800 PDAs with printers attached for implementing this
citizen-friendly project throughout the state.

How it Works

Each day the spot billing clerk downloads customer data on his PDA before he
goes on field visits. He visits customer sites and checks customer details like
the last meter reading with a tap of the stylus. He enters the current meter
reading with the numeric pad, or downloads the data using the IR receiver
available on the PDA (if the energy meters support IR). The system immediately
prepares and prints the bill. The operator can then come back to his office and
upload the data to the bill server, updating records.

"Many government organizations and private enterprises are now in favor
of deploying PDA-based applications. Public utilities in Karnataka, Delhi,
Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have all taken the lead in such innovative applications
for citizen-friendliness", according to R Radhakrishnan, MD, Apt
Microsolutions, a Kerala-based IT firm which is implementing the pilot PDA
project for KSEB.

Enter
the PDA. Waiters in a vegetarian restaurant in Thiruvananthapuram will no longer
need pen and paper for taking orders from customers. "PDAs will help
provide better service to customers, as a bill can be prepared immediately on
taking the order, and the list of food items ordered can be handed over
immediately to the kitchen staff", according to MR Narayanan, MD, Swagath
Hotels, who feels that, in the long run, the cost involved in deploying PDAs can
be offset by greater efficiency in accounting and saving the labor of employees
involved in entering the bill data. Accounts can be tallied on a day-to-day
basis and malpractices by the staff can be rooted out.

The list of such applications that would benefit common man is endless.
Applications that run on standard PDAs have several advantages, such as enabling
flexibility and utility in customization, besides also program modification,
which is easy as on a PC.

"In large retail drug stores where there are more than four or five
salesmen, it is impossible to provide quick service if all them depend on one or
two PCs for preparing the bills. Here again the PDA would enable the salesmen to
prepare the bill immediately as it is linked to the main PC or server.
Therefore, the customers can the leave the counter much faster taking delivery
of the medicines", says Radhakrishnan, whose firm is developing a retail
pharma solution.

Conventional wisdom about computerization has it that it required the
deployment of a large number of PCs and custom-made devices. "A PC cannot
provide a solution everywhere. There are several gray areas where you require a
PC-compatible custom-made device that can lead to cost effectiveness and
efficiency," said Radhakrishnan.

Deployment
of custom-made handheld devices involves risks that could hamper the efficiency
of a project. The classic case was that of the failure of ticketing machines in
public transport buses that were implemented in some states including Kerala,
Tamilnadu and Karnataka. Some companies that provided ticketing machines could
not provide the requisite service support vital for the success of the project.
Since the devices were designed by the concerned companies, there was little
that the transport corporation or third-party service providers could do to
rectify the problems.

In this scenario, a PDA-based solution looks more acceptable to utilities
thanks to the wide range of such devices to choose from, its widespread
availability, cost-effectiveness and service back-up. "Unlike the PDA
technology, the microcontroller-based handheld ticketing machines were
indigenously developed for billing applications. It has also been deployed in
petrol pumps and retail outlets. For such companies to become viable and provide
better service, the market for handhelds needs to expand," says G Murali,
MD, Softland India, which won the innovative product award at IT Kerala 2002 for
developing the ticketing machine.

BSNL CellOne had a problem with bill collections in Kerala as its server was
located in Trichy (Tamil Nadu), and slow speed and connectivity caused problems
for the customers. It was then that BSNL took up a pilot project for the
installation of offline terminals with barcode readers for payment collection
and data transfer. This ensured bill collection even when the server link was
down and power supply went off. Ten such microcontroller-based application
terminals have been used in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam for over a year,
says BSNL CellOne deputy GM, finance, D Manoj.

Christened Cellnet, it is a dedicated microcontroller-based application
terminal for payment collection and data transfer. BSNL officials said that such
Cellnet terminals are likely to be installed nation-wide soon. Cellnet is
installed usually in remote collection terminals. Bills for payment can be
scanned using the barcode reader (if the bill is barcoded), or entered with a
keyboard. After collecting the amount, a receipt is given to the customer. After
closing the day's transaction, a daily collection report can be printed. And
after verification of the day's collection, the data can be transmitted to the
central office for updating in the server using a modem. Unlike the online
system, Cellnet is not server or communication line dependent, hence, the
bill-collection can go on uninterrupted. Years ago, BSNL set the trend in non-PC
based applications for billing when it utilized GRAMIT, an offline device, for
accepting telephone bills. Such applications were also used in post offices.

PDAs and microcontroller handheld devices are in an evolutionary phase. Many
state governments continue to take up e-governance projects on a case-to-case
basis as no comprehensive policy has been developed so far while large
enterprises are not limited by this.

R Sreekumar in Thiruvananthpuram CyberMedia News