Palmtop Puts An Office In Your Pocket
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday February 3, 1998
Once upon a time, there was a startling innovation that shrank computers down from filling whole rooms. The desktop was born. Then the desktop shrank to the laptop, which could be carted round the world in a briefcase.
With that, the office as we know it has begun to die. Being at work, or doing business, need no longer be about a particular place, it can happen wherever you are.
Enter the palmtop, a tiny computer capable of doing most things, connected to a mobile phone. Forget the home office - you've got an office in your pocket.
New styles of work - mobile, flexible, pared down - have driven the technology, and, in turn, the technology has driven the new styles of work.
But for Mark Bentham, managing director of Endeavour Communications, using the latest technology effectively is not simply about buying equipment, it's about using the ever widening range of communications options to custom-make solutions for particular clients.
For example, if a one-person band wants to sound like a full orchestra, they can switch their mobile from the usual voice-mail message ("This is Bob, leave a message and I'll get back to you"), to a paging option, where the message is taken by a live operator.
"It can sound very professional for a fraction of the cost of keeping a receptionist," Mr Bentham said.
For larger businesses, the solutions may be more complex, depending on the particular needs of the organisation.
The Wollongong-based forklift sales, service and hire company Miquip used Mark Bentham's company to set up a mobile-page system which has cut costs by consolidating paging and mobile services into one.
Using the Vodafone network to send text messages to reps on the road has eliminated the need to speak to them personally unless it's needed, thus making considerable savings on fixed-to-mobile phone calls.
"We're the authorised dealers for Nissan, Raymond and SMV forklifts from Helensburgh down to the Victorian border and over to the Snowy Mountains," Miquip director Martin Coffee explains.
"We've got nine vehicles on the road constantly covering that terrain. We need to be able to send messages out to the guys: `There's been a breakdown, or here's some phone numbers and information, or please check the mast height of this forklift or its serial number'.
"With text messages going out on to their phones, it's quick, efficient and much more cost effective than ringing them up every five minutes," Mr Coffee said.
"And they can look at their messages and know exactly what we want, so there's no false communication."
Text messages are sent out from Miquip's Wollongong office from Windows-based paging software on desktop PCs.
"For Miquip's staff, it's just a matter of clicking an icon, the software comes up, they type in a message and go back to word processing or whatever they were doing," Mr Bentham said.
Using Miquip's existing desktop PCs was logical, Mr Bentham said, because customers are generally calling the company during office hours.
"But if total portability is needed, the system can operate from a palmtop computer like the PSION."
According to Mr Bentham, the mechanics of the savings available by using mobile paging are quite simple.
"Telstra has the monopoly on fixed to mobile, they make a fortune on it," Mr Bentham said. "So being able to send text messages out through the mobile network makes a big difference.
"The message goes from the personal computer to a modem, through the PSTN to the switch at Vodafone, then out over Vodafone airwaves. By using text, the line is only open a short time so it is much cheaper.
"And people can be receiving their messages even while they are talking on the phone."
Mr Bentham set up Endeavour Communications in 1994, opening his current premises in central Wollongong in 1995.
"Our speciality is the small to medium businesses, providing solutions for all mobile-wireless communication needs," he said. "We've gone from employing three people to a dozen in that short time."
With a background in hospitality Mr Bentham has a keen focus on support, back-up and service.
© 1998 Illawarra Mercury
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