News Article

ICS Computing Mobile Technology

15th January 2007

Up until recently, ICS Computing's Accounting Systems Division had been solely concentrating on Perito™ Business Systems - a popular mid-range accounting system installed in several hundred sites in both Ireland and G.B. Perito™ Accounts, which is Northern Ireland's leading indigenous accounting system, has been hugely successful in a range of industry types, but has been particularly successful in distribution-related industries. It is from this industry background that the development of the new breed of mobile technology systems was spawned.

Mervyn Erskine - ICS Director of the Accounting Software Division said, "We have a very powerful system in Perito™ Accounts, well featured and very user friendly - frankly we were struggling to determine how to improve something that is already so rich in functionality. We are very conscious of the latest developments in GPRS technology and the falling price of mobile hardware. These two factors, combined with our extensive experience of the distribution industry, made us realise that the way to broaden the scope of our Perito™ solution was to extend our offerings into mobile-based technology for field staff. These field staff could be anything from sales representatives with laptops to delivery drivers with in-cab PDA systems."

The concept of ICS's mobile technology is simple. GPRS or "always on technology" means that staff in the field can be on-line to the company's central accounting system throughout the day utilising the Internet as a communications mechanism - for a fraction of what a traditional telephone call costs. The reason for this is that GPRS charging is based on the amount of data transmitted as opposed to the length of the call. Given that most accounting applications transmit only small amounts of information compared to video and audio, the costs of communications are minimal. This development, coupled with the falling price of mobile devices means that field staff have an on-line terminal connected to the central system throughout the day.

Take this simple concept - a mobile device on-line all day to the central accounting system - install access to parts of the accounting system onto it, and you have a field sales person with the same capability as staff at the depot or head office. In other words, they are capable of entering orders, enquiring on sales patterns and stock etc, indeed most of the functions traditionally carried out by Head Office staff. In effect the system, which is based on low cost PDA devices, laptops or PC Tablets, turns the company car or cab into a fully operational office on the move.

Putting this type of technology into operation with customer facing staff is the next big thing in the accounting systems marketplace. As John Holway of Ovum Holway explains, "The development of mobile technology has been a lifebuoy not just for the telecommunications sector, but for the whole of the ICT Sector. Just as "e-enabling" was the driving force in the ICT sector for the last 10 years, so will mobile technology or wireless-enabling" be the driving force for the next 10 years. With its above average growth rate forecast, the wireless world is one sector that most ambitious ICT companies cannot afford to ignore."

The mobile technology developed by ICS provides major cost savings such as:

• + Removal of administration time and errors - the order is entered once at the point-of-sale and automatically updates the central system
• + Automated end-of-day reconciliation saving driver time
• + Accepts electronic signatures for customer acceptance of the order and driver acceptance of any payment
• + Links to a Bluetooth enabled belt-mounted printer to print out a signed delivery confirmation
• + Electronic confirmation signatures are transmitted to HO and stored/recalled on an in-built document management and retrieval system
• + Gives field staff up-to-date information on the latest promotions and recent buying patterns, thereby maximising sales opportunities whilst in front of the customer
• + Provides real time update on stock status of vehicles on the road
• + Links back to Head Office to confirm details of the delivery made, up-to-date residual stock and invoicing information

In addition to providing accounting information on the move, the system is currently under development to incorporate "locator chips" in the PDA that can link via GPS to determine the location of the vehicle at any point in time.

The GPS system in turn will link to a "mapping system" so that Head Office staff can view on-line the precise location of vehicles and dynamically schedule deliveries real-time.

Using a combination of GPRS derived accounting data and GPS location information the system will produce on-line management information relating to routes and delivery profitability.

The testing and development of ICS's mobile technology systems has taken several years and has involved a significant degree of co-operation with organisations such as Vodafone and BT. GPRS technology has existed for a period of time but there has been virtually no commercial exploitation of it with real mobile business applications. All of the development was carried out in Belfast by a team of software engineers at ICS headquarters and ICS is now commercially exploiting the system throughout G.B. The result of their effort is a totally practical, yet sophisticated, end-to-end solution that integrates all aspects of product delivery from customer order placement through to accounts preparation.