RE: Thin Clients

Yes. The work was being done 3 miles from the closest power source. Like I
said, construction companies don't invest in technology like they
could/should.

Plus, the customers frequently require signed timesheets as documentation
along with the billings.

Change moves slowly in this industry. Sigh.

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Wilt, Charles
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 12:24 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Thin Clients

No offense Paul...

But have you worked a job site recently?

I don't recall seeing any recently where there wasn't power available all
over the place.

From small generators, to big generators (particularly at those highway

construction job sites since
they need light to work at night), to temporary electrical utility hook-ups.

Then add in all the vehicles with 110 volt outlets built in and finally all
the vehicles with
cigarette lighters to power an inverter.

Lastly, laptops and PDA do have their own batteries.

Seems like it'd be pretty easy to put together a time station for everybody
to "clock in" at along
with a PDA app the foreman could use to record the other data he needs to
record.


Just my .02,

Charles

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Nelson
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 1:07 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Thin Clients

Take a ride over to the WTC site during the day, and tell me
if that would be conducive to your suggestions. Better yet, a
highway construction job, where there is no power at all.

A grader operator can work on 10 different cost codes during
the day. The foreman is responsible for recording all that
stuff, because that can result in several different pay
rates. Your suggestions are just not feasible in that kind of
environment. I know, because I have lived it. I have worked
as an equipment operator and as a foreman.

How do you think I lost my finger? :-))

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trevor Perry
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 11:49 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Thin Clients

Paul,

I am not suggesting that foremen type anything. What if the
construction workers swiped their security card over the time
machine .. er.. time card machine when they arrived and when
they left? Or, they have an RFID chip implanted into their
earlobe .. er.. their badge? How about biometric systems
needing you to swipe your fingerprint, where you cannot even
cheat by chopping off someone else's thumb :-) - sure, dirty
hands may require a different solution, but there are a lot
of choices in this, the 21st century!

There are business reasons to justify spending money that
does not contribute to the revenue stream. If you can spend
less administrative time in entering data, and less time
fixing human errors, and less time paying for workers who
clock someone else in, and.... you can reduce costs. That
impacts the bottom line in a positive manner, so it seems a
good business reason to me. Are construction companies not
good at business??

Trevor




On 9/13/07 12:38 PM, "Paul Nelson" <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<< Why on earth are you still using ANY form of keyboard

data entry in

the 21st century?>>

I guess you've never been out on a construction site. Those foremen
don't type so well. Plus, construction companies are loathe to add
anything that doesn't contribute to the revenue stream.

:-))

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trevor Perry
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 11:08 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Thin Clients

Why on earth are you still using ANY form of keyboard data entry in
the

21st

century?

People complain all the time about not knowing how to

modernize their

applications - here is the BEST example of how to start the
modernization process. It costs relatively little to

modernize a data

entry application

-

beyond the green to GUI part, and the ROI is quick.

How about RFID? Or, scanning and OCR? Or, web services?

Or..... I did

one project a couple of years ago where we went from

(maximum of) 80

orders entered in a day by hand, to 500 orders a day using an FTP
solution

(pre-web

services). The data entry function went from hundreds of

keystrokes to
four

or five clicks per order, and the occasional data entry for
exceptions. We still had the human eye on the order, but we reduced
human error and improved order entry accuracy to almost

100%. The next

step will be to

have

the web orders entered by the customers directly into the

DB2 database

- where the workflow will still require human touch, but only to
review and approve. In the end, we increased web order

throughput over

500%, and

there

is no concept of (batch) human data entry any more.

There are so many ways to replace data entry today, that

the question

of

how

fast data entry should be in a browser is moot.

First step... modernize your thinking.
Second step... modernize all your human data entry functions.
Third step... get kudos from your company for increasing throughput.
Fourth step... stop telling midrange-L green screen is

better than GUI

for anything :-)

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