When compared to the paper-based process, the Palm handheld-based process speeds cash flow, reduces clerical mistakes, and eliminates data-entry labor costs. Palm also reports that the use of handhelds has cut operational costs for LPG Central's customers by an average of 20 to 30 percent. With the cost of delivery trucks averaging $2 to $4 per mile, LPG Central's route optimization is generating a large part of this savings.

LPG Central plans to update its handheld solution so that data can be sent wirelessly from Palm handhelds to the office throughout the day as deliveries are made. The company is also working on a handheld application for field service calls that optimizes service routes and allows technicians to perform onsite billing.

The final frontier
The frontiers Palm handhelds have been certified to venture into goes even further. On April 26 a Russian Soyuz rocket carried South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, the first African in space, to the International Space Station. [Can I tell you how amused I am that a guy named Shuttleworth took a space shuttle to the International Space Station?--DG]

While this is a historic event in itself, what made it even more exciting, at least to this audience, is that Shuttleworth carried with him a Palm m125 handheld--the only handheld computer to be approved for space travel on the Soyuz. Shuttleworth is pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A


South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth became the first African in space. Roll over picture for a larger image.

During his stay on the space station, Mark's activities needed to be scheduled down to the minute. To ensure this came off without a hitch, a special scheduling application was needed to meet the unique requirements of the project. To create a customized Date Book application that could be programmed on a minute-by-minute basis, Palm South Africa worked with the "First African in Space Project" coordinators and a South African Palm OS developer company called Rafale.

All the communication between Earth and the International Space Station is managed by Tsup (Moscow Mission Control). The application Rafale designed allowed Tsup to update Mark's activity schedule in an Access Database and send it to Mark via email. On receipt of the email, Mark saved the updated information to his Palm Desktop software on his laptop and then synchronized it to his Palm m125 handheld. In a matter of seconds, Mark had a mobile activity schedule on his handheld, which meant he didn't need to keep going back to his laptop to check his schedule.

For the duration of Mark's mission, Palm handheld users were able to download Mark's daily activity schedule at the Palm South Africa Web site (at http://www.palmusergroup.co.za) as well as at the First African in Space Web site (at http://www.africaninspace.co.za).

These two examples demonstrate the ever-increasing usefulness of Palm handhelds. More and more enterprises are finding the technology to be invaluable, on this planet and beyond.

Steve Niles is Senior Editor for ZATZ Publishing. He is also an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. For more information, visit http://www.sn-films.com.