Digital Pens and PDAs both have their place in the market and both have their own strengths & weaknesses. But what is the right choice for your business – Digital Pen or PDA?

In the context of this article we are looking at the use of Digital Pens & PDAs for field staff, be they technicians, tradesmen, sales reps or surveyors.

The PDA is best suited in situations where the user is fairly technical and is able to navigate complex menus and record data in small fields on a small screen. They are also useful in applications where a lot of data is dispatched from the office and only limited amount of data sent back by the user. A good example of this is for courier companies who may send out very detailed job information such as “pick up four parcels from this address, deliver two here and two there” and also include a hazardous materials notice and datasheet. Then, on delivery only a signature is captured and sent back to the office with the job number.

An advantage of the PDA is that it can store information on it like a PC and can also be used as a phone & for e-mail. This also means that battery life become critical as the use of the screen for searching information and recording information combined with the use of the radio for data transmission and phone calls means that the PDA will likely need to be charged during the work day.

The Digital Pen is more suited to situations where a large amount of data is being sent back to the office (such as a completed detailed service summary). Therefore service reports, surveys, site inspections and sales contracts are well suited the Digital Pen. As a Field Service Solution the Digital Pen is ideal in that on completion of the task the technician can complete a job sheet which would include the hours worked, parts used, OH&S check, a problem summary and a full description of the work performed. Completing a larger detailed form like this is straightforward with the Digital Pen because it is simply written on paper with a pen, but complicated and extremely time consuming using a PDA.

The beauty of the Digital Pen is that it can also work with PDAs, extending your functionality exponentially. If you do have large amounts of information that you need to send to your staff or you need them to have access to e-mail on the road, then BlackBerry, PDA & most Smartphones will handle that workload and will work with the Digital Pen for returning recorded information to give you a system with the best of both worlds.

A massive advantage that Digital Pen & Paper technology has over the PDA is the redundancy factor. If your user loses or breaks their PDA or are unable to connect to the internet due to technology failures – work stops and you lose data & money. However if the same events occur with a Digital Pen user, no work stops as everything is recorded on paper, and as a worst case scenario the user sends their paperwork back to the office like they did in the old days – no work lost and no money lost. You have a 100% failsafe system of data collection.

If your staff work in an area where they need to leave copies of paperwork with the client such as service reports or sales contracts, the use of a Digital Pen preserves the use of paper in the field so a hard copy form can still be left with the customer. If using a PDA you will be required to carry a separate battery operated printed (creating further complexity).

Benefits of Digital Pens over PDAs:

• Ability to record large quantities of data quickly & easily
• Minimal changes required to your operations as the users continue to work with pen & paper
• Redundancy – if the technology fails you still have the paper forms
• Battery life – typical use will see a Digital Pen only need to be charged every few weeks
• Training & implementation – if your staff can read and write now, then they can use the Digital Pen system. It is a quick & simply process to get pen users working with a maximum of 1 hours training required
• Support
• Working outdoors – PDA screens are reflective and users struggle to read them in the sun – writing on paper with your Digital Pen is not impacted by light
• Less intrusive when working with a client or patient that typing away on a PDA
• The Digital Pen preserves the use of paper in the field so a hard copy form can still be left with the customer
• Upfront Investment - hardware costs are lower with a Digital Pen system, averaging about 50% lower than a comparable PDA set up
• Operating costs – the cost of data transmission (GPRS) is much lower for a Digital Pen

In areas where large amounts of information need to be collected and returned to the office, in situations where the users are not overly comfortable with technology or in situations where it is too critical to rely only on a single electronic copy of information, then the Digital Pen certainly provides a real, useable high tech solution with a low tech feel & price point.