PBdox by Mike Motley A comparison of methods for document distribution

The current Method: Beginning at 6:17 am, login to “remote desktop”

6:20 am, arrive at the GMS home page

6:20, TSB downloaded and viewed

6:21, clicked “save pdf”

6:23, PDF renamed, saved to a folder other than desktop

6:25, activesync handheld in cradle, click on “explore” to open file browser

6:27, browse through file structure to find appropriate folder for “TSB’s”

6:28, copy the TSB to the folder on the handheld

6:32, open Adobe reader on handheld, browse for file just loaded. Built in file browser only looks in first level of folder, so pocket pc browser must be used to navigate structure.

6:35, found and opened file for viewing on the handheld. Total elapsed time: 18 minutes. This is on a broadband connection, it would be slower on a dialup. Logging on to the GMS home page can easily take several minutes. This does not include the time needed to boot computer, log in to the net, and shut it all down when finished. This is also, obviously, a soft dollar cost.

In the field: Locating the information we need. The service cdrom is indexed with a web page, and works quite well on the handheld when transferred directly to the SD memory card. New documents are NOT part of that index, and must be located manually. The pocket pc “find” function will not search within pdf documents, so each tsb or sv must be opened, searched, and closed to find specific information. Adobe reader for pocket pc is extremely processor-intensive. This means that everything else runs very slowly when this application is opened. It must be shut down after information is found to keep the device stable and usable.

The PBdox way: 1. If there is a red box flashing on the main page, updates are available. Tap on it. 2. The CAB file will download, install the updates and turn off the flashing box. There will be a traditional index page, or a local search can be used to navigate. TSB’s can be converted from PDF files (very large) to HTML (very small, and fast). Communications to the field can happen very quickly by creating a document and sending it to me for conversion, packaging, and upload. The red boxes start flashing on everybody’s handhelds at the same time. I might even be able to make it beep when an update is available. - If the device suffers a “hard reset” it will lose only the main page, since all of the files are stored on the SD memory card. The main page is easily restored via a CAB file. - PBdox is modular. The user only downloads the documents for the products that they are trained on. -PBdox can be modified to work on a Laptop, managing gigabytes of documents.