D -- MARKETING PARTNERS AND VARS FOR SOFTWARE THAT DOWNLOADS ODBC DATABASES TO MOBILE DEVICES

Notice Date

December 11, 2001

Contracting Office

CCOL, 1177 Jadwin Avenue, Richland, WA 99352

ZIP Code

99352

Response Due

January 11, 2002

Point of Contact

Philip Pulver 509-946-0656 fax

E-Mail Address

Click here for information on licensing and partnering (info@customcatalogs.com)

Description

CCOL is conducting a survey to identify commercialization partners to MARKET, DISTRIBUTE, and/or EMBED the Palmfon software developed for the Department of Energy. Types of partners include VARS (resellers), systems integration firms, application developers, and other licensees or marketing agents. The Palmfon application suite provides easy access to corporate databases for mobile users of hand-held PDA devices such as Palm Pilots and Windows Pocket PC devices. Palmfon enables authorized administrators to extract, and users to download records of ODBC-compliant databases to PDA devices. The system consists of two modules: 1) USER -- a browsing application that runs on the PDA (for viewing and searching on the downloaded data), and 2) ADMIN -- a suite of administration Web pages to control which data fields from the corporate database are selected and how they are formatted; these administration Web pages integrate with any relational database and extract corporate information such as employee data (name, address and phone), product data (description, part number, price) and other reference data for field or mobile use. Data can be text and multimedia. || Some of the many Palmfon applications include product data, marketing and/or customer data, inventory levels, pricing data, employee directories, HAZMAT references, regulatory info, equipment specs for repair/maintenance, law enforcement / emergency management data, and any other information that can be retrieved from ODBC-compliant databases. Users who own hand-held PDA devices can now have complete access to important data even when not directly connected to the organization's central database. || Note, Palmfon is also useful to non-mobile users who need quick access to corporate information via the Web; administrators can extract the appropriate information from the large database and make available worldwide via the Web. Palmfon eliminates the need to develop Web server-side code for database integration and extraction. || Its DATA COMPRESSION technology now makes it feasible to download large databases to PDA devices for users to retrieve & search the data; over 25,000 names and addresses can be stored on even the smallest Palm Pilots. The ADMIN module via a Web interface enables an administrator to select and format the data (employee, product, MSDS etc.) to be downloaded. An SQL query is run on the database resulting in a "snapshot" (table) of the database. Palmfon then compresses and converts it into a form for users to quickly load onto their PDA device for immediate use and search on the extracted data. User access is through a simple Web-based lookup via a direct connection or via wireless. Unlike other PDA applications, Palmfon supports MULTIPLE sets of data records (employee, product, reference, etc.) to be stored and accessed on the PDA. || Comprised of both client and server modules, Palmfon is written using Java Servlets, JDBC and Java 2 Micro Edition. The system operates on the following devices: full range of Palm OS devices including Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII; Handspring Visor products; full range of Windows Pocket PC / WinCE computers; Wireless PDA's; and the Web itself. || For more detail and a demo of the Palmfon mobile application suite, visit the WWW.PNNL-SOFTWARE.COM/PALMFON/ Additional information may be requested via info@pnnl-software.com Binary and source code is available either through licensing or marketing agent agreements. Interested and qualified firms should respond in writing, emailed, postmarked or faxed no later than January 11, 2002.

Web Link

Click here for detailed information on Palmfon. (www.pnnl-software.com/palmfon/)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011213/DSOL014.HTM (W-345 SN514999)