Bechtel Telecoms Selected By Microsoft As Early Adopter For Pocket Pc 2002

"We identified the enormous benefits of moving to wireless project management in deployment of large-scale telecoms networks," says Bechtel Telecoms President George Conniff. " Using the Pocket PC brings new Microsoft technology and support to our internal wireless management initiative, which we expect will help our projects operate in a secure wireless environment faster." 

Seeking to streamline network deployments and save money for its clients, Bechtel Telecoms last year developed its own sophisticated system for Automatic Progress Tracking (APT) that significantly reduces paperwork and increases accuracy. APT integrates and customizes hand-held devices and software from a variety of vendors to track telecoms network engineering and construction data. 

As part of its "Early Adopters" program, Microsoft selects companies that are already advanced in technical capability to put new products into operation. These companies are provided grants and equipment to move their existing systems or processes to the new Microsoft platform. 
"The difference with Pocket PC 2002 is that we can now send site information directly, wirelessly, without error-prone intermediaries, to our project offices and to the network operator's data management systems," says Bechtel Telecoms Manager of Information Technology Ron LaVallee. 

Bechtel Telecoms estimates that in wireless network build-outs the APT / Pocket PC 2002 system will save three hours of records transfer work at each cell site. That amounts to a potential $1million in savings for 5,000 sites. In addition, wireless data transfer will result in increased speed, consistency, and quality of information.