Application architecture (long post - sorry)

[limeydrink at hotmail.com]

In response to Mike's post...

I know exactly where you're coming from and you are right a web based
solution is the simplest and would be the fastest to develop and
rollout etc. but..

The cost is in the data, in the uk you get charged for the amount of
data you send/receive  by GPRS and this data you are paying for would
ideally be useful data and not the HTML to present it.

Engineers generally get the job information then fill in bits as they
go along, and also reveiew what has been done on the job at various
times throughout their work, this could mean alot of traffic moving
through data screens in a web based application.

The push capability of a full client could also be very useful.

The pocket PC hardware is very cheap, and this platform would provide a
good user experience with regards to screen size and means of inputting
the data.



In response to Ernst...

There hasn't been a full decision by management to spend lots of cash
on this as yet hence why I am making this sort of a pet project for my
self and spending mostly my own time, we will then hopefully trial it
with a few engineers and then see where it goes, you are right though,
the company ideally should invest in a full solution as in my opinion
there could be massive savings to the company both in money and time
and also improved service to customers, problem is management can take
a lot of convincing and they don't like spending money.

It would give me great satisfaction though to roll my own solution to
this and then at least prove the benefits to the company, even if just
to convince them to purchase a system from a vendor, and even if that
happens i will have learnt a lot in the process.

Thanks for your replies, they are much appreciated.