April/May 2003

Our impression

In some ways C-Your-Data's MIDAS is just the kind of product covered in this issue's feature on application software (page 34). After all, MIDAS (Mobile Information Data Access System) does incorporate templates that allow mobile workforce managers to create their own forms.

However, MIDAS is really about how you capture data, transmit it and integrate the information into other parts of the business. It involves a lot more than just organising tasks and processes. To that end it also includes a server that incorporates two-way text messaging and dynamic task scheduling.

MIDAS has been designed from the bottom up. The starting point was to create a system that could capture data from various sources and transmit it in a format that allows it to be used by various departments within a company. Another key priority was to make it a simple matter for users to add and change the data being collected without the intervention of IT experts.

 

The system was originally developed to help car rental and insurance companies handle vehicle inspections, but C-Your-Data is now targeting any company needing to capture data in the field and use it in other parts of their business.

MIDAS stores information as raw data fields in XML (Extensible Mark-up Language). By using XML, C-Your-Data ensures the data is easily readable by a wide variety of programs (XML can include data definitions as well as the data itself.) Transferring data as XML fields might seem obvious, but C-Your-Data says that historically, a lot of mobile data has been customised before it is sent from a wireless handset, either because the forms software was bespoke to that application, or because of security concerns.

C-Your-Data says it takes as little as 10 or 15 minutes to alter fields and get mobile workers using the latest version. Each time a wireless device logs on to the system, it retrieves the latest version of the template.

XML data input and output is via the MIDAS Command Centre, a server which is either hosted or sits outside the company's own server and uses Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML). C-Your-Data says this means information is stored and transmitted as raw data so is inherently safer because it is gobbledegook to potential hackers.

Using HTML improves ease of access to the data from within the company. You are not limiting it, for example, simply to the traffic or CRM departments. C-Your-Data hopes that by developing MIDAS with its own separate, non-invasive server, it can attract hard-pressed in-house IT departments to the concept.

MIDAS includes a data capture editing suite, which allows managers to create the forms to get the field data they require (it could handle signatures, digital images, parts used or simply work that has been done).

At the heart of the system is a company-defined data dictionary, which identifies what type of data might be required from mobile workers. MIDAS software engineers then use the dictionary to create core data fields. This general template maps the generic scheme which stores all the fields required for core data. The core fields can be added to, creating templates for specific user groups (they could include sales forces or delivery drivers).

C-Your-Data has designed the template so it can be used by any manager with few or no IT skills - but one who knows the information required from mobile workers.

Charges are raised on a pay-per-use basis. The Command Centre recognises handheld units each time they log on, and is smart enough to know if the connection is dropped and users have to log in again, so they do not pay twice.

Our verdict

We tried a demonstration version of MIDAS, and found it was a straightforward matter to insert, delete and edit fields using drop-down menus. You can make some fields mandatory, and allocate some for management analysis, and you cannot accidentally delete core data fields. It helps to define your wish-list before you start, although adding fields later is not a problem.

A slick system that seems on the face of it as straightforward and versatile as its supplier makes out.

www.c-your-data.com