Oct/Nov 2006

E.ON Energy Services has chosen Dolphin 9500 handheld computers from Hand Held Products for its UK meter-reading operations. It says it is rolling out "several hundred" of them over a three-year period. They have been sourced and supplied by Spirit Data Capture, an independent distributor and consultancy.

E.ON reads gas and electricity meters in over 12 million UK households, and wanted to upgrade the mobile data capture devices used by its mobile staff.

According to David Collard, head of technical support in the organisation's data retrieval unit: "We wanted a rugged device to which we could add complementary technology. It also needed to be easy to maintain."

He says the company was attracted by the Dolphin's robustness, ergonomics and microprocessor. The standard processor for the 9000 series is an Intel XScale unit rated at 400MHz. "It also works well with our meter reading software," he adds.

 

Initially, meter reading staff will use modems to transmit data from the Dolphins in batch mode, but later GPRS will be used to transmit data instantly from the field.

"We expect to achieve significant cost savings by using GPRS," Collard says. He adds that the company likes the faster processor, the availability of both Bluetooth and GPRS, and the Pocket PC operating system.