Searching the internet and features of PDA's

Alexandra Simpson, sa660, 000352308-X

000352308 Alexandra Simpson

Greenwich Construction Ltd

Introduction

This report should enable you, as a novice user, to effectively use computer equipment to develop your expertise and expand your business enterprise. By looking at your needs, to update your computer systems to bid successfully for the 2012 Olympic Stadium build, I have identified what areas you need to improve. Firstly this report will examine how you can search the internet. I have included a flow chart and step-by-step instructions on how to do this. Tips on successfully evaluating the legitimacy of the material gathered are also included. Next the report will explore your need for a PDA. It will examine the features the I believe are appropriate to a small to medium enterprise working in the construction industry and what PDA’s have these features, prepared a table to help you choose the most suitable one.

Searching the internet

To enable you to search the internet I have prepared a flow chart of the steps you need to take. (See appendix 1). By following this it should give clear directives on searching the internet.

To make the process even more clear I have included step by step instructions including pictures so you can see exactly what you are meant to be doing. (See appendix 2)

In step 4 you could try other search engines. Here are some more examples you could try:

(ask jeeves is a natural language search engine so you can just type in an actual question not just keywords)

When searching the internet bear in mind that ‘The Internet is a self-publishing medium. Your visits to…search engines will yield content with a wide range of quality from a variety of sources. Be sure to evaluate everything you encounter’ and ‘Try out multiple sites when you are investigating a topic…search engines vary in their contents, features, and selectivity, accuracy, and retrieval technologies.’ (Cohen, L., 2005). You can do this simply by returning to step 8 at least once to check that the information you have already gathered corresponds with information from another site. If it does not try another site until you have a clear understanding and valid information.

By using this guide you should be able to use the internet to search for information and evaluate its authenticity.

PDA’s

Now this report will look at your need for a PDA. ‘The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) has been introduced into the construction industry as a data device’ (Ahsan, S., El-Hamalawi, A. & Bouchlaghem, N., 2005). And Cus-Babic et al said the PDA’s ‘speed, memory capacity, communication possibilities, reliability, small size and long power independence, as well as its level of hardware and software standardisation, gives the PDA a powerful potential in the information chain of a construction project’ (2000, p37-49). By looking at this you can see that your desire to have a PDA is very much welcome in the ever increasing computer based construction industry. To aid you in your search for the perfect PDA I first looked at what features you would need. Tserng, H. Ping, Dzeng, Ren-Jye, Lin, Yu-Cheng & Lin, Sheng-Tai (2005) described ‘The main features of PDA's include: (1) access to calendar, address book, notes and to-do lists; (2) browsing the Internet or providing web-clippings; (3) Internet access either via modem, cell phone, or wireless access; (4) synchronizing data between PDA's and desktop PCs; and (5) a platform for add-on software’ After taking into account this research and carrying out further study, I found that the features you would need (in order of importance) are:

Must be hardwearing/durable (Rugged)
Internet/email facilities
At least 10 hour battery life
To be able to synchronize with office PC
At least 40 MB of memory
Digital camera
Bluetooth
Password Protection
Be a phone as well
Contacts and Appointments
Memo pad
Calculator

The report will know explain why these features are relevant to your company in the construction industry.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Must be hardwearing/durable (Rugged)
Internet/email facilities
At least 10 hour battery life
To be able to synchronize with office PC
At least 40 MB of memory
Digital camera
Bluetooth
Password Protection
Be a phone as well
Contacts and Appointments
Memo pad
Calculator

The report will know explain why these features are relevant to your company in the construction industry.

Rebolj, D., Magdič, A. and Čuš-Babič, N (2000), looked at a ‘multipurpose experimental, educational and research project called Mobile Computing at a Construction Site (or e-site, for short)’.The main goal of this project was to ‘examine the characteristics and potential of commercially available PDA's for the construction industry’. They found that ‘The commercially available PDA's that were used in the project already offer abundant functionality and processing speed; they are not, however, suitable under stress conditions (dust, strong light, rain, handling by workers, etc.), which are normal at a building site.’ After evaluating this information I concluded that a rugged PDA would be the most relevant to your needs. A rugged PDA is ‘protected from dust, water and shocks, works in larger temperature range’ (Eisenblätter, K. and Menzel, K., 2005). I believe this would be the most important factor to you as there would be no point of having the PDA if you could not take it on site with you.

The second most important feature is the need to be able to access the internet from the PDA as all ‘bids, project reports and operational transactions…will need to be submitted electronically’ (from case study). Even though the majority of PDA’s do have this feature, without this it the PDA chosen will be little use to you.

The third most important feature is the PDA must have at least a ten hour battery life. The average working day in 1998 in the UK was 7.1 hours (including paid overtime, excluding meal breaks), (Green, F., 2000), with industries such as the construction industry having longer working hours especially during high pressure projects (i.e. the building of the Olympic stadium). Due to this I decided that a minimum 10 hour battery life was needed.

The next most important feature is the ability to be able to synchronize with the office PC’s as all your computer based records would be held on these and transfer from the PDA to the computer and vise-versa will be vital to the organization of any construction project.

The fifth most important feature has been determined as the PDA must have at least a 64 MB memory. When deciding between a 32MB memory and a 64MB memory I looked at what features both size memory are suited to. A ‘32MB: Allows smooth use of email applications and office software’ and a ‘64MB: Recommended for surfing the Internet and multimedia functions’ (eBay Inc, 2006) A large memory capacity is required because you will have to download software onto your PDA, as you will be using ‘software provided by the consortium responsible for the overall management of the construction work’ (case study). Due to this I decided a 64MB memory would be most appropriate for Greenwich Construction Ltd.

I believe the next most important feature is that the PDA must have a digital camera on it as well. My own research with a McNicholas plc, a ‘multi-disciplinary company’ (mainly site work the same as Greenwich construction PLC), employee I found that often to show what work has been completed photos of the job are taken and sent via PDA’s to the site mangers and managers in the offices so everyone can effectively and accurately be kept up to date with progress. I believe this could be important to Greenwich construction when organizing large building projects such as the Olympic Stadium.

I have determined Bluetooth capabilities as the next most important feature on a PDA. Dyson, Laurel Evelyn & Er, Michael (2004), wrote ‘Bluetooth-enabled PDA's were suggested by Er and Kay (2003) as a solution to mobile document management on building sites.’ By using this research it is clear to see Bluetooth enabled PDA’s would be an asset to your company. You would be able to synchronize information between PDA’s, mobile phones and computers at no cost to you.

Password protection would be needed to ensure that the information is not accessed by unauthorized personnel. ‘Unauthorized access is generally a prelude to fraud or intentional damage and therefore needs to be prevented’ (Curtis, G. and Cobham, D., 2005, p349). As you can see password protection would be very valuable in controlling access to project reports, operational transactions and personal data stored on a PDA.

If the PDA was a phone as well it would save money as there would be no need to update company phones and enable all supervisors and mangers to only have to carry one device with them when going on site. This would reduce the likeliness of it getting forgotten or misplaced. It could also improve communication between managers and supervisor as they would always be able to contact each other with issues regarding construction projects.

The final three features, Contacts and Appointments, Memo pad and a Calculator, are all standard features of PDA’s but are still important to you. Contacts and appointment will be stored to make sure everyone is kept up to date with on site developments and meetings. The memo pad will help individuals remember tasks that they have to undertake. And the calculator is a standard feature that could prove invaluable on site when calculating the amount of material needed, area of build, etc.

Taking all these features into account and weighting them based on there importance I created a table (see appendix 3) demonstrating what PDA may be the best for Greenwich Construction. Using this you can decide which model you believe would be best for you

Conclusion

By using this report you should be able to easily and effectively search the internet. You should also be able to evaluate the information’s authenticity by cross referencing information from multiple websites. It should also show what features you need for your PDA and why they are relevant to Greenwich Construction Ltd. This will aid you in choosing the best PDA for your new mobile computer system and win the bid for the Olympic Stadium for Greenwich Construction Ltd.

Recommendation

By evaluating your needs to make a successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Stadium I believe that the information I have provided will help you search the internet, initially when choosing a PDA and then into the future. I also think that with the features identified as crucial for your PDA you will be able to choose the most suitable one. From the PDA’s available at the moment it would make the most sense to choose the Datalogic Jet as it has all the features you need. I wish you good luck in searching the internet, choosing suitable PDA’s and making a successful Olympic Stadium bid.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Glossary

Bibliography

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Searching the internet and features of PDA's

This is a preview of the whole essay

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