23.07.07
Back to the future with digital pen & paper
Digital pen and paper (DPP) technology has come of age in the past year as a growing number of businesses have recognised that it delivers immediate data capture, low cost of ownership, security, total traceability and workforce approval.
DPP technology was invented in Sweden in 2001. Both mobile and in-house workers use a smart electronic ballpoint pen to complete paper forms. These forms are printed on a laser printer and contain an almost invisible pattern together with any available relevant information from the back office, the latter minimising form filling workload and maximising accuracy.
The pen contains a tiny camera, a processor, memory and a datalink, either to a PC or via Bluetooth to a mobile phone. As the user fills the form the pen tracks the printed pattern to record every penstroke. Where signoff is required, the user simply hands his pen to the customer. A paper backup record is, of course, an automatic by-product of the FAS process.
When the form is complete the penstroke data is uploaded to the back office where it is first stored to provide a time and date stamped, incontrovertible, record of the transaction. This stored data is used to construct an image of the paper form and then converted to a machine readable file for onward transmission to business systems.
This process eliminates conventional form mailing and scanning and gets information to the enterprise back office with near zero delay. DPP is now field proven and highly affordable, with minimal support costs. Advanced DPP systems deliver:
• high levels of workforce acceptance with minimal training load
• the ability to continue data capture when infrastruture fails
• data security and integrity from the digital pen to the back office
• confidentiality of business and personal information
• a traditional paper record of last resort
• unique pattern on every digital paper page for total traceability
• form production on demand on a vast range of laser printers
• pre-filling of digital paper forms with data from the back office
• easy in-house forms design to save time and cost
• back office system connectivity and integration
• scalability for thousands of users.
DPP is an ideal vehicle for train and infrastructure maintenance records. It should be considered whenever and wherever mobile data capture, combined with workforce satisfaction, is required.
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