Pervasive computing goes to work: interfacing to the enterprise

The paperless office is an idea whose time has come, and come, and come again. To see how pervasive computing applications might bring some substance to this dream, the author spoke recently with key managers and technologists at McKesson Corporation (San Francisco), a healthcare supplier, service, and technology company with US$50 billion in sales last year, and also at AvantGo (Hayward, Calif.), a provider of mobile infrastructure software and services. For the past several years, McKesson has used mobility middleware developed by AvantGo to deploy major supply chain applications with thousands of pervasive clients and multiple servers that replace existing paper-based tracking systems. According to McKesson's managers, their system greatly reduced errors and associated costs caused by redelivery or loss of valuable products, giving McKesson a solid return on its investment.