Tourist information

Business Case Nika Productions.

The project development and consulting firm Nika Productions focussed the last year on the development and roll out  of the product "Timespots". The rental of a PDA/Smart phone, full of location based information, to tourists and business travellers in the large cities of Europe. For this Timespots Pocket PC special software is developed on the equipment itself and on a number of servers.

The task at hand for Excelbian was to develop a so called Kiosk mode application for the Pocket PC phone edition. The user interface contains only the information and the applications relevant to the tourist or business traveller. It should also be possible to reconfigure the Pocket PC completely with the use of short cut key combination.

How the goal was reached.

The goal is reached in close cooperation with the customer and other parties involved in the project like Byton, Geodan and Vodafone, which where responsible for the server software and the location based services.

The result is that the look and feel of the PDA/Smart phone is now completely tailored to the requirement of the customer.

A special today screen is available tailored to the interests of the tourist with the following items:

O        The headlines of all the important international newspapers

O        The weather forecast for the city the tourist is staying in.

O        The main events in the city in that period

O        A ticket service.

O        Important email messages for the tourist or business traveller sent by the Timespots organisation itself.

The complete client software is stored in a non user accessible part of the  ROM memory of the Pocket PC which makes it impossible for the user to change anything to the code and the configuration. Upgrading of the software takes place by reloading the new software from a memory card and resetting the machine. A number of management possibilities are included in the software.

To make it impossible to use the Pocket PC for other goals than meant to the user can't leave the application (also called a Kiosk mode application).

After several tests the solution is accepted by the customer and is now fully operational in e.g. Amsterdam.

The result

The software solution changed the Pocket PC in a piece of equipment specifically targeted at the tourist or the business traveller in a large city, who is  now able to roam the city, collecting relevant information in a fast and  pleasant manner. The solution also made the management of the fleet of Pocket PC's more easy.