Palm-reading for beginners

If the business landscape of the eighties was defined by filofaxes and brick-sized ‘cell’ phones, so the noughties will surely become synonymous with those small-but-perfectly-formed silvery things City whizz-kids whip out whenever consulting their diary.

BlackBerrys may be the gizmo of choice for the cognoscenti, but they are just one of a family of products that includes smartphones (mobiles with extra functionality) and PDAs (personal digital assistants, or handheld computers).

There’s no doubt this is the age of the digital gadget, and they are becoming more powerful and ingenious by the day. These conveniently compact accessories can take unprecedented computing power onto sites.. But it’s the financial sector, not construction, that has taken the lead in adopting these technologies.

“There is still huge potential in other sectors – particularly in construction, where people are away from their desks so much,’ says Joseph Bell, product manager at SIM Telecom. “BlackBerrys, for example, have been claimed to increase productivity by up to 27% and have been around since 2001. But they took off first in the US and in the City.”

It’s certainly fair to say that BlackBerrys and their shiny cousins haven’t yet taken the construction world by storm, but this looks set to change. Contractors have started the ball rolling: Pearce Group has used PDAs to revolutionise its approach to snagging, the Kier Group is currently testing BlackBerrys and consultant Davis Langdon is to follow suit in May. Consultants, especially, are quickly developing a taste for handheld wizardry.

Tony Burton, partner with Gardiner and Theobald, has been an enthusiastic BlackBerry user for the last year and sums up the obvious benefits offered by the technology. "It is extremely useful to be able to send and receive email just as you would in an office," he says. “I still have my mobile, because it is a number many people know, but to be able to clear emails on the train is an efficient use of time. Project managers love them; QSs less so. But, given the speed one is expected to function in modern business, I think they will soon catch on.”

One of the reasons Burton chose a BlackBerry over a PDA or Smartphone was its instant connectivity with the office. Most PDAs have to be taken back to your base to 'sync' with the office computer if they are to update email and diary entries, which often led to diary clashes. But the BlackBerry system immediately 'pushes' mail and diary entries to and from the office computer, so both systems are constantly synchronized, avoiding clashes.

Burton’s fellow partner, Richard Bryers, is also a BlackBerry convert – it has replaced his mobile, paper diary and, since it can view Web pages, his laptop. "Internet pages do take a while to download, though," he admits, "and those who use Word or Excel a lot will certainly want to keep their lap-top. But, for a people-manager like myself, email, phone and diary is all you really need."

Blackberrys are not the only fruit

Working out what you want from these devices is absolutely crucial before you commit to one. BlackBerrys may not be the right option for you – and there is plenty of choice on the market, as mobiles become ever smarter and PDAs get better connected.

Steven Barker, senior partner at construction and property consultancy RLF has looked at all the options. "I am currently trialling a BlackBerry, and have to say that, by and large, they are excellent. They slip into the inside pocket of a jacket and it’s a huge help, when you receive a hundred or more emails a day, to be able to pick up and respond to them when you’re travelling.”

Project managers love them; QSs less so. But, given the speed one is expected to function in modern business, I think they will soon catch on

Tony Burton, Gardiner and Theobald

However, he points out that there is a slight problem with large attachments on a BlackBerry, because there is not quite enough processing power. Indeed, the main advantage of PDAs over BlackBerrys is that they can offer much more memory and processing power, allowing greater functionality.

“Here the PDAs have the advantage, and the partners are trialling them at the moment, though I can see that very soon we will need to roll them out to the staff,” says Barker. The only downside to all this may be that you would not necessarily have all the information you might need to give a detailed response whilst traveling.”

Graham Kent, founder partner of KHK, uses a Qtek handheld – a PDA with email facility based on Outlook. "I used to have a Palm PDA and a mobile," he says, but my Qtek enables me to have a phone and all the information in my Outlook Express – names, addresses and additional info – all in one."

Tellingly, perhaps, Kent does not actually use the Qtek email facility: "I prefer to use a lap-top for that – something with a sensible-sized keyboard and screen."

BlackBerrys, he says, are not right for him: "A couple of our guys have them and like them, but find them intrusive – they are difficult to ignore and the guys find themselves dealing with emails at weekends and on holiday."

Pearce simplifies snagging

The Pearce group, too, has chosen PDAs for an innovative system for dealing with snagging. The company uses PalmOne Tungsten C handhelds to allow its staff to enter snagging information on site. A bespoke system, provided by Swansea-based Mobile Computing Systems, allows staff to input the location and nature of a snag, and then send the information directly to Pearce's head office, from where it is automatically forwarded to the relevant subcontractor.

Pearce's Nick Regan says, "We wanted something that could capture snags and pass them on without delay. The system is working well, but how you introduce a system and how you develop it is just as important as the hardware involved."

Pearce staff benefit from the Tungsten C's other facilities, too, including a diary, the ability to create and edit Word and Excel documents and sync with Outlook. Other PDAs go even further, including digital cameras and even GPS navigation systems.

There’s no denying it’s all clever stuff – and, as these examples demonstrate, these gadgets have the potential to be much more than just a fashionable accessory for an industry that spends so much of its time away from the office.