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Radix products are ideal for utilities (i.e. electric, water and
gas), automatice meter reading (AMR), meter reading, billing, meter maintenance
& inspection, work or service orders and on-the-spot billing.
Radix products cope with varying environments and changing light conditions. Our
handheld computers can offer integrated barcode scanning and image capture, magnetic
stripe/smart card payments, integrated and portable printing, wireless communications
GPRS/GSM/CDPD and other PC Card support.
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Ultra-Rugged FW500 Finds Its Way Back Home
Racine Water & Wastewater Utilities serves 100,000 customers in the communities
surrounding Racine, Wisconsin. They have two facilities located on the shores of
Lake Michigan in Southeastern Wisconsin. Their water utility processes an average
of 35 million gallons of potable water per day for their residential, commercial
and industrial customers. Their wastewater utility treats approximately 35 million
gallons of wastewater per day before returning it to Lake Michigan.
Racine Water & Wastewater Utilities uses Radix FW500 ultra-rugged handheld computers
to read water meters of nearly 30,000 residential customers on a monthly basis.
With so many customers, everybody at the company has their hands full. Toughness
of both people and equipment is tested daily against busy schedules and the stresses
of running a big utility.
One day, one of the Racine Water & Wastewater Utilities fieldworkers finished collecting
data from a meter and was ready to move onto the next location. Concerned about
finishing his route on time, he got into his truck and drove to the next stop on
his route. When he got there, he could not find his handheld. After looking every
place he could think of, he remembered that after finishing last read he stuck his
handheld on the roof of his truck. He checked there. The FW500 was long gone. The
meter reader was eager to find his trusty handheld, but even though he backtracked
his way to the previous meter, he could not see a sign on FW500.
The two were reunited almost 2 weeks later. A good samaritan found it on a busy
road, tracked down the company and turned it in. The FW500 was really beat up. The
antenna was broken and missing, and scratches covered its body. However, everybody
was amazed to see that the handheld actually turned on, performed all the basic
functions and had all the meter reading data intact.
Radix Corporation is continuously working to provide you with ultra-rugged mobile
computers that are designed to stand up to the harshest and most extreme environments,
while still delivering excellent performance and reliability. Based on the popular
Windows® CE, the FW500 offers several wireless connection options including Bluetooth®
and Wi-Fi®.
Radix Supplies Major Metering System in Egypt
Petrogas is the supplier of gas to customers in the Cairo metropolitan area and
other major metropolitan areas in Egypt. Handheld computers for meter reading were
considered imperative to improve the service given and increase production. Radix
and the Fieldworker range were chosen to provide the required product and service
after consideration of the other handheld manufacturers.
One of the criteria for the project was ensuring the entire system was in Arabic
for ease of use by local workers. This was provided by the Radix business partner
in Egypt who designed and produced a meter reading system entirely in Arabic characters.
The Radix business partner developed an Arabic screen driver software for the Radix
handheld computer and software for the PC's utilising Arabic Microsoft Windows.
One of the unique selling points of the Radix handheld equipment is the customisability
of the keyboard designs, a special Arabic keyboard has been developed and is used
in conjunction with the Arabic software.
Petrogas also required handheld units that were designed for the tough environment
that their meter readers have to work in. The varied temperature range, humidity
and dusty conditions that the Radix handheld computer tolerates, made it the ideal
solution.
In the initial roll out, 200 Radix handheld units were installed at Petrogas in
order for them to cover the Cairo metropolitan area. Petrogas then ordered a further
70 units to allow an expansion of the covered territory. The partnership continues.
Handheld Computers in the Middle East
A truly portable computer, designed and manufactured by the UK company Radix, is
successfully being used in many Middle Eastern countries for on site data collection
and analysis in applications as diverse as planned meter reading, industrial maintenance,
route accounting and traffic ticketing.
The Radix handheld computers are a sophisticated units. They are compact and lightweight,
being barely larger than a calculator in size, yet at the same time very powerful.
The units are able to display both Arabic and Latin characters.
An example of one of the handheld's many applications can be seen in Saudi Arabia,
where it is being used for capturing data from domestic electricity meters. The
customer was looking for a system which would be used by ordinary workers with no
particular computer experience. It also needed the ability to operate for long periods
at very high temperatures and of course, resistance to dust and shocks. The Radix
handheld computer provided the ideal solution. Lightweight and ergonomic, it is
easily carried around and is small enough to be held comfortably in one hand. Programming
can be such that the sequence of data to be entered coincides with each stage of
the meter reader's route and prompt messages can be displayed on the computer screen
prior to the input of information. This allows the operator to concentrate on the
job in hand rather than trying to cope with complicated computing techniques. At
the end of the day, the data collected is uploaded to the central computer for further
analysis and, at the same time, the following days routes, customers and any special
messages are downloaded to the handheld computer.
The Radix handheld computer is tough and robust, easily accommodating the often
extreme environmental conditions of the Middle East. It operates within a wide temperature
range, from -20oC to +60oC and will survive a two meter drop onto concrete. The
sealed membrane keyboard means the unit is resistant to dust, oil and grease as
well as making it completely waterproof. The keyboard can also be customized to
allow for different applications in the Arabic language. A comprehensive range of
peripheral equipment including bar code wands, scanners and portable printers are
available to support the hand held computer. Radix operates on a world wide basis.
Our distributors in the Middle East are fully equipped to demonstrate our systems
and to discuss and develop systems for new applications.
Radix manufactures and markets what are considered to be the most rugged and durable
handheld computers and portable printers in the world.
New Jersey American Water Equipment Upgrade
New Jersey American Water, the state's largest water utility, is serving over two
million people in 176 communities throughout the state. The company is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of American Water, the largest and most geographically diverse provider
of water services in North America.
The company is dedicated to making the necessary investments to maintain and upgrade
its facilities, so it can deliver quality water directly to its customers' tap 24
hours a day, seven days a week. This is why New Jersey American Water recently updated
its Radix meter reading system.
The company utilizes 35 handhelds at 3 different locations to read approximately
250,000 water meters. In order to simplify the strenuous task of reading such a
vast number of meters every quarter, New Jersey American Water uses rugged handheld
computers with meter reading probes. The decision to upgrade the Radix equipment
was in part influenced by the ability of Radix to seamlessly integrate its handhelds
with the existing probe equipment.
Radix handhelds proved to have the superior reliability necessary to meet the work
demands of a large utility company. The great customer service and support made
the decision to upgrade the original FW200 to Windows-based FW500 a no-brainer.
The customers are the top priority for New Jersey American Water, and the company
is committed to providing them with the highest quality drinking water and service
possible now and in the years to come. The company appreciates Radix's commitment
to help them meet their goals.
Siemens Metering Services and Radix
The UK utility market has exploded. In 2000 deregulation has been completed, and
the regional electricity market in the United Kingdom has been changed beyond recognition.
The new and already established companies involved in metering and supply have had
to move fast to keep on top of the emerging market opportunities. Eastern Energy,
part of TXU Europe, based in Ipswich, UK, like the other competing companies in
this area have had to implement new IT systems in order to cope with the changes.
Radix were chosen by Siemens Metering Services Ltd, the metering division of TXU
Europe, to provide a mobile computing meter reading solution for this new market
place.
Offering a wide range of services, energy supply, meter reading, distribution and
billing, TXU Europe who supply gas as well as electricity, have had to sharpen their
customer service. The deregulation means that any company in the utility supply
business can offer gas, or electricity supply and metering services to any customer
in the UK. Originally Eastern Energy were responsible for the electricity supply
to the East Anglian region, now they supply to the entire country. Siemens Metering
Services Ltd, who provide Data Collection, Aggregation and Meter Operator services,
are key players in a very complex national agency services market.
With customers able to switch supplier as they wish, the meter reading routes can
become more fragmented, with Siemens Metering Services meter readers walking past
houses they used to serve. They also have to travel further to read the meters of
customers who have signed for their service in other places around the country.
This is obviously less productive and therefore Siemens Metering have to work smarter,
not just harder. Gary Walker, Technical Support Manager from Siemens Metering is
quick to praise the operational staff, "in the last year Eastern has had to re-organize
all back office systems and the staff here have been working very hard to ensure
we are market leaders. This is a crucial time for Siemens Metering and we have a
hardworking team to manage the change over in order to meet the requirements of
Metering competition. The marketplace has become very competitive for suppliers
and meter reading services alike so ensuring you have satisfied customers and staff
is imperative not only for Suppliers but also for those providing agency services
like ourselves."
With a mission statement promising to be a leading metering agency service provider
in the UK, Siemens Metering had to invest in the services, staff and customers to
achieve their goals.
Handheld computers for metering are not a new idea for Eastern, as they have been
using the Radix rugged computer for metering for over 9 years. With the introduction
of more competition and a wider market area, Siemens Metering wanted to stay ahead
with their technology.
Siemens Metering noted two particular areas where changes were required for a new
handheld system. With their metering system the higher productivity and workloads
being obtained now required a handheld unit with more capacity. Also, meter readers
had land lines installed in their homes for data communication and with staff turnover,
this was incurring installation and maintenance costs and logistical effort that
Eastern wished to avoid. The Radix meter reading products have proven themselves
over the last 9 years as rugged, reliable and easy to use. Siemens Metering have
been happy with the service and support provided by Radix and found that the back
office systems could be easily migrated to the latest handheld product offering
from Radix -.
Gary Walker from Siemens Metering commented that "Eastern are very satisfied with
Radix and when looking to change the metering system, didn't believe there was anything
better on the market. The ruggedness and reliability has been proven time and again
with the Radix handheld computer system and when we required an integrated metering
system, a natural upgrade of handheld units made sense. The Radix handheld computer
was identified internally as being the natural step forward, the improved Radix
handheld model offers us so many added advantages. This approach allowed us to upgrade
our systems in stages, at low risk, knowing that Radix products were compatible
with our internal systems and knowing that Radix would provide the support services
that were needed." To tackle the land line installation, Siemens Metering have implemented
the Nokia GSM Card Phone into the Radix handheld computer. The Nokia Card Phone
is a complete mobile GSM phone on a PCMCIA (PC Card) allowing modem or SMS data
communications. With 256 Radix units each installed with the Nokia Card Phone loading
and unloading could take place from the handheld computers 'on-the-fly'. Therefore
the need for the Installation of land lines and home based modems was obsolete.
Radix produced a customized end-cap for the Radix units in order to fully enclose
the Nokia card and its internal antenna safely. This provides a one piece, sealed,
lightweight handheld computer with integrated GSM data communications and with flexibility
and capacity to meet future needs. Radix also enhanced the software systems from
the previous solution and provided an upgrade service for fitting the Nokia cards
and end caps to the Radix units, testing them and delivering them to Siemens Metering
for immediate use. Implementation of the new system was rolled out in April 2000
linking in to new central systems that replace the old legacy systems. All approval
checks and central process testing was completed successfully and the live flows
and customer details have been migrated to the Radix system.
As with any change, the Siemens Metering staff are always concerned regarding how
changes may affect their jobs. Siemens Metering's investment in this new technology
demonstrates their confidence for the future in the ever competitive market which
in turn provides staff and customers alike with confidence and a sense of security.
The Radix Account Manager for Siemens Metering Services, Brian Inall, commented
"Gary has taken Eastern forward where others will surely follow. The need to be
flexible and adopt new technologies will drive down the cost of reading and raise
the service levels that can be provided. The competition is fierce and Eastern plan
to be winners." Siemens Metering Services and their proactive policies are building
a foundation for the future and Radix have been instrumental in achieving their
goals.
Radix manufactures and markets what are considered to be the most rugged and durable
handheld computers and portable printers in the world.
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