Datamax MCL User Manual

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Visualize • Mobilize • Realize MCL-Collection

Why MCL-Collection

Visualize…a mobilized workforce

Realize…MCL-Collection

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Visualize • Mobilize • Realize MCL-Collection

Your Success is Our Success

Dear Customer,

As a recognized leader in delivering enterprise-ready, high-productivity software development tools for multimodal, mobile workforce application development, deployment, and management, MCL Technologies is proud to bring you the latest MCL-Collection.

Our ultimate goal is to help you mobilize your workforce to improve productivity, reduce costs, and achieve competitive advantage. We strive to do this while minimizing your total cost of ownership.

This document shows some of the reasons why MCL-Collection is the development and deployment environment of choice for enterprises throughout the world. Whether you are a Business Decision Maker, an IT Decision Maker, an IT Manager, or a Developer, this document provides perspectives on why people in your position in other enterprises have standardized on MCL-Collection. We trust you will agree.

MCL’s commitment to you, your success, and minimizing your cost of ownership, plus MCL’s dedication to providing the most advanced products on the market, make MCL-Collection of strategic importance to your mobile workforce deployments.

Partner with MCL to focus your efforts on solving business problems, not implementation problems.

To Our New Customers

Welcome! Your selection of MCL-Collection is a decision you will be glad you made.

To Our Long-Standing, Valued Customers

Thank you! MCL remains dedicated to your continued success.

Sincerely,

Jean-Francois Jacques

Managing Director

MCL Technologies

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Table of Contents
Mobilizing Your Workforce? ........................................................................................	4
Where to Begin ........................................................................................................	4
Realize MCL-Collection..........................................................................................	5
Business Decision Maker’s Perspective ........................................................................	9
What Does This Mean to You?................................................................................	9
IT Decision Maker’s Perspective.................................................................................	11
Total Cost of Ownership........................................................................................	11
IT Manager’s Perspective ............................................................................................	13
What Are the Benefits to You?..............................................................................	13
Developer’s Perspective...............................................................................................	15
Top Reasons to Use MCL-Collection..........................................................................	16

Charts
Charts – Technology Adoption Timelines.....................................................................		7
Chart 1	– MCL Technologies continuity timeline for evolving operating systems
on portable terminals and mobile computers...........................................................		9
Chart 2	– MCL Technologies continuity timeline for adoption of communications
mediums for mobile computing...............................................................................		8
Chart 3	– MCL Technologies continuity timeline for data capture technologies on
portable terminals and mobile computers................................................................		8

Figures

Figure 1 – MCL Architecture .....................................................................................

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Why MCL-Collection

Mobilizing Your Workforce?

Where to Begin

Before you start, choose a development and deployment environment that satisfies your answers to the following questions:

1. Is this a completely integrated development and deployment environment?

If not, what do I need to do to integrate, manage, and deploy the application I create?

2. Is this a high-productivity development environment?

If not, how long will it to take to create, integrate and deploy my application?

3. Is this environment open standards-based?

If not, will it serve my business needs over the long term?

4. Is this deployment environment scalable, extensible?

Will it support my deployment today? Will it support my deployment as it grows?

5.Does this environment integrate my mobile worker applications with my host systems? If not, what do I need to do to integrate with my hosts?

6.What are my mobile communications needs? Does this deployment environment support them? What if my needs change? Will the environment support them too?

Wired and/or wireless network communications? Real-time, on-demand, or batch communications?

Continuously connected, casually connected, or occasionally connected users?

7.Is the development environment extensible? Can I create extensible applications? If not, how can I benefit from new technologies?

8.Does this environment create multimodal applications?

If not, must I choose one technology over all others? And if so, will I be able to fulfill my long term business needs with this one technology?

9.Is this environment cross-platform compatible?

10.Does this environment provide forward migration paths for my applications?

11.Does this environment future-proof my mobile workforce applications?

I am developing now for Windows Mobile 2003 (WM2003). Will my application seamlessly port to Windows Mobile 2005 (WM2005)? What is coming after WM2005? Will my application seamlessly port to that platform?

12.Does this environment preserve my investments?

13.Does this environment minimize my total cost of ownership (TCO)?

14.What is the history of this environment? Does it understand my mobile workforce requirements?

15.What are the inherent risks of this environment?

16.What are my long term goals? Will this environment sustain them?

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Realize MCL-Collection

Here are MCL-Collection’s answers to your questions:

1.Is this a completely integrated development and deployment environment? Yes. MCL-Collection is a completely integrated environment to create, integrate, manage and deploy enterprise mobile worker applications.

2.Is this a high-productivity development environment?

Yes. MCL-Collection’s high-productivity development environment allows you to create powerful enterprise mobile worker applications in days or weeks instead of the weeks and months it would take you using traditional development languages.

3. Is this environment open standards-based?

Yes. The applications created by MCL-Collection run on standard mobile computing platforms. Chart 1 shows MCL’s timeline for supporting evolving mobile computing operating systems.

4. Is this deployment environment extensible, scalable?

Yes. MCL-Collection is scalable to support both small localized deployments and large distributed deployments. Its modular architecture provides exceptional deployment flexibility and extensibility.

5. Does this environment integrate my mobile worker applications with my host systems?

Yes. MCL-Collection includes MCL-Bridges to integrate your mobile worker applications with multiple hosts, concurrently—back office applications, ODBC compliant databases, warehouse management systems (WMS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

6. What are my mobile communications needs? Does this deployment environment support them? What if my needs change? Will the environment support them too?

Yes. MCL-Collection handles your serial point-to-point data communications, and your wired and wireless concurrent LAN, WLAN and WWAN mobile data communications. It seamlessly transitions between batch and real-time communications. It also provides seamless transitions for continuously connected, casually connected, and occasionally connected users.

7.Is the development environment extensible? Can I create extensible applications? Yes. MCL is continually integrating the latest technologies into MCL-Collection (see Chart 3). Today, easily add voice control to your traditional MCL data capture applications. Tomorrow, add radio frequency identification (RFID) to the same applications.

8.Does this environment create multimodal applications?

Yes. MCL-Collection creates multimodal applications that combine technologies such as barcode scanners, touch screens, keyboards, signature capture, imagers, RFID, displays, printers, and voice recognition. Using MCL-Collection:

All data capture methods are handled as complementary technologies.

You do not have to choose one technology, like voice, for example, over other data capture technologies.

Mobile workers use whichever data capture method is most efficient and convenient to perform the task at hand.

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9. Is this environment cross-platform compatible?

Yes. MCL-Collection is cross-manufacturer, cross-platform compatible. Mix and match mobile computer populations and form factors to maximize worker productivity.

Here is how MCL defines Cross-Platform Compatibility:

Interoperability. Platform independence. Platform neutrality. The ability to move an application back and forth between devices with different operating systems and/or different form factors.

For example, using the current version of MCL-Collection, an MCL application developed for a mobile computer with a Palm operating system will also run on a mobile computer with a mobile Windows operating system and vice versa.

Think of this as a two-way street.

10. Does this environment provide forward migration paths for my applications?

Yes. For example, MCL-Collection’s Migrate Wizard forward migrates DR-DOS MCL applications to WM2003 MCL applications. This feature is evidence of our commitment to provide our customers with forward migration capabilities.

Here is how MCL defines Forward Migration:

The upgrade of software from an older version to a newer version. In an MCL environment, forward migration refers to the:

Upgrading of an MCL mobile worker application.

Upgrading of the MCL-Collection deployment environment components.

Take an MCL application created using an older version of MCL-Collection, regenerate it using the current version of MCL-Collection, and then run it in the latest MCL-Collection environment. This is MCL forward migration.

Think of this as a one-way street.

11. Does this environment future-proof my mobile workforce applications?

Yes. MCL is already planning to seamlessly port your WM2003 MCL applications to run on WM2005 and beyond. We are committed to this mission.

12. Does this environment preserve my investments?

Yes. MCL-Collection’s multimodal approach, cross-platform compatibilities, and forward migration paths are designed to preserve your investments.

13. Does this environment minimize my total cost of ownership (TCO)?

Yes. MCL-Collection minimizes your TCO on several levels:

Application TCO

Minimized by MCL-Collection’s high-productivity development environment.

Minimized by multimodal approach.

Minimized by application development, integration, and management efforts.

Minimized by nominal on-going maintenance efforts.

Capital TCO

Minimized by our commitment to provide cross-platform compatibilities and forward migration paths to preserve your investments.

Deployment TCO

Minimized by MCL’s modular architecture and flexibility.

oEasily adapt your deployment to support your evolving business needs.

14.What is the history of this environment? Does it understand my mobile workforce

requirements?

Yes. MCL’s core competency is in development tools for data capture, mobile workforce application development, integration, deployment, and management. Initially introduced to the market in 1992, MCL-Collection is used throughout the world by enterprises large and small to mobilize their workforces.

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