Wecome to the first edition of Pen Systems Newsletter. We will be sending it out to our customers every couple of months to let you all know what's happening with Pen's solutions and hardware.

Based on your own feedback the PenNews will include technical information, tips for using our software, the latest from Palm and our hardware partners; as well as profiles of other users like yourselves and the projects they're working on. We'll also introduce you to the people at Pen over the coming months so you can put faces to names.

November has been a great month for Pen Systems, as well as the pen community as a whole. New hardware, new OS's and new software has made November a banner month globally for handheld technology . . . for us the best news is the ongoing proliferation of high quality, handheld, hardware which all runs our suite of software.

In this edition of Pen News we'll be discussing the new hardware from Palm and Fujitsu, Microsoft's recent forray into the pen industry; as well as our own developments with Inspector+ and partnership with Municipal Software.

Palm's newly released Tungsten is a beauty. Hi res colour screen, fast new processor, one hand navigation, and Palm's new OS 5.

Unprecedented speed (the ARM144 benchmarks like a 200MHz Palm!) and performance make it ideal for running Inspector+ for Palm OS even with thousands of permit records to load. Other features we're quite excited about for use with Inspector+ include Voice Recording and sending voice Emails, Bluetooth wireless built in (we use it for printing and connecting to cell phones) AND a new digital camera: the Veo Photo Traveller.

On November 7th Microsoft released Windows XP Tablet PC edition in conjuction with hardware from top manufacturers like Compaq, Fujitsu and Acer. At Pen Systems we've been selling and supporting tablet PC's since 1992; but we have to admit it's nice to have some bigger players, and more choice, in the marketplace.

On the whole, we moved into smaller, more mobile, and less expensive devices a few years ago, but there has always been a significant market for the Windows Tablet; particularly with dedicated software like Inspector+ for Windows Tablet. The tablet allows our users to load hi-res digital photo's, use AutoCAD or their GIS system, and any or all of their desktop applications in the field also.

Users of tablets can also use the hardware as their desktop computer at the office. By simply plugging them into a docking station they're LAN connected and have keyboard and mouse connections for full desktop functionality. The City Of Sudbury building inspectors, for example, are using Fujitsu tablets exclusively.

We are delighted to let you all know that our partnership with Municipal Software is official. This means you can purchase Inspector+ from Municipal Software and CityView (Xpress up to 8.Net) from us.

More importantly, it means that both products will be highly integrated - if you're already a user of CityView you can get a very quick install of Inspector+, relative to users of other databases and permitting systems where the integration will take a bit longer.

Over the long-term, we believe that it will be very simple for users of Inspector+, regardless of the database they're using internally now, to use Admin for the Inspectors while the IT department upgrades to CityView; all without a hitch! The users won't notice any difference when the City changes their databases, because Admin will keep their schedules and permit info current without any eGovernment databases functioning!!

Since the start of this year a lot of citys have come onboard and are using Inspector+, CrewCard, SideWalker and Investigator+ extensively. Mainly in Ontario, but with other Canadian and US sales, the products are proving themselves in the real world of Municipal paper-replacement and data-capture.

In the coming issues of PenNews we will be profiling our end-users. Expect to see a writeup on the City of Leamington, City of Sudbury and City of Kitchener in the next edition...

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