Dendrite and PenVision Unveil Hospital Rep System for Windows CE, Microsoft’s Handheld PC Platform
LAS VEGAS — November 18, 1996 — \Dendrite International, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRTE), the world's largest supplier of enterprise wide customer management solutions to the pharmaceutical industry, and PenVision Information Systems, Inc., a technological leader in the development of applications for palm based systems to support mobile workers, today announced the introduction of the Series 6 Wireless Hospital Rep system, which the two companies jointly developed for the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, a new platform for handheld PCs.
The new pocket-based customer management system was designed specifically for pharmaceutical representatives who call on hospitals. It satisfies the need for instant access to information using a small form-factor device such as a palmtop computer. Hospital reps operate in especially complex selling environments that require interaction on a daily basis with many different decision-makers and decision-influencers, with a limited opportunity to plan and prepare in advance. These factors require capabilities that transcend the typical laptop system that communicates with the host computer over standard wired phone lines. The state-of-the-art palmtop hardware is small, inconspicuous and lightweight — it can fit in a shirt pocket or purse.
The Hospital Rep system is designed to communicate using a wireless modem and connect via TCP/IP to the Series 6 host database. In addition to being incorporated into Series 6 version 2.0 product solution, the Wireless Hospital Rep functionality will be available as an add-in module for all Windows-based systems from Dendrite. The Series 6 Wireless Hospital Rep system provides true mobility with the following features: — Instantaneous Remote Access – Users can immediately access customer information while they are out of the office or away from their laptops.
The palmtop retains a subset of the database, including hospitals, accounts, and prescribers as well as key information such as call history, sales data and formularies. — Wireless Intranet Connection – Extends user's access to national databases on host computer with the capability of adding and deleting information from the palmtop unit. New calls, appointment and "to do" items are automatically updated in the host database. The system also enables customer signature capture. — Electronic Diary Coordination – Automatic synchronization of all customer calls, appointments and "to do" items eliminates need to carry a separate calendar or worry about double-booking appointments.
These features are particularly attractive to hospital representatives because of the difficulty in taking a laptop into a hospital setting. Now they have continuous remote access to the entire Dendrite information system and can download appropriate amounts of data from the host computer and store it on the palmtop device. Commenting on the selection of the Windows CE platform, Roman Yudkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of PenVision, said, "Based on our extensive experience developing application software for mobile computing devices, we think the Microsoft Windows CE platform offers a number of advantages for the Wireless Hospital Rep system.
Chief among them are: Windows CE is a compact and portable operating system with a high-performance user interface; it features built-in TCP/IP and integrated internet capabilities; it incorporates many of the elements of the familiar Windows user interface; and it provides high performance integrated battery management capabilities." "By choosing to work with PenVision and using the Windows CE operating system, we have significantly reduced our time to market for solutions that we believe will be of immediate interest to an important segment of the pharmaceutical industry sales force. As the availability of wireless services expands beyond urban population centers, the application of this technology to a much wider group of users within our served market will be possible.
We believe this niche application is at the forefront of a much broader move toward increased functionality coupled with better portability that will characterize our business for years to come," noted John Bailye, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dendrite. "With broad industry support from companies like Dendrite and PenVision, the Windows CE platform will allow handheld computing to expand to its full potential," said Jon Magill, director of marketing, consumer appliances group at Microsoft. "We are excited that these two companies have worked together to develop and introduce the Series 6 Wireless Hospital Rep system, which supports Windows CE in the pharmaceutical industry."
About Dendrite
Dendrite International provides comprehensive enterprise-wide customer management solutions used to manage, coordinate and control the activities of large sales organizations in complex selling environments. The Company offers modular software products that are designed to facilitate enterprise-wide communications between all levels of the sales and marketing organization, as well as other functional areas. Most importantly, Dendrite's products convert massive amounts of data into actionable rather than passive information. Historically, Dendrite has focused primarily on the healthcare sector and has become the largest supplier of customer management systems to the global pharmaceutical industry. A public company with 1995 revenues of $ 54 million, Dendrite supports over 27,000 pharmaceutical representatives and managers in 16 different countries. In keeping with its objective of migrating the Dendrite business model to other industries with complex selling environments, the Company has formed a Consumer Business Division to serve the over-the-counter Drug, Cosmetics and Consumer Packaged Goods industries worldwide. Headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, Dendrite has offices in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Tel: 201-425-1200; Fax: 201-425-2100.
About PenVision
PenVision Information Systems, Inc. is a world-wide provider of off-the-shelf and custom software solutions that fit the needs of a mobile worker. PenVision's specialty is the development of software for mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), handhelds and notebooks, integrated with wide area and local area wireless and wireline connectivity. Utilizing the powerful enabling technologies of mobile computing, client/server technology and wireless connectivity, PenVision solves a wide variety of field force management and field data collection issues from the most commonplace to individual field force needs and requirements. Note: Dendrite is a registered trademark of Dendrite International. PenVision is a registered trademark of PenVision Information Systems, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
CONTACT:
Dendrite
Chuck Warczakowski, 201/425-2115
or
PenVision
Roman Yudkin, 908/335-1900
[email protected]
World Wide Web: www.penvision.com