Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to buy special hardware to use your signature capture?
No. magic5 runs on touch screen phones and devices which have a stylus. The signature is recorded by just signing on the screen and is incorporated into the completed form with any other information you want to collect.
Do you have a solution for my industry?
Yes and no! magic5 is generic piece of software which can be deployed in pretty much any industry
or occupation in which data is collected by mobile workers. Through the administrator's web interface you define
the data that's appropriate for your particular needs. By its very nature, this data is different in every single
case. Even businesses working in the same industry will have different requirements. magic5 allows you
to ask for the data that's important for you.
Does magic5 work on the iPhone or phones running Google Android?
Does magic5 work on the HTC HD2?
Yes. However, bear in mind that if you need to capture customer signatures then you'll need a stylus - the HD2 doesn't come with a stylus, but it's possible to order them separately.
In our opinion the HD2 stylus isn't as good for signature capture as the phones with earlier "normal" styli.
The HD2, in line with the iPhone, has a "capacitive" touch screen, meaning that it relies on the electrical conductivity of your fingers to judge the gestures that you are making.
The earlier Windows Mobile phones (version 6.1 and before) have styli which rely on pressure (hence you could use your finger or a pen if you lost the stylus) - these phones tend to be better for the more precise movements associated with signature capture.
Which types of PDA are supported?
magic5 is written for Microsoft's Pocket PC/Windows Mobile family of devices. These devices all share a
common programming model and, as pieces of hardware, are up to the job of being a valuable business
tool.
In particular, it runs on Windows Mobile 6.x Professional, Windows Mobile 5.x Professional and Windows Mobile 2003 devices.
If you wish to capture customer signatures then you'll need a phone with a stylus.
At magic5 we also have plenty of experience of building applications for other platforms.
If you need a solution on such devices then we'd be happy to help - our product targets the Microsoft
platform but we recognise that other platforms are just as good or even better in some scenarios.
Do you supply devices?
No. We've found that you can usually get the best deals and support from whoever your mobile phone contract it with.
If you're after ruggedised devices then there are some good deals online (for example, The Barecode Warehouse.)
Can I have my form, not one of yours?
Yes. The main feautre of magic5 is that you can create your own forms, not just use the ones that we provide. You don't need to be a programmer or particularly technical - if you can
use a web site then you can create your own forms with magic5.
Can I have a different PDF format to the one in the trial system?
Yes. You can either have a PDF with the same layout as the one in the trial but with your own logo and organisation details - this is free of charge. If you want a totally different
format of PDF then that's fine, but it's something that needs to be programmed by us. As a rule of thumb we charge £300 for brand new PDF formats.
Do we need to allocate a server to run your solution?
Not necessarily. We offer two models for deployment. In the first, you would have a server running
the magic5 server software within your own infrastructure. In the second, we can arrange for the
server software to be hosted by us. This second option is probably the simplest for
you because there's no need for you to get your IT department involved or buy new kit. However, many
organisation prefer to have their own servers. It's up to you.
There wouldn't be time on-site to complete everything on the PDA - how would we manage this?
There are two ways of recording data using magic5 - on the PDA and on the report-editing part of the web site.
On the PDA, magic5 is fast at recording simple data from lists, checkboxes etc. It also allows quick entry
of text through "smart text" and through any rules that you set up. However, if there isn't time during or after the inspection
to record everything on the PDA, the user can further edit the report using the web site. This means that they can use
a PC and any internet connection (eg. at home or back in the office) to add to (or amend) what was entered on the PDA.
Why should I choose magic5?
Our solution is the distilled experience of more than 13 years of working with PDAs. We have built many
successful applications for many different customers in many industries and many countries. Over that
time we've come to appreciate what users can do on a PDA, and what they can't. We've learnt about good
ways to store and transfer the data, and bad ways. We've integrated PDA data with all sorts of backend
systems and we've seen which techniques work and which don't. The magic5 product embodies all of this
knowledge, and takes things forward.
In short, you can trust us to know what we're doing. If our product doesn't fit your requirements then
we won't try and sell it to you. If we do sell it to you, you'll know that it'll work!
How many users could I give the solution to?
It really depends on the nature of your application, the amount of data that you'll be dealing with,
the usage patterns of the users, their business requirements etc.
If you have less than 200 users then don't worry at all. If you have more users than that then it's a
case of looking at the architecture of the solution and specific needs - we're sure that magic5
will work great for you, but it would be sensible to produce detailed plans.
What is 'smart text'?
Smart text is a quick way of entering and editing text on the PDA. Each text field can have text "snippets" associated
with it. If the user uses "tap and hold" within the text box they will see all of the relevant snippets. If they select
one of these then the text will be inserted into the box. They can then add to or edit the text, and it's exactly the same
(but faster!) than if they'd typed the whole lot in manually.
There are two main ways that smart text is used. Firstly, the snippets can correspond to text that they frequently enter in response
to that question (eg. "Standard attained" or "No evidence of a documented procedure"). Alternatively, the snippet can
be more of a "pro forma" for a complete answer (eg. "Problems were found with X of the machines") - in this case the
user would insert the snippet and replace X with the appropriate number.
Note that it's often appropriate to configure rules to automatically enter text - this is can be the case where the user
provides an answer that can sensibly trigger a given textual response. In these cases smart text can still be used to
add to or modify the automated comment.
Is magic5 a 'forms' package?
No. There are many tools available which allow you to create forms-based applications for PDAs. The aim
of these packages is to give users who aren't programmers the ability to create applications. However,
you'll find that because these packages are trying to cater for all sorts of complexities and flexibility, they end
up being nearly as complicated as a full programming environment. magic5 is simple to use because it
doesn't try and cater for the 10% of cases which cause all of the complexity. If the data you wish
to collect is reasonably straightforward and there aren't masses and masses of business rules,
magic5 is the solution for you. If you find that there's something magic5 doesn't deal with, then
magic5 can offer services to extend the base product with the functionality that you need.