Paul Wakeford

Workplace Productivity Services
Best proposals - fastest returns - highest productivity
Home
Project Management
Data Capture
Contact
Blog
Site Map
Timedex  
Background

I developed Timedex after my Tel-Time system (I got it in 1989) finally gave up the ghost in 2002. It seems the developers had no longer the will to keep updating their software with the development in handset technology.

Problem was, I needed something quick - to program and to use. I knew the other option was far too slow and unreliable - I had tried it in 1989 and in 2002, nothing significant had changed so I had to do it myself. I guess that, the competitor, controlling its own hardware, such as it was, gave them an edge but, it held back progress.

A bit of development with a colleague gave us a workable system and we test marketed it for a while. But although the handheld side was good (great, actually) the analysis was not so brilliant. In fact the work needed to get a decent analysis together was probably 5 to 10 times that of the handheld development.

Time has gone by and a number of people have been using Timedex and its sister products effectively free so I decided, why not let that continue but develop a really good analysis system and go on to provide a really good, cheap product. We really need it.
Cycle Time The great thing about Tel-time was that it was fast. I could do my 0.05 minute cycles (and, less) because the programming was great, the hardware was reliable without sticky and bouncy keys of the competitor and over 12 years, I only lost perhaps six studies through hardware crash. Out of perhaps 4,000 studies a year over that period I reckon that was pretty good.
The Answer

There were some good points about Tel-time's competitor, but not many. Mainly it managed to maintain itself through thick and thin by completely controlling the supply of its listing device hardware.

Continuity has to be the answer.

In 2002 there was a new option; the PDA (pocket PC and Palm systems) and it looked as if that was where the new continuity was going to be. Logically, with Microsoft being the corporate favourite it had to be the Windows powered version that would win but telephone development has clouded the horizon a little..
Wish List

A quick wish list sorted out the criteria:

  • A programmable job file - we normally have predetermined work so a job file (similar to the Tel-time one) is a good idea. But now we have the ability to carry multiple job files.
  • The job file should be available as a pop-up to avoid carrying a board and a scruffy piece of paper.
  • Edit in study ("back edit"). Tel-time and its competitor are/were mainly listing devices with each item listed against a time and rating. If you made a mistake, you had to queue up at the end of the day (sometimes for an hour) to get your turn on the only machine and edit your data from your notes (in my case they were always scruffy and often with ambiguous information). We needed a system that allowed us to edit as we studied - there are always quiet moments where you could make some quick edits.
  • No more serial leads. Tel-time and its competitor both used these 1980s items for connecting machines. This was the 21st Century. These new pocket devices gave us (depending on machine) USB, WiFi, Infrared and best of all, Bluetooth. And - no serial leads!
  • Most of all it had to be a decent price When I bought my first stop watch out of my own money in the late 80s it cost £40. At the same time, either of the competing systems were well over £1000 for a single user system - OK that was the cost of technology then and at least with Tel-time I could get really fast cycles. So, for being able to do something that I couldn't do before, that was reasonable added value and of course, we have the resuction in time for calculation. An electronic stop watch costs probably less than £100 - but current systems are still around £1000 - where is the competition?
Result Time study for the engineer - Timedex

Site design by Paul Wakeford September 2009