Tool Man

John is a sales representative selling tools to garden centres and DIY stores. He travels over 1000 miles a week to see new and existing clients. For the past 20 years he has carried around a large diary, an address book, a large road atlas and numerous A-Zs as well as numerous small coins for phones. He prides himself on his punctuality, but even he is occasionally late as he struggles to find a new client or is delayed by traffic. He always takes along a calculator, and a bulky sales catalogue with the latest price lists and order forms. He is usually on the road four days a week, six hours a day and spends every Friday in the office ensuring all his administration and sales are handled properly. He has always said he quite likes the time spent in his car between appointments, as it is his time when he can listen to CDs undisturbed.

John could use various electronic items such as a PDA, GPS, Laptop, software, Mobile phone, and the internet to make his life easier. He would not have to carry around a large diary, an address book, a large road atlas and numerous A-Zs if he used a Laptop. He would only need to set up a database with his adddresses in it and a word document or an online service instead of a diary. He would not need to carry the A-Zs around if he used the internet through such sites as www.multimap.com. He could buy a mobile phone for diary entries and instead of a calculator as most phones nowadays have calendars and calculators built in on them. Using a laptop would avoid him having to spend all day on a Friday sorting out his paper work.

Disadvantages could be that he may not be able to afford a laptop and wireless internet connections are not guaranteed and sometimes can be unreliable. He may not have the I.C.T skills required to make the laptop an easier way to work. As he is on the road alot, he may not have access to mains electricity whenever he wants so cgarging the batteries could be a problem