Welch Allyn Joins Forces With HandHeld Products

Welch Allyn Data Collection Inc. found its match last month in Handheld Products Inc., a developer of portable terminals for the point-of-sale and data-capture markets.

The acquisition represents the high point of an alliance between the two companies to integrate Welch Allyn's imaging technology with HandHeld's Dolphin family of portable computers.

"Before joining forces with HandHeld, we did only front-of-store solutions,scanners, magnetic stripe readers, signature capture cards," said Don Flynn, vice president of sales and marketing at Welch Allyn, Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. "Now we can work on the back end, doing things like wireless inventory management and shipping."

To keep in step with an emerging paradigm shift in the POS space, Welch Allyn developed a two-dimensional bar-code system consisting of multidimensional bar-code symbols and an image-based engine, said Flynn. Now the company will merge its technology with HandHeld mobile products.

"Regular one-dimensional bar codes can store up to about 30 characters," said Flynn. "[Two-dimensional] ones can store thousands of characters in the same amount of space."

Welch Allyn clients include retail stores such as Macy's and postal services such as Federal Express, as well as companies that specialize in field service or delivery, said sources.

"This is an excellent merger for the companies and their distributors," said Jeffrey Jackson, vice president of sales and marketing at Florence, Ky.-based BlueStar, which sells Welch Allyn products to VARs. "We now have access to handhelds, which we didn't before, and so do our partners. These will be an easy sell for VARs, particularly when you see the U.S. Postal Service using them. That's a great endorsement in itself."

Welch Allyn sells 90 percent of its product through distributors, vertical-industry VARs and large POS integrators, said Flynn.

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