Wireless Bowling and Testing Too

Who’s to say that you can’t align your company party with your business’s goals?Cysive, Inc., a Reston, Virginia-based software company that specializes inmobile networking systems, organized a company-wide bowling competition. Thetrick was this: The firm’s 200 employees are scattered throughout the country.

To connect them at the September bowl-a-thon, Cysivewill be using the same technology it sells to its customers.

Teams of four to five bowlers each will be given teamnames, uniforms, and a personal digital assistant similar to a Palm Pilot. Thedevice is connected to the company data-bank over a wireless connection usingsoftware that allows each employee to keep score as he or she bowls. The systemautomatically keeps track of everyone’s score and standing (in real time).

“We were trying to come up with some good, cost-effectiveways of getting all employees together on the same day for the same event,”says HR manager Kristy Brown.

At the same time, the company gets a chance to usea free panel of consumer testers. “It’s also a great way to introduce thenew product we’ve been developing and to make any modifications if necessary,”Brown says.

Workforce, September 2001, p.22 — SubscribeNow!