Pango Networks inc. is introducing a version of its location-based software that focuses on tracking things other than computers and phones.
With the new version, PanGo is changing the name of its product from PanGo Proximity Platform to PanOS. Company officials said PanGo wants to focus on enterprise applications that take advantage of location-based technology.
“Up until now, we have been competing more with the positioning technologies,” said Michael Campbell, president and CEO of PanGo, in Framingham, Mass. “As the market evolves, I see ourselves aligning … with the mobile middleware and application companies.”
PanGos original platform, launched in 2001, is a portal-based system with client- and server-side software that includes a comprehensive management console. The new version has been reconfigured to support RFID (radio-frequency identification) tagging with more of the technology moved on to the server side and less stress on the client.
PanGo has been conducting interoperability tests with several WLAN (wireless LAN) infrastructure companies, including Cisco Systems Inc., in San Jose, Calif., to ensure the software integrates with enterprise hardware. Campbell said the company has plans for co-marketing and co-development with some of these companies. This has been a selling point for initial customers.
“We chose PanGo because they use existing Wi-Fi infrastructure,” said John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and CareGroup Health System, a Boston-area hospital group that uses WLAN access points from Cisco. “Since weve already made a commitment to hospitalwide Wi-Fi, we want to leverage it for data, voice and location tracking. We are using our existing 802.11 network, and we hope to be able to display all equipment, patient materials and people on a Web-based map.”
The people tracked will be identified only by their job functions, Halamka said.
The PanOS asset-tracking application is due in September. Pricing varies according to the number of clients on the WLAN, ranging from $10,000 for a small implementation to $100,000 for a large enterprise.
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