CipherLab (www.cipherlab.com), a leading innovator in Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) for the retail, warehouse and distribution markets, today announced that it has bundled its CipherLab 8300 and 8400 Handheld Mobile Computers with ACS Software. Together, the companies offer a solution to a pressing agricultural industry problem: how to accurately capture pick data that can then be used to calculate, report and print payroll information in the field. This combined product is now being used in numerous Oregon farming environments including Blue Heron Farm and by Jorge Vasquez Labor Contractors.

"Since field workers are generally paid by how much they pick, agricultural companies needed a way to accurately and cost-effectively weigh produce in the field and integrate that information into a pay calculating system," said Steve Watts, ACS Software founder. "By partnering with CipherLab, we've been able to deliver an affordable and easy-to-use solution. Now customers get the ruggedness, power and scalability of CipherLab's handhelds coupled with ACS's custom applications."

At Willamette Valley-based Blue Heron Farm, picked berries are weighed at a mechanical scale in the field. That data is entered via barcode scan into a CipherLab 8300 handheld integrated with ACS Scan2QuickBooks, instantly calculating worker pay based on berry weight. Supervisors then print this information from the CipherLab unit with a belt-clip printer, processing payroll immediately for the field workers.

"With CipherLab's handheld and ACS Software, we save time and money as we do not have to manually enter information to calculate pay in the field," said Amber van Heel at Blue Heron Farm. "Furthermore, by being able to keep track of how many berries workers are picking in real-time, a field supervisor can ensure each worker is being as productive as possible."

At Silverton, Oregon-based Jorge Vasquez Labor Contractors, CipherLab 8300s are again being used in coordination with mobile printers and mechanical scales to speed the berry weigh-in process and more accurately pay for fruit picked in the field. And at one of Oregon's largest producers and processors of raspberries and strawberries, the CipherLab 8400 Mobile Computers are being used to capture and instantly disseminate information from its digital scales. Data from the scale is relayed wirelessly to a nearby 8400 Mobile Computer.