1st Touch (www.1sttouch.com) the leading provider of mobile workforce solutions for social housing and public sector applications, announced today that the company has been designated as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Windows Embedded Handheld technology. 1st Touch is the only company focused on the UK social housing market to be designated a Gold Partner for this technology.

The move recognizes the successful and growing relationship between 1st Touch and Microsoft Corp., since the company’s initial appointment as a Partner for Windows Embedded Handheld systems last year. The Gold category, will give 1st Touch access to the latest technology, market opportunities, and sales and marketing resources available.

The Windows Embedded Handheld platform is designed to meet key line-of-business scenarios and boost the productivity of the mobile enterprise workforce by enabling users to capture, access and act on business critical information where and when they need it. The technology is ideally suited to the demands of mobile operatives in the social housing and public sector arenas.

1st Touch applications deliver significant efficiencies and productivity increases to any situation where field-based or remote operatives provide services. 1st Touch technology has received widespread acclaim in the social housing market where the software manages, supports and controls all aspects of mobile operatives’ activities in areas such as responsive repairs, maintenance and inspection.

The resilient but flexible 1st Touch system enables programming-free, user-customisable PDA based solutions to be created through its easy to use graphical interface, and is specifically designed to simplify handheld form design and data capture on mobile and handheld devices; for example, any type of electronic form can be generated without the need for Business Process Mapping.

Commenting on the Gold Partnership designation, Robert Dent CEO of 1st Touch said, “Windows Embedded Handheld technology delivers a powerful development ecosystem that fits well with 1st Touch software. It is a winning combination ideally suited to the mobile workforce application needs of the UK social housing sector. We are delighted to have been designated a Gold Partner for the technology and look forward to working even more closely with Microsoft in the future.”

“1st Touch mobile technology is an enterprise solution that complements our vision for the future of enterprise handheld devices,” said Lorraine Bardeen, Group Marketing Manager, Windows Embedded Business EMEA, Microsoft. “Utilising the Windows Embedded Handheld platform, 1st touch is a great example of how we can work together with our partner ecosystem to deliver enormous benefits across the social housing, public sector and other markets.”