IT wizards from the York outpost of an international mobile solutions organisation were today celebrating the launch of their revolutionary software at Tesco which allows commuters to electronically order their week's shopping while in transit.

Programmers at the DAT Group in Stonebow House, York, perfected their breakthrough electronic "pocket shopping" system being hailed by Tesco as "a sanity saver for millions of long-suffering UK commuters who throw away up to 30 million travelling hours - and rising - every workday"

Now passengers on trains and buses can use their portable "pocket" personal computers to download Tesco.com's entire grocery shopping list of 25,000 items, order selected goods to be delivered to their door within a two-hour time slot which they specify, and pay by credit card on-line.

Tesco is believed to have paid the DAT Group a six-figure sum for the software, which works with any of the Windows-driven portable "pocket" personal computers on the market, including the newly-launched O2 XDA which combines a pocket PC and a mobile for the first time. The work done by the York experts has already been hailed by Neil Holloway, managing director of Microsoft UK Ltd as "a killer application that the pocket PC was just made for."

And it adds to the portfolio of success the company has submitted in the 2002 Evening Press Business of the Year Awards.

Andrew Farrell, DAT's project manager, said: "We're excited that we can deliver such a high profile business and mobile technology solution and that it has been developed in York. Our achievements with Tesco demonstrate that being based outside London is no barrier to being successful in major national business deals."

He saw the potential as massive, given that there was no barrier to selling the same principle to other major grocery chains with Internet shopping facilities both in the UK and abroad; and the huge growth of pocket PCs.

"We reckon there are about 500,000 pocket PC users in the UK and perhaps five million worldwide. They're mostly business users, but as the mobile networks improve technology it will become more accessible, the price will fall. and the market will massively expand," he said.

The system is now fully operational and Caroline Bradley, chief operating officer for the Tesco.com home delivery service is enthusiastic. She said: "At last here's something more useful to do than cursing the rail companies or struggling over cryptic clues.

"Now commuters can make use of some of that wasted travel time and free up their valuable leisure hours in the process. You can shop anywhere you like - on the tube, at a football match, in a boring meeting, during the opera - you name it. Our testers found it so useful they've used it on the beach, in a cinema and even on the loo!"

Anna Rooke, project manager of Science City York said: "DAT's involvement in developing the Tesco pocket shopper is terrific news for York. Not only have they set the pace for revolutionising home shopping but like many growing e-science firms, continue to put York on the map for software and IT."

Updated: 08:47 Tuesday, August 13, 2002