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    Six Questions to Identify If You have a Robust T&L Mobile Solution

    Six Questions to Identify If You have a Robust T&L Mobile Solution

    Is your Transportation and Logistics (T&L) mobility solution the right fit?

    Managing T&L is about maximizing efficiencies and reducing costs, while delivering excellent customer service experience. To thrive in a changing market environment, T&L companies need to rethink their traditional business models. Digitalization, if implemented correctly, can represent a huge growth opportunity for T&L businesses.

    A crucial step in digitalization is evaluating and choosing the right mobility solution. This is key to increasing operational efficiency, enhancing customer service, optimizing labor resources, simplifying the user experience, enabling rapid business change and streamlining inventory management. Consider Honeywell’s rugged mobile computers incorporate advanced technology with feature-rich functionalities that allow workers to do more with a single device. 

    But where do you start?

    Ask these six questions to identify the trademarks of a truly robust T&L mobile solution.

    1. Is mixed hardware affecting your enterprise mobility performance?

    Maintaining different devices in multiple form factors — often with various disconnected apps — creates a complex IT infrastructure that is difficult to manage, comes with potential security risks, and can be expensive to deploy and run.

    A unified hardware and software platform brings more secure and reliable solutions into your operations. You want to accelerate your Time to Value (TTV), so you can start deploying devices into the hands of your mobile workers much faster. You’ll also maximize your ROI by extending the life cycle of your devices.

    2. Does your solution optimize enterprise hardware for speedy deployment of new apps or updates?

    The average cost for IT staff to deploy a single device is $700, according to VDC Research. It’s a costly venture, for sure. But it doesn’t need to be.

    Faster hardware deployments mean staying ahead of the competition, cost savings for finance and simpler management by IT. To optimize cost, speed and complexity, the solution you’re reviewing should have a comprehensive provisioning tool kit that allows for onetime setup, deployment and provisioning across all devices and form factors

    3. Does your mobility hardware allow you to react quickly to market demands?

    To stay agile and competitive in a fast-changing world means having reliable, error-free devices. Just one instance of device failure or unavailability per shift multiplied across a year can cost you $20,000 in annual support and productivity loss per mobile worker, according to VDC.

    To maximize the value of your device investment and ensure you deliver on your promises to customers, you should look for a mobility hardware solution that includes a suite of business optimization tools designed to provide the greatest reliability and uptime. You want best-in-class data capture, controlled employee access, wireless tethering, battery hot swapping, and the ability to connect to back-end legacy systems. You also want to be able to track, manage, standardize and optimize all your mobile devices, across all your locations.

    4. How will the solution extend device life into the 2020s?

    Short device life cycles cause frustration for IT departments and have an adverse impact on productivity, security and ROI. Devices that remain up to date over multiyear deployments, with guaranteed security, are the safest choice.

    5. How secure are the devices on the solution platform?

    Cybersecurity threats have become more aggressive in recent years and often result in substantial financial loss. The global cost of online crime is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021, according to CyberSecurity Ventures.

    6. Does the company offer modern, visual interfaces in their products?

    It’s not about buying fancy gizmos; purpose-built, visual devices are being used by successful T&L companies to achieve a competitive edge.

    Consider that large, vivid screens are readable in bright daylight or darkness, which helps increase worker productivity. Familiar interfaces allow for visual learning, which cuts training time and gets new workers out in the field faster. Rugged, commercial-grade devices simply last longer than personal mobile devices because they’re built for drops and knocks. And modern touch screens are intuitive to today’s modern millennial employees, making quick work of data entry.

    Why Honeywell

    Rigorous efficiency is essential for operating a successful T&L organization. Investing in Honeywell’s Mobility Edge mobile platform and in our diverse collection of mobile hardware will help your organization benefit from efficiency-driven cost savings.

    Honeywell devices on the Mobility Edge platform are guaranteed to support Google operating systems from Android 8 through Android 11, and committed through Android 13. We are the only company that guarantees support through Android 11 or commit through Android 13. When Google ends its security patch support of an OS version, Honeywell is committed to extending security patch availability for five more years via Honeywell Sentinel, until 2030 for Android 13.

    Honeywell is deeply committed to the longevity and quality of the Mobility Edge platform. The following products are built on the Mobility Edge platform: Honeywell™ CT40, CT60, CN80, CK65, and Thor™ VM1A, and VM3A.

    You can expect to see the Mobility Edge family of devices continue to grow year after year. A brief overview of the current Mobility Edge family:

    • Honeywell CN80 mobile computer, an ultra-rugged device for warehouse, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics environments. The most durable handheld Honeywell has ever made, it features both keypad and large touchscreen interface for quick, efficient data entry.
    • Honeywell CT60 mobile computer, a rugged versatile business tool for highly mobile frontline workers in scan-intensive workflows in pickup and delivery, DSD, and parcel post. It offers a long-lasting battery, high-performance scanning, and exceptional durability and reliability.
    • Honeywell CT40 mobile computer, a full-touch, five-inch display device designed for retail, hospitality, and light field mobility environments. It’s an intuitive, compact productivity tool optimized for hours of comfortable use.
    • Honeywell CK65 mobile computer, a rugged, flexible solution for warehouse and manufacturing environments, with both touchscreen and keypad data input options for quick data entry and enhanced scanning read ranges of up to 15.2 m (50 ft).
    • Thor VM1A, the world’s top-selling vehicle-mounted computer, upgraded to Mobility Edge. Hits the sweet spot of overall size, display size, and keypad. The Smart Dock enables use on multiple vehicles and reduces support and maintenance costs. A field-replaceable front panel minimizes downtime.
    • Thor VM3A, designed for the toughest distribution center environments, manufacturing facilities and freight operations. In fact, it’s the industry’s most capable full-size vehicle-mounted mobile computer. The VM3 computer combines a 30.73 cm (12.1 in) display with breakthrough innovations that deliver rapid value for your workflows.

    Honeywell’s Mobility Edge is a hardware and software platform that drives agile business outcomes – faster, better, with less cost, and less risk.

    Contact a Honeywell Solutions Expert today! Call 1-800-934-3163.

    Barry J. Ewell
    SPS BLOG EDITOR

    Barry J. Ewell is a Senior Content Marketing Communications Specialist for Honeywell Industrial Automation. He has been researching and writing on supply chain topics since 1991.