by Chelsea Williams | Mar 16, 2019 | Mobile Computing
The mobile computing market has grown increasingly complex, with multiple form factors, operating systems, an endless array of applications, different wireless options, and constantly evolving technology. The typical approach that many enterprises have taken to mobile deployments – in which solutions were rolled out piecemeal by different departments, with a variety of hardware and software solutions patched together over time – has become unmanageable.
There is a way to reduce unnecessary internal and external costs in mobile deployments by adopting a platform-centric approach and selecting hardware designed with a long lifecycle as well as future-proof flexibility in mind. This can be accomplished in a number of ways.
Simplify Device Platforms
One way to greatly reduce deployment and ongoing support costs is to standardize on a common device platform. That does not mean to standardize on a single device – it simply means that you should select an operating system and mobility platform that is common across multiple form factors.
While the various versions of mobile Windows used to be the go-to platform for rugged mobile deployments, that is no longer the case. Android has emerged as the new standard for these installations, and major rugged device manufacturers now offer Android-based devices in handheld, smartphone, tablet, vehicle-mount and other form factors.
This provides commonality across all form factors. This platform-based approach is designed for rapid and easy application development, as well as testing, certification, provisioning, and deployment management.
For example, Honeywell’s Mobility Edge suite of tools allows companies to develop, validate and update applications on time and then go-live with the apps across all form factors simultaneously. This replaces the past approach of validating each application against every form factor individually, and then updating one device at a time – a process that was both time- and labor-intensive.
Mobility Edge also helps keep these deployments secure, by supporting multiple versions of the Android operating system, and providing ongoing update and patch management for years beyond standard offerings from other providers.
The platform-centric approach also reduces wasted labor and IT resources by streamlining development and support requirements in a way that makes it much easier and less expensive to create and maintain new mobile solutions.
Accelerated Deployment Reduces Costs
Taking a unified approach to mobile deployments can accelerate the entire process. Longer deployments cost more, take longer to certify, and can eat up scarce IT resources. This not only increases the backlog of mobile applications that require certification and testing, but can also result in a flurry of invoices for multiple suppliers.
By standardizing on Android and a platform like Mobility Edge, the entire process can be simplified (there are fewer vendors to deal with) and be completed much faster. As a result, the return on investment (ROI) for the mobility solution is also accelerated.
Mobility Edge also helps organizations design their mobile deployment with the future in mind. Devices can be rolled out faster and with less risk. IT staff wont’ be tied up managing the mobile deployment, and the devices themselves are built to support future iterations of Android as well as imminent application upgrades and patches.
Because Honeywell’s mobility products are designed around a common chipset, end users benefit from an extended device lifecycle, seamless operating system upgrades, and multiple years of support for security updates. Upgrading to newer devices or other form factors down the road is easy, because the platform remains consistent.
An ad hoc approach to mobility using multiple devices, operating systems, and solution providers can make mobile solution deployment and support more expensive and time consuming than they need to be. A standardized, platform-centric approach will reduce costs and make it easier to support and keep your mobile devices up to date for years to come.
by Chelsea Williams | Mar 12, 2019 | Uncategorized
You Can’t Print Money, But Here’s How You Can Save It with Better Printing Supplies
Printing supplies, such as barcode labels, are often treated as a commodity. Many companies buy cheap labels because the up-front costs are lower, and they think they’ll save money.
However, the up-front cost savings often come with a long-term price. When you’re using low-grade and low-cost labels and printing supplies, you can end up spending a lot more money on your printers, and as a result, costing your company a lot of money in lost productivity.
Here are the hidden expenses that result from using low-cost printing supplies and how you can save considerable long-term cost by investing in better quality.
- Low-cost labels are often produced with substandard and inconsistent materials that can damage expensive equipment such as your label printer printheads. Many have sandpaper-like surfaces that cause printhead elements to fail prematurely, which costs you hundreds or thousands of dollars in early replacements.
Premature printhead wear can also result in poor print quality and unreadable labels. That means more re-scanning and delays in your workflows as your workers deal with these issues.
- If you’re using cheap labels for direct thermal printing, heat sensitivities often become an issue, and lower quality materials often require constant adjustments to your printer settings to avoid barcode scanning issues.
- If you’re using pre-printed colors on your labels but buying them from a low-cost manufacturer, your colors can actually end up transferring to your printhead and causing an ink buildup that slows down your printing and can cause print quality issues.
- Low-cost labels are generally produced for the most basic applications and not for applications where labels might be exposed to sunlight, moisture, water, or chemicals. If you choose cheap labels and they’re not made with the right materials to withstand these conditions, you can easily end up with damaged and unreadable barcodes and information.
- Adhesion is another common problem with low-cost barcode labels because they’re often produced with substandard adhesives and aren’t matched to specific labeling applications. Your labels can end up peeling or falling off, leaving your assets, products, or shipments unidentified and not trackable.
- Buying cheap labels often means you’ll end up buying cheap supplies or potentially mismatching your low-cost label with your printer ribbon. Since specific labeling applications require a proper match between the label and ribbon, the wrong ribbon can quickly cause print fading and rub-off.
How to Avoid High Long-Term Labeling Costs
At Informs, we work with our customers to minimize long-term labeling and operational costs by matching the right printing supplies with your application requirements and avoiding the commodity trap.
In our experience, our best recommendation is to invest in Zebra-certified printing supplies. Zebra’s labels, ribbons, and printing supplies are manufactured with consistent and ISO-certified processes, which ensures the highest quality and performance.
They’re rigorously pre-tested on Zebra printers to assess printhead wear, and they’re thoroughly tested for adhesion, durability, and scannability according to the environment and demands of each application.
In the end, you get labels that print and perform flawlessly, reduce your printhead wear and related costs, reduce your supplies usage, and save your workers hundreds or even thousands of hours in reprinting, printer adjustments, servicing, or repairs.
As an added bonus, if you use Zebra printers and agree to use Zebra supplies exclusively, you get 100% protection against premature printhead failure. If a printhead ever fails early, it will be replaced at no cost.
To learn more about Zebra supplies and get expert advice for your application, contact our labeling experts at Informs for more information.
by Chelsea Williams | Mar 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
If you haven’t had “the talk”, it’s time you do – because your security depends on it. It’s time to talk about the Mobility Edge™ platform by Honeywell. Mobility Edge is the only platform that guarantees the longest security lifecycle support in the industry, by utilizing Android™ R and Google-supplied security patches through 2023. In addition, Honeywell offers the Sentinel Service, providing two more years of security patches, based on back-porting from future OS releases. Talk about security!
What Are the Facts?
Now let’s talk facts. Hardware refresh is expensive. It’s time consuming. And it’s precarious. But here’s another fact. Mobility Edge eliminates these three factors without even breaking a sweat. Incorporating an enterprise wide approach to patch releases, the total cost of ownership is significantly diminished, saving time, money and a whole lot of frustration. Plus, thanks to Android R, the hardware is designed to support twice as many OS upgrades as the competition. And here’s a fun fact: you’ll never have to deal with fragmented mobile computing again!
It’s also a fact that it’s impossible to predict the future, no matter how informed we remain. That is why Honeywell denotes two years as the appropriate length of time to responsibly deliver security patches based on backporting. It is due to the Android R compatibility that this is possible, as opposed to five or ten years of backporting offered by competitors. The fact is, Honeywell believes that five to ten years is quite simply an unacceptable risk.
How Does This Impact Future Devices?
In previous analysis of the Mobility Edge platform, we identified numerous advantages: accelerated deployments, optimized performance, enhanced security and extended device lifecycle, leading to a unified mobile enterprise. We’ve discussed how this agility drives performance, productivity, worker satisfaction and revenue. But amazingly, Honeywell didn’t stop there. They essentially “future-proofed” devices so that that all subsequent mobile hardware and software upgrades would integrate seamlessly with future versions of Android. That is the epitome of lifecycle longevity.
How Do I Get Started?
The facts are clear. Honeywell’s Mobility Edge platform, supported by Android R, is the smart, seamless and cost-effective way to deploy mobile solutions that deliver intuitive integration and future adaptability. If you’re ready to respond to the facts, but the next steps seem daunting, Informs can help with every step, from understanding migration requirements, to integrating and deploying the Mobility Edge platform with Android R across your enterprise.
Let the technical experts at Informs provide:
- Guidance on OS migration requirements and implementation.
- Direction on enterprise-wide device integration.
- Navigation through the comprehensive line of innovative Honeywell Mobility Edge compatible products and solutions.
- ANSWERS to all your Mobility Edge questions.
It’s time to face the facts and look to the future. Contact an Informs Specialist today if you’re ready to elevate your mobile enterprise environment to the next level.
by Chelsea Williams | Mar 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
With Microsoft ending all support for Windows Embedded mobile operating systems, making the switch to Android has become the primary strategy for thousands of enterprises.
Organizations as diverse as Home Depot, Whirlpool, Best Buy and even the U.S. Air Force are all turning to Android to achieve better mobile productivity and efficiency, especially as Microsoft’s support for enterprise mobile computing has waned.
For most companies, migrating to Android isn’t a matter of “if” but “when.” Depending on the version of Windows Embedded you’ve been running on your devices, support has already ended or will end by January 2020. That means there will be no further updates and no security patches.
That could create a world of opportunities for potential cyberattackers, particularly at a time when threats against business of all sizes are on the rise.
Fortunately, future-proofing your mobile operations and protecting against these threats is easier and less expensive than ever before. This is thanks to a major change in the enterprise mobility industry.
As Microsoft has steadily turned away from the enterprise market and frustrated end users by making it impossible to upgrade from most of its older operating systems to Windows 10 IoT, Android has emerged as the new future.
Android is now the OS of choice for all major enterprise device manufacturers, enjoying over 80% market share in enterprise mobile devices, while Windows 10 IoT is only available on 4% of all new devices produced today.
Manufacturers such as Zebra Technologies have worked closely with Google to develop the next generation of mobile solutions powered by Android, with over 20 models of Zebra Android devices in use around the world.
In fact, Google includes a number of Zebra’s latest devices on its Android Enterprise Recommended list, a compilation of devices that have met its most stringent requirements for security, usability, and rugged performance.
At Informs, we recommend Zebra’s enterprise Android mobile computers for their unparalleled durability, ease of use, and lower total cost of ownership. Combined with Android, they make it much easier to migrate to a new, modern OS for several key reasons:
Flexible Migration
Android is open source and customizable, with access to vast developer resources and app store apps. This makes it much less time-consuming and expensive to migrate or develop your own custom Android apps.
Powerful Security
Thanks to new Mobility Extensions developed by Zebra, Android devices are powerfully secure. You get complete control over every device, app, connection, and user. Over-the-air updates also make it much easier to apply the latest security patches, while Zebra’s LifeGuard™ for Android™ gives you 10 years of guaranteed OS support.
Intuitive & Easy Interface
Android devices are easier and faster to use, with an extremely intuitive interface that is familiar to many workers and makes it much easier to train new employees.
More Productivity & Efficiency
Zebra’s Android devices are revolutionizing manufacturing and warehousing processes with advanced scanning engines, faster processors, and more memory. In fact, with Zebra’s TC8000 touch mobile computer, you can increase worker productivity by up to 14% per shift.
Planning Your OS Migration
By switching to Android, you can turn the necessity of OS migration into a win for your business. But if you don’t already have a plan in place, now is the time to act.
At Informs, we can help you develop the right OS migration plan with a strategic, manageable, and budget-friendly approach. We’ll also help you find the right Zebra Android solutions to match your business needs.
Contact us now to get started and request a free consultation.
by Chelsea Williams | Feb 28, 2019 | Uncategorized
There is power in unification. The type of power that drives revenue, productivity and efficiency. Honeywell’s Mobility Edge™ is the power behind a dynamic, unified hardware and software platform that will transform your mobile device management. It will transform your business.
The Mobility Edge platform doesn’t just boast about extended lifecycles and enhanced security. It delivers. It even guarantees it. Mobility Edge is the only platform that offers support through Android™ R, guaranteeing the longest security lifecycle in the industry. Now that’s the power behind unification.
But how do you unleash this power to see real results? How do you integrate this unification into daily operations and create cohesion and efficiency throughout your enterprise mobility environment? Here’s how:
- Accelerated Deployments – By validating all mobile devices just once and deploying throughout the entire enterprise, you save both time and money. Mobility Edge expedites development, certification, setup and training through a rapid provisioning suite and versatile capabilities.
- Optimized Business Performance – Powerful embedded tools throughout the platform drive faster data capture and secure worker communications, leading to an intuitive user experience. This facilitates user adoption, enabling employees to work smarter, faster and more efficiently.
- Extended Security Lifecycle – Mobility Edge can support twice as many operating system upgrades as its competitors via enterprise-wide patch releases and future-proof hardware. Support through Android R ensures the longest security lifecycle available today.
- Strengthened Security – Say farewell to fragmented mobile computing and hello to a dynamic hardware and software platform that delivers agility, integration, security, scalability and consistency across your entire mobile environment.
We’ve addressed the “how”. But the “what” can be complex and confusing. How do you identify the right mobility devices to synergize with the Mobility Edge platform? Informs can help you select the products that align with your business goals and promote seamless integration, ease of use, improved productivity and increased savings. Informs Specialists have the training, skills and expertise to guide and support you through every step of the process.
Recommended products built on the Mobility Edge platform include:
- Dolphin CT40 Mobile Computer
Built on Android and the Mobility Edge platform, this full-touch, durable mobile computer is designed to help businesses accelerate workflows and provide a seamless customer experience.
- Dolphin CT60 Handheld Computer
This robust computer is built to deploy easily in the field and is ideal for anywhere, anytime connectivity, delivering fast data capture and maximizing uptime and productivity.
- Dolphin CN80 Mobile Computer
Improve the speed and accuracy of day-to-day operations with the full-touch or key-dependent capabilities of the CN80 handheld computer.
- CN75 / CN75e Mobile Computers
These ultra-rugged mobile computers offer versatility, reliability, power and ergonomic comfort in a compact form, specifically designed for mobile field service workers.
- Thor VM1A Vehicle-Mounted Computer
Enjoy the easy to use and easy to maintain features of the Thor VM1, while experiencing accelerated provisioning and deployment, ultimate performance and lower TCO.
When you’re ready to infuse your business with the power of the Mobility Edge platform, contact an Informs Specialist. We can help you bring unity to your mobile enterprise environment.
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