by Chelsea Williams | May 31, 2019 | Healthcare, Uncategorized
In busy hospital environments, patient care and safety are top priorities, but sometimes they can fall by the wayside when inefficient processes slow workflow rather than streamline it. Fortunately, with improvements in technology and healthcare, there are solutions available that effectively improve patient care while simultaneously saving time and increasing productivity.
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities can leverage automatic data collection technologies like mobile computers, barcode scanners, and more to keep patients safe and well cared for. Here are a few solutions that improve patient care:
Filled with cutting-edge solutions, download our complete product catalog here.
Barcoding
Patient misidentification can lead to disastrous consequences, and manual record-keeping inevitably leads to human error. Barcode wristbands are an easy, effective way to ensure that patients can always be identified accurately.
Patients aren’t the only ones being helped by barcoding technology. Hospitals and healthcare facilities can use barcode labels to identify and track specimens and supplies. This prevents against misidentification, reduces errors, and ensures that inventory is always accurate and up-to-date.
RFID
There are many advantages to real-time location data, and RFID technology is a great way to access these benefits. Real-time tracking can be used on campus for hospitals to track anything from surgical equipment to IT equipment.
Real-time tracking can improve patient safety by ensuring you are always aware of the supplies you have on-hand, and where they are located. When a patient needs a certain procedure, you want to make sure you have everything you need readily available. This also has a secondary cost benefit by helping you to avoid purchasing excess supplies.
Mobility
You can simultaneously improve patient care while you increase the efficiency of doctors and nurses by providing them with mobile devices. These work wonders at keeping workers connected both to each other, and to their patients. Connectivity provides instantaneous access to critical data, which frees up time for healthcare workers to focus more on providing quality care to patients. It also allows them to remotely monitor patients and be alerted in real-time when alarms are triggered, so they can respond promptly.
With the healthcare industry being as widespread and valued as it is, there is a major opportunity to increase efficiency and reduce errors using Honeywell connected technology. These solutions make it easier for healthcare providers to effectively track patients, medications, assets, and inventory, while also providing an auditable record of their activities to help ensure compliance with best practices.
One of the most recommended devices for healthcare professionals looking to improve patient care is the Honeywell Dolphin CT50h clinical smartphone. Specifically designed to help clinicians better focus on their patients, the CT50h provides mobile access to clinical systems, vital patient data, and other hospital staff. The rugged design makes it perfectly suited for busy environments, while the long battery lifespan ensures no downtime for a full 12-hour shift.
The CT50h also boasts unparalleled scanning performance for both 1D and 2D barcodes, which helps with correct patient identification as well as data entry, making it a great tool to help improve patient care.
Improving Care with Technology
As a member of the healthcare industry, your primary focus will always be on ensuring you provide your patients with the best care possible. To achieve that, you need to have the right tools and technology at your disposal. Manufacturers like Honeywell have gone to great lengths to help healthcare providers improve patient care and safety. If you are interested in learning what Honeywell devices can do for your operation, contact the team at Informs today.
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.
by Chelsea Williams | Feb 6, 2019 | Uncategorized
Time is money. And if you’re spending too much time dealing with unreliable printers and equipment in your warehouse or distribution center, you are losing money. Today that changes. Because Informs and Honeywell have collaborated to bring you printing solutions that deliver exceptional quality and unparalleled reliability. No matter how challenging the task or demanding the environment, Informs has the Honeywell product to take you to the next level.
With years of expertise and dedicated support, Informs is your go-to supplier for the most robust and dependable Honeywell industrial printers and printer media supplies. Whether it be thermal printing technology or Smart Labels that incorporate UHF inlays, Informs has the solution to meet your most imposing printing challenges.
Experience the ingenuity behind these stellar Honeywell printer media solutions:
Barcode Labels offer the broadest scope of printing support, including thermal printing technology, that can be used with both direct thermal and thermal transfer printers and are tear, heat and moisture resistant. Products include:
- Direct Thermal Paper Labels
- Thermal Transfer Paper Labels
- Thermal Transfer Film Labels
Barcode Tags deliver durable, accurate and superior performance tag media to tackle the most demanding tracking applications, across multiple price points and performance measurements. Available in:
- Paper
- Synthetic Face Stock
Receipt Media provides the highest-level print quality of Honeywell’s Duratherm™ direct-thermal receipt paper, available in top-coated, as well as uncoated rolls.
- Custom products, such as linerless labels, are also available.
- Duratherm Receipt is co-engineered with Honeywell printers to provide maximum performance and extended print head life when used together.
RFID Labels are Smart Labels that actually combine the most up-to-date UHF inlays with a variety of thermal printing materials, including thermal transfer or direct thermal printing and chip encoding. Applications include:
- Compliance
- DoD
- Inventory Management
- Asset Tracking
- Consumer Goods Distribution
- Document and Record Tracking
Thermal Ribbons produce crystal-clear, smear-proof text and barcodes on an array of materials (paper and film) by combining Honeywell’s thermal transfer ThermaMAX™ ribbons with co-engineered labels and tags. Products include:
- TMX1000 ThermaMAX Thermal Ribbons
- TMX2000 ThermaMAX Thermal Ribbons
- TMX3000 ThermaMAX Thermal Ribbons
Wristbands are resistant to hand sanitizers and other cleansers, providing tamper-evident features, positive patient identification and even patient comfort. Products include:
To prove how serious we are about supporting your most extreme printing demands, we are offering a FREE PRINT MEDIA SAMPLE KIT! Simply complete the online form, and your kit will be sent to you free of charge. There’s absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain! Learn how
Request your free media kit here. Let Informs help you take back control of your time and your money – for FREE!
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