Q&A: Benefits Of Mobility For Delivery And Distribution
Business Solutions magazine asked Brad Wall, director of mobility sales in North America for Datalogic, about mobility for delivery and distribution operations and about mobile device management.
BSM: What is the ROI from deploying mobility for delivery and distribution operations?
Wall: Mobility provides many benefits to enterprises that use this technology for their delivery and distribution operations. Most ROI is related to real-time communication. Eliminating paper records and using Wi-Fi and cellular networks to communicate in real time provides instant, critical information on inventories and item tracking. Mobility gives the opportunity for signature capture at delivery and for immediate billing once an item reaches its destination and is accepted by the recipient.
BSM: What are the benefits of mobile device management (MDM)?
Wall: First, and foremost, it is what most end users need to manage their deployment of mobile devices. It’s a necessary and efficient tool to reach out remotely to each device to update or make changes to its configuration (firmware, etc.). The end user doesn’t have to touch the devices to update them.
BSM: What benefits does providing MDM have for resellers?
Wall: Providing a MDM solution can lock a reseller partner into a long-term relationship with an end user. Some end users view MDM as a service they can pay for and have all of the management done remotely by the partner. This is especially important for smaller enterprises that may not have the internal resources to manage their own deployment of mobile devices.
Selling MDM also helps eliminate service calls from the end user. Helping an end user deploy a MDM solution and training them on how to use it can lower the amount of technical support calls they log with their technology partner.