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WHITE PAPER MAXIMIZING HIGH AVAILABILITY IN THE WAREHOUSE
Managed Mobile Services Mitigates Downtime of Business Critical Workflows
DELIVERING RELIABLE DATA COLLECTION SOLUTIONS
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Contents
What Are Mobile Managed Services, and Where Do They Work Best? Implementation and Deployment
Exhibit 1: Services most influencing a successful deployment Support, Management and Analytics Lifecycle Services
Exhibit 2: Enterprise mobility managed services
Warehouse Mobility Modernization Placing New Challenges on Technology Acquisition and Support Exhibit 3: Pressures to optimize warehouse operations Exhibit 4: Organization’s leading metrics used to measure mobile warehouse solutions Exhibit 5: Greatest barriers to implementation of mobile warehousing solutions
How are Mobile Managed Services Impacting Warehouse Operations? Exhibit 6: Managed service adoption drivers
Key Mobile Managed Service Success Requirements and Considerations Exhibit 7: Most important capabilities when selecting a mobile managed service partner
Summary
About this Report
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What Are Managed Mobile Services,
and Where Do They Work Best? Mobility management is rising as a chief priority for CIOs and CTOs worldwide. More than 85% of IT
decision-makers expect steady or increased year-over-year mobility budgets, according to a recent
VDC survey. Challenged to manage increasingly sophisticated mobile technology strategies and
deployments, these organizations are procuring third-party technology support through a mobile
managed service model. In contrast to traditional professional services, mobile managed services
facilitate broader outsourcing of the day-to-day IT operations and processes required to support
mobile technology deployments.
Managed services represent the function of outsourcing the day-to-day management responsibilities
of IT disciplines and applications as a strategic method for improving operations and lowering costs
while enabling IT to focus efforts on more business-critical activities. Enterprises have benefitted
from outsourcing functions as far-ranging as network services, data storage and backup, hosted
enterprise applications, security services, and business continuity. Managed services are typically
provided on a subscription model with key performance SLAs (service level agreements) in place.
The value proposition for mobility is not too dissimilar. Although enterprise mobile solutions are
critical to support business operations – such as warehouse automation – it is often not a key
business differentiator. Moreover, often mobility only represents a small portion of an IT staff’s day-
to-day responsibilities. However, put another way, poorly managed and supported mobile
warehouse solutions can negatively impact key operational metrics. From a warehouse mobile
investment perspective, what organizations care most about is continuity and decreasing risk.
Availability and uptime and compliance with IT policies trump other end user considerations, making
managed services for warehouse mobile solutions a good fit.
At its core, managed mobile services comprise three disciplines: implementation and deployment,
support management and analytics, and lifecycle services. Combined, these capabilities offer
enterprises a comprehensive suite of services to support mobile requirements from deployment to
upgrade (see Exhibit 1). Key capabilities include the following:
Implementation and Deployment
Whether an organization is deploying 50 or 5,000 mobile devices, critical decisions relating to device
configuration, kitting, profile management, and business process integration need to be made.
According to research recently conducted by VDC, staging/kitting, post deployment testing services,
and device provisioning were identified as the services with the greatest impact on a successful
mobile deployment. Issues such as not managing profiles efficiently or poor configuration control
have represented key process pain points for organizations that can be overcome with better device
management. In addition, with a mobile warehouse workforce that turns over rapidly – especially
considering temporary support required during peak seasons – the ability to seamlessly and
efficiently get these workers live is critical to these businesses.
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Exhibit 1: Services most influencing a successful deployment
Support, Management and Analytics
Once mobile devices have been deployed, the ability to manage them and provide support services
aligns well with the managed service value proposition. This includes everything from ensuring that
when a device does fail, the impact on operations is minimal to providing a controlled release
process for mobile OS updates and application provisioning. The scarcity of IT resources within
organizations today is resulting in major inefficiencies, often leading to cost disadvantages when
compared to third-party service organizations.
Lifecycle Services
Often overlooked, lifecycle services provide the business continuity required for business-critical
mobile solutions such as those supporting warehouse operations. Ensuring that organizations are
proactively managing their installed base of mobile devices with clear upgrade goals and the
flexibility to adapt to business and technology changes is essential – especially in the more
conservative mobile line of business segments such as warehouse automation.
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Exhibit 2: Enterprise mobility managed services
Warehouse Mobility Modernization Placing New
Challenges on Technology Acquisition and Support Optimizing warehouse performance is critical for organizations involved in the manufacturing,
distribution, or sale of goods. Older systems with lower levels of automation are more reliant on
paper-based systems for warehousing that leave companies vulnerable to human error. Improving
warehouse performance means improving on-time shipment and receipts, reducing errors and,
ultimately, operating at a higher level of performance.
Changes to supply chains in recent years are placing a greater strain on warehouse performance,
with retail having been particularly affected. Scaling e-commerce and omni-channel shopping for
more traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, retail has stepped up pressure to ensure greater
speed and accuracy warehousing, especially where individual picking is concerned. Reducing the
cost of errors and increasing productivity have become the primary drivers for optimizing
warehousing solutions. Labor remains single-highest cost for these businesses, both in regards to
accuracy and labor flexibility.
VDC’s research shows trends toward a greater use of e-commerce and omni-channel retail by
revealing that nearly all warehousing systems are facing moderate to strong pressure to support
more individual piece picking. Existing physical and technological limitations also are major
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motivating factors to optimize; 70% of those surveyed reported that lack of space exerts strong to
moderate pressure on their operations, and 73% noted similar pressures from existing systems
being incapable of keeping up with order volumes. However, the pressure to meet customer
demands for faster order delivery and associated cost of errors are firmly at the top of the list as a
motivating factor. A full 92% of companies surveyed reported that customer demands for faster
fulfillment exerted strong pressure on their operations (see Exhibit 3). These pressures all culminate
in the need to reduce the cost of errors and the cost of labor, which are increasingly exposed with
higher demands for piece picking in warehouses. Managed Mobile Services reduces the impact and
cost of downtime to achieve faster fulfillment of customer orders.
Exhibit 3: Pressures to optimize warehouse operations
Managed mobile service capabilities are expected to translate well into the warehouse environment,
where mobile solutions are tightly connected to operational metrics. This was confirmed by recent
research conducted by VDC (April 2014) in which improved worker productivity, improved order
accuracy, and reduced operational costs were identified as the top three most important metrics
impacted by mobile warehouse investments (see Exhibit 4). Consequently, demand for optimized
operational performance is driving investments in more sophisticated mobile solutions. Another
critical requirement when decision-makers consider warehouse technology investments is a greater
degree of flexibility to accommodate rapidly changing operational requirements and workflows in
today’s modern warehouse.
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Exhibit 4: Organization’s leading metrics used to measure mobile warehouse solutions
Ensuring that mobile solutions can easily adapt to support various workflows – from cross docking to
picking and put-away – is an increasingly common requirement among mobile decision-makers.
Moreover, the ability to seamlessly integrate multiple solutions is vital. The variety of mobile and
wireless solutions and data collection technologies used in warehouses is only expanding.
Leveraging these solutions and adapting them to specific workflows is the level of flexibility to which
warehouse decision-makers increasingly aspire. From voice technology supporting picking
applications to wearable mobile scanning solutions supporting high-speed sortation, today’s mobile
warehouse solutions are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Ensuring uptime and reliability of these mobile solutions is a critical concern for end users. This is
further expressed in the greatest barriers faced by organizations investing in mobile solutions
supporting warehouse operations. While budget is unsurprisingly at the top of the list, other issues
point to the complexity of deploying, supporting, and managing mobile solutions (see Exhibit 5). As a
result, many organizations operating warehouses have opted not to invest in mobile solutions and
continue to use highly inefficient manual processes to manage their operations. For these
organizations, managed mobility solution providers offer a seamless approach to mobile investments
that both manages the risks associated with the fast-paced mobile market while offering
organizations greater budget flexibility and business adaptability. Driving these investments is the
cost of downtime which can increase operational costs, reduce customer responsiveness, and
decrease revenue.
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Exhibit 5: Greatest barriers to implementation of mobile warehousing solutions
How are Mobile Managed Services Impacting
Warehouse Operations? Turning to a third-party partner to manage mobile deployment environment can help to reduce
complexity and better support a growing mobile workforce. However, in order for organizations to
benefit from the advantages that can come from outsourcing core mobile IT components, vendors
must not only keep pace with mobility management best practices and technologies but must also
offer a broad range of capabilities for mobile initiatives to succeed.
Many organizations see tremendous value in migrating mobile warehouse solutions to a third party.
While the adoption drivers will differ by customer, at its core is the desire to defer much of the
technology risk to third-party partners while improving mobile lifecycle management in a market
under constant flux (see Exhibit 6). It is not uncommon for organizations to support multiple mobile
operating systems, backend database connections, management solutions, and maintenance
services. Integrating all of these key requirements through an integrated service permits
organizations to leverage third parties who have commoditized and can deliver these services much
more efficiently and cost-effectively than an internal IT department.
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Exhibit 6: Managed service adoption drivers
Moreover, relying on third-party solution providers permits organizations to focus their IT resources
on services more central or strategic to their businesses. Third-party-managed service providers are
able to deliver to their customers the latest technology and best practices to optimize warehouse and
distribution systems, creating substantial operational flexibility and enhanced distribution control. In
addition, filling IT resource gaps, providing 24/7 help desk technical services, and the ability to scale
solutions seamlessly in a rapidly evolving and complex mobile IT landscape are all key benefits of
managed mobile warehouse solutions.
Key Managed Mobile Service Success
Requirements and Considerations Selecting a managed mobile service provider that is best aligned with your business is a critical step.
Organizations will be well served by appropriately vetting their managed mobility vendor partners’
capabilities across the entire lifecycle of mobile services – from end-user training and provisioning to
mobile solutions support and service and solution and application sustainability. Among the most
critical requirements when evaluating managed mobile service partners range from their overall
service and help desk capabilities to mobile lifecycle support, mobile expertise, and rapid
deployment capabilities (see Exhibit 7).
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Exhibit 7: Most important capabilities when selecting a managed mobile service partner
Some of the key considerations and areas to review when selecting a managed mobile service
provider and benefits service providers offer encompass the following:
Setting Clear Mobile Device SLAs: It is critical to ensure that a target number of devices are kept
in service at all times, defining spare pool availability metrics and ensuring rapid replacement of
devices when mobile devices are returned for repair. Similarly important is ensuring that devices are
properly configured out of the box and that profiles are properly managed to avoid too many profiles
being issued.
Establishing Mobile Help Desk Benchmarks: A key issue with technical help desk services today
is the rapid rate of call escalation to (artificially) keep down call time metrics. Ensuring that
appropriate documentation and training is available to improve first call resolution and reduce no
trouble found is critical.
Ensuring adequate flexibility scalability: When evaluating long-term service partners, it is critical
to anticipate growth and the ability to scale operations and also introduce new technologies or adapt
workflows seamlessly. This includes geographic and international expansion and multi-language
support capabilities.
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Analytics and Monitoring to Optimize Performance: Actively managing and monitoring devices in
an operational setting to better anticipate issues, and also ensuring that devices are being properly
utilized by workers, can translate into substantial cost savings and operational improvements. This
will similarly provide superior mobile device lifecycle services and ensure that devices are replaced
and upgraded prior to them eroding operational performance.
Conclusion In today’s fast-paced and resource constrained environment, ensuring uptime and availability of
business critical solutions such as warehouse management and automation is only heightened. Add
to that the growing complexity and variety of technologies deployed to support warehouse
operations. Managed mobile warehouse solutions provide an option to technology decision makers
to offset many of these challenges while providing a service designed to mitigating the risk and
added cost of downtime and its impact on operational costs, customer service and employee morale.
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About this Report
This white paper was developed by the VDC Mobility Team, with David Krebs, Executive Vice President VDC Research Group (VDC) and the support of Supply Chain Services and Honeywell Scanning and
Mobility. VDC provides market research and advisory services to the world's top technology executives.
Our clients rely on us to provide actionable insights to support their most important strategic decisions.
The firm is organized around four practices, each with its own focused area of coverage including:
automatic identification and data collection, embedded hardware, embedded software and enterprise
mobility.
About Supply Chain Services
Supply Chain Services is a leading provider of best-in-class customized data collection, barcode
scanning, barcode printing, rugged mobile computing, and wireless networking solutions that offer out-of-
the-box automation and improvements for the value-chain processes of manufacturing, distribution and
warehousing companies. As specialists in the automated identification and data collection (AIDC)
industry, we are a single source providing Managed Mobile Services for evaluating, designing,
integrating, implementing, managing, and supporting data collection technology infrastructures that
generate very high and very fast return on investment for our customers. For more information contact us
at [email protected] or visit our website at www.supplychainservices.com.
About Honeywell Scanning and Mobility
From the point-of-manufacture to the point-of-sale, every second saved matters. Honeywell delivers those
matters. Honeywell delivers those critical seconds in three ways. First, we combine advanced imaging
technology and processors—purpose-built for industrial tasks, with powerful wireless communications and
support services. Second, we apply four decades of experience studying supply chain workers to our
devices, ensuring optimal user experience proven to increase productivity. Third, we make sure our
technology is born rugged to withstand the toughest environments. Honeywell is also the only
manufacturer in the AIDC industry with both a fully rugged solution and an Enterprise Sled for Apple
devices, meaning that as the trends discussed in this white paper mature, Honeywell will be there with the
industry’s best solutions.
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Supply Chain Services
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Oakdale, MN 55128
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www.supplychainservices.com
©Copyright 2014 Supply Chain Services LLC and VDC Research Group. All rights reserved.
