November 2021 Huddle | Barcoding

It’s all over the news: today’s supply chain is experiencing a fair amount of chaos, and organizations are at their wits’ end trying to lessen the impacts of labor shortages and improve efficiencies...but how?

The best way to alleviate “strain on the chain”—and to make it possible to deliver on growing consumer demands—is to embrace digital transformation. In other words, leverage today’s technologies, one of which is enterprise mobility.

This was the topic for Barcoding’s November Huddle, “How Enterprise Mobility Will Drive Digital Transformation,” where we were joined by pros from Datalogic, a leader in the design and production of barcode readers, mobile computers, RFID, sensors, and laser marking systems. If you weren’t able to join us, no worries—you can watch the video recording below. Or, if you’re crunched for time, you can read this recap!

Our November Huddle panel included:

• Jody Costa, VP of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships, Barcoding
• Tom Tarter, Pre-sales and Post-Sales Manager for the Mobile Computers Division, Datalogic
• Mangaraju Vuppala, Director of Mobility Product Management and Marketing, Datalogic
• Peter Zalinski, Director of Partner Solutions, Barcoding

The Huddle started with clarification for anyone confused by the term “digital transformation.” In a nutshell, digital transformation is all about enabling your organization to take advantage of data—it’s that simple!

We started the Huddle by framing the topic this way: Today’s supply chain is an incredibly hot topic and, as a consequence, so is digital transformation. In fact, the growing importance of digital transformation to companies’ strategic initiatives is a direct result of what the supply chain is struggling with today. Digital transformation, and enterprise mobility as part of that, are critical for navigating today’s market—and for your company to be able to take advantage of opportunities that will help you grow in the future.

The Domino Effect

Next we took a look at what’s going on right now when it comes to digital transformation. One comment was that when it comes to improving the efficiency of processes, “digital transformation is the glue that will bring it all together.” In other words, it’s the way companies will achieve operational excellence—and enterprise mobility is a big part of that.

But our panel reminded us that we can’t be myopic when thinking about driving the efficiency needed to achieve operational excellence. It’s not just about our company and our workers; it’s about affecting points all along the supply chain. The whole supply chain delivers greater value and reduces overall costs when we all improve efficiency...when we all look upstream and downstream to see what technologies we can leverage to improve the whole.

Making Enterprise Mobility Work For You

Datalogic was part of this Huddle because they’re so damn good at helping companies deploy devices. Here are some of the ways they do that:

• Defining and applying standards and policies across multiple devices—even across whole fleets. Standards are important because one of the challenges related to enterprise mobility is that when you give users a device, or if they’re using their own device and running a program on top of it, the security of all the data they’re dealing with becomes increasingly important
• Making it possible to get working immediately. Datalogic makes it simple to pull a device out of a box and get it up and running quickly. One way is to have the user scan a QR code which gets them enrolled and onto the preferred network. After all, the goal is to get the devices into users’ hands and get them working! Thought to remember: Operational readiness is part of operational excellence!
• Optimizing the user experience. For a mobility program to be successful, end users have to embrace the device. Datalogic offers things like hands-free scanning, for example, that simplify and speed the process

The Wisdom of a Mobile Asset Management Solution

After deployment, there’s the matter of ongoing management. This is where Barcoding comes in, and the services we provide will save a significant amount of your IT team’s time—time that would otherwise be spent taking in, wiping, and sending out devices; doing upgrades and security patches; keeping track of all devices and their users; monitoring battery life and device performance; repairing devices that fail; understanding the ecosystem that makes the mobility program run and ensuring its performance...and so much more.

What’s Coming?

With digital transformation being at the forefront of most every enterprise organization today, many are asking, “What’s possible with these devices?”

So much, according to our panel. Here’s just a sampling:

• Devices can tie into your HR and ERP systems for added visibility and data integration
• They can be the portal for important communications with your team regarding processes, alerts, safety checklists, task lists and more, allowing you do away with paper and limit team meetings
• Devices can also off instant sign-in, eliminating lost time waiting in line at a kiosk

The message was this: Mobile devices open your organization up to nearly unlimited opportunities for driving efficiency and leveraging data. Barcoding can help you understand what’s possible, and help select tools, from partners like Datalogic, to make it happen!

Where Do You Start?

We wrapped up the Huddle by talking about a starting point in your journey to achieve operational excellence. We asked the panel, “What do you look at first?” Here are some of their answers:

• Start by looking at your end user needs and the environment in which they’re working. Think in particular about the experience of a new person: Are things intuitive for them? Are the steps in the workflows streamlined? If your processes are burdensome for users, productivity will be compromised at every step
• Is your environment ready for digital transformation? Do you have ample WiFi bandwidth? Do you have proper lighting for scanning, and the right devices to do the scanning? Could you benefit from adding robots so that your people can stay in situ to work rather than running around the facility?
• Look at your workflows. Where could you simplify, consolidate, or modify?
• Look at the data you’re generating. Use the diagnostics data (device health and how appropriately the device is being used) to gain insights into what could be improved

Thank you!

A big thanks to our partner, Datalogic, for sharing their knowledge about what organizations are experiencing today and what we need to prepare for tomorrow. Embracing digital transformation is without doubt the key to operational excellence...and enterprise mobility is a huge part of that. In fact, how you approach and manage enterprise mobility will determine how much long-term value you get from the data that’s available.

We get it: this stuff isn’t easy...it’s complex and can be confusing. But Barcoding is here to help! We’d love to share more about our experiences helping organizations just like yours develop, deploy, embrace, and get impressive value from an enterprise mobility program. Why not reach out to get the conversation started?

You’ll be hearing about December Huddle soon – watch your email! While you wait, watch the video recording of November’s Huddle to get more detail.

You can learn more about it by downloading our guide, Beginner’s Guide to Enterprise Mobility Implementation.