Los Gatos, CA (February 29, 2012) – MobileFrame, LLC., the leading provider of Configurable Mobile Applications™ enterprise software, announces that National Beverage Corp., established in 1985, has selected the MobileFrame Platform for their next-generation Direct Store Delivery Application due to its extreme flexibility and ease of use. National Beverage Corp. is a holding company for various subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute a complete portfolio of quality beverage products throughout the United States. They currently have 12 manufacturing facilities strategically located in major metropolitan markets across the continental U.S.

National Beverage Corp. knew that in order to remain competitive, the  technology that they chose must facilitate sales growth, provide inventory controls, help reduce out-of-stocks, optimize the route sales and delivery rep’s efficiency and increase speed to market with new products.  National Beverage engaged G/S Solutions, a premier MobileFrame partner, to assist them in optimizing their field workers and warehouse operations.  G/S introduced the MobileFrame platform to National Beverage, knowing that it would be a perfect fit for their requirements.  National Beverage was immediately impressed with the flexibility of the platform and knew it would be a perfect fit for their Direct Store Delivery operations.  G/S is providing a comprehensive solution which includes the MobileFrame platform, application customization and rugged mobile devices. … Read More »

Inventory and asset tracking are both important, but what separates them?  Why are there different applications for these seemingly similar processes?  The answer lies in the purpose for each but first let’s examine the difference between inventory and assets.

Assets are defined as an economic resource that represents an ownership of value.  This could be a truck, a piece of software or, yes, even an inventory of widgets.  Inventory is a list of compiled assets for sale or use in another process.  When it comes to the differences in tracking we need to look at assets as being here for long term use and inventory being here for consumption of some sorts.  Think of it as the difference between a library and a book store.
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Direct Store Delivery (DSD) is a distribution method where producers deliver goods directly to the point of sale.  This delivery method gives producers the control over inventory, merchandising and promotions that is so valuable in various industries.  However, without an effective system to manage this process certain benefits are lost, which can cost you more in the long run.

The mobile apps used by the route delivery drivers are crucial to run an efficient field force. However, the current DSD apps in the marketplace don’t allow customers to modify their apps without paying the vendor exorbitant fees.  And, most of these apps lack important workflows for today’s environment. These solutions are typically hard coded, so process changes and route re-scheduling are costly and time consuming – if possible at all.  All of these shortfalls add up to lost time and frustrated customers – both of which cost you money.

MobileFrame’s Direct Store Delivery Suite is built on cutting edge technology, solving all the problems that customers are frustrated with.  Customers can make changes to their apps as the business dictates it, all without writing a single line of code and without paying the vendor any fees for the changes.  Real-time updates enable immediate changes to workflow, route scheduling and even third party applications.  Drivers can process deliveries and returns on remote devices, so invoices can be modified on the back end immediately. MobileFrame’s DSD Suite has applications that are tightly integrated to each other
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Are you ready to get rid of the inefficiencies of paper work orders in the field? If so, join us to see a demo of MobileFrame’s Field Service Solution.

Spots are limited so REGISTER NOW!

April 18th, 2012 at 1:00 pm PST or April 25th at 10:30 am PST

Automate your entire team from dispatch and work order prioritizing to parts used and labor costs. MobileFrame will deliver the data to your technicians when they need it most, on-site with the customer.
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Five warehouses, over 240 different product lines, and one bi-directional integration with Oracle 11g to maintain current inventory.  That was the set of circumstances, and the task at hand was to deploy a custom solution to manage physical inventory, across the enterprise.  Oh yeah, and it had to be implemented within two weeks.

Mission Impossible?

Not for MobileFrame.

This was the mission for a recent client.  Inventory data was held in their Oracle database yet the physical inventory was spread across 5 warehouses.  Inventory tracking was done on paper forms, resulting in time consuming errors so there were definitely efficiencies to be gained by going mobile.  This required a bi-directional custom application to interact with the existing database.
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Inspections are a part of literally dozens of different industries, from public safety to property management to construction.  This naturally means that there are numerous needs that must be fulfilled by inspection forms.  Checklists, comments and signatures are nearly universal, while photos, conditional checklists and specialized workflow may be needed to send the results to different governing entities.

Although, for all their differences, one thing is for sure; inspections happen all over the place.  Apartment complexes, garages, hangars, constructions sites, maintenance rooms, kitchens, sewers – the list goes on and on.  And often these remote locations are in different places every day creating the need to collect data from multiple locations.
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You see them all over the place, from cereal boxes to prescription labels, from envelopes to electronics – barcodes are everywhere. But what do those little black lines and dots mean? Barcodes themselves do not contain descriptive information, rather they provide a reference which is scanned and looked up in a database that does contain the descriptive information such as item name, price and quantity. Alternatively a URL does not contain the descriptive information in the website it references.

There are two major types of barcodes – one and two dimensional. One dimensional (1D) are probably more commonly seen, they are on every item you see in the store. 1D barcodes are made of a series of vertical lines (bars) and spaces of varying widths. These bar and space combinations are strung together to represent different characters. Two dimensional codes use a series of dots, blocks and other geometric shapes into a square or rectangular pattern. 2D barcodes are generally able to contain much more information than 1D. Where a 1D barcode such as a UPC code contains 12 digits, a 2D barcode such as a QR code may contain thousands of alpha-numeric characters.

In either case the codes need to be read by something – a reader. Barcode readers act as a translator between the code itself and the data it contains (those 12 digits in the UPC for example). Today you can download literally dozens of apps for your smartphone that will read both 1D and 2D barcodes, but here’s the trick; there are literally dozens of different “languages” of barcodes to translate. Let’s take a look at some of the more commonly used codes.

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Mobile Applications used for field services, inventory/asset management, direct store delivery and proof of delivery are good at capturing data, integrating with backend systems and keeping your mobile force up to date.  But all that data can be put to further use if managed through a proper dashboard management system.  Dashboard management systems can be a separate application or an add-on to existing applications that provide management the tools to make informed business decisions. Harnessing this information is key to making decisions to better place your organization in the market, maximize profit margins and reduce overhead.  What can they do for your business?

Let’s say you run a direct store delivery (DSD) business selling bakery goods.  By simply capturing the data that the DSD application provides, you can keep track of inventory and automate invoicing, which in itself is beneficial.  But by optimizing your data management into a decision support dashboard you can determine which goods are selling better in which stores and going faster off the truck and link that to ingredient ordering and labor management.  Knowing this information allows management to make informed decisions about what ingredients to buy and what products to send to different outlets.
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At MobileFrame we have thought for a long time that our mobile solutions could track anything.  We have provided tracking applications for everything from parts and labor to maintenance records and hazardous waste containers.

We figure that we have tracked just about everything – from the cradle to the grave.  And now two customers are putting that to the test!

MobileFrame was recently deployed as the application for Paternity Declaration at Contra Costa County, California.  This application captures vital information and parent signatures at the time of birth.  With over 2500 clerks at over 700 birthing centers across California, MobileFrame’s integration into the county’s Vital Records is saving time, sometimes months, and increasing accuracy.
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While getting ready for the holidays I was at the mall, and it was packed!  People were hustling and bustling about, looking for the perfect gift for loved ones.  I mean it was NUTS!  It made me think, why do we put ourselves through all this?  Couldn’t we just as easily get a gift card, or whatever is in the sale ads for the people close in our lives?  Wouldn’t they be happy just knowing we thought of them?  No.  There is something to be said for the perfect gift, the one thing that – when you see it – you know it was made for them.

Why settle for less when it comes to your organization’s mobile application needs?  Off the shelf systems are designed to meet industry wide needs, but not necessarily the requirements of your organization.  Your organization is unique and chances are your software needs are as well.  Settling for an off the shelf system might solve some of your problems, but it will surely leave holes – probably in just the places that differentiate your organization.
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