MobileFrame Blog

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
Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →

Los Gatos, CA (March 8, 2012) – MobileFrame LLC, provider of the only cross-device mobile application development platform that requires no custom coding to develop custom enterprise mobile apps, announces that Terumo Medical Corporation has chosen MobileFrame’s consignment inventory  tracking applications. Terumo Medical is a sister company to MicroVention, a rapidly growing medical device company that is pioneering the development of catheter-based technologies for the endovascular treatment of peripheral and cerebral vascular diseases.

Like MicroVention, Terumo Medical employs sales reps who are responsible for conducting inventory counts at various hospitals where their products are used. These reps need to reconcile the amount of physical inventory at the site with the records in their JD Edwards backend system. Prior to implementing MobileFrame, the sales reps recorded these inventory counts on paper forms then had to reconcile the figures against the actual inventory by reviewing the reports generated. Terumo Medical’s office staff then manually entered this data into their business systems, which resulted in human error and excessive costs spent on labor hours. Continue reading →

Los Gatos, CA (March 5, 2012) – MobileFrame LLC, provider of the only cross-device mobile application development platform that requires no custom coding to develop custom enterprise mobile apps, announces that The Ding Doctor, providers of auto reconditioning services, has chose MobileFrame to customize their car repair estimate applications.

The Ding Doctor, or C.A.R.S., was founded with the dream of providing auto dealerships and retail customers with the highest quality reconditioning services and superior customer service in the industry. Since that time, C.A.R.S. has created long lasting and successful partnerships with many of Southern California’s premier auto dealers. They are the number one provider of auto detailing, paintless dent repair, alloy wheel repair, paint touch-up, windshield repair, interior repair, interior repair, paint protection film, window tint, auto body repair and more in Southern California.

The Ding Doctor needed an automated solution that would eliminate the paper and the labor hours associated with the double data entry. Prior to implementing MobileFrame, their mobile workers were collecting data on paper for all repair estimates on damaged vehicles. Those paper forms were then turned over to several clerks who would manually enter that data into their business systems. They found this system to be time consuming and highly inefficient. This is where MobileFrame stepped in. Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Los Gatos, CA (February 17, 2012) – MobileFrame LLC, provider of the only cross-device mobile application development platform that requires no custom coding to develop custom mobile apps, announces that Mapes and Sprowl Steel, a leading service center specializing in enameling steel for porcelain-coating applications and silicon steel for electrical applications, has chosen MobileFrame’s Inspection Application.

Mapes and Sprowl was interested in standardizing on a single mobile application platform that would allow them to easily configure and deploy any app for any department on any handheld computer.  Because they already had a custom coded inspection application in use, they knew the time and effort that custom coding requires. They not only wanted to upgrade their app, but they also wanted to automate many other processes across the company. Once they began their evaluation of the solutions in the marketplace, they quickly realized that MobileFrame’s Configurable Application^TM platform provided the flexibility they needed to easily deploy apps customized to their own requirements. Another key factor in their vendor selection was the fact that MobileFrame’s solution has all of the management features needed for a successful deployment already built in.   Continue reading →

Los Gatos, CA (February 9, 2012) – MobileFrame, LLC., the leading provider of Configurable Mobile Applications™ enterprise software, announces that Sabine Pools, a full-service pool and spa company, has chosen MobileFrame’s application to eliminate all paper work associated with work orders and to track inventory for pools, spas and furniture.

Prior to implementing MobileFrame software, Sabine Pools was doing all work orders and inventory manually. This paper-based process was time consuming and error prone. Sabine Pools is now able to eliminate their weekly service form and create a mobile inventory tracking application for their technicians. With this app, technicians can scan incoming shipments, take periodic inventories to determine when to order additional supplies and track items on the shelves and/or warehouse equipment.

Sabine Pools is currently benefiting from:

• Improved Productivity. The elimination of paper forms frees time for workers to complete more mission critical tasks per day – time is no longer wasted on administrative paperwork.
• Fewer data errors. By no longer handwriting then re-entering data it into computers, the errors inherent to manual data entry are eliminated and data integrity is improved.
• Mobile Work Orders. Technicians can create, edit, review and annotate work orders.
• Parts and Inventory Tracking. Searchable parts list includes quantity of inventory on hand and on order.
• Real-time Customer Data. Full access to account info, contact data, work order history, parts pricing, promotions and payment collection while on-site with the customer.
• And much more… Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →