How Can I Update My Devices Without Touching Them?

How Do You Create The "Touchless Warehouse"?

One of the mainstay principles of good process design in the distribution center has always been to "minimize touches". It's a very basic concept that drives home the point that items should get from A to B with as few touches as possible, preferably just ONE. But the upheaval stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic  is ironically putting intense pressure on the distribution and logistics side of many industries while other areas of the business may be scaling back (i.e. the storefront). The Food & Beverage industry, in particular, is an "essential" business and if the shelves of your local supermarket are any indication, the velocity of  materials flying through that supply chain must be well above norms even for a pre-holiday shopping week. But the increased pressure on the supply chain comes not only from the high demand, but also from the fear of losing employees to extended sick leave because of the spread of the virus. How can a distribution center and other areas of the supply chain fulfill their mission while not just preserving, but INCREASING employee safety beyond your standard solutions? This is the question we asked ourselves while conceptualizing what we are now calling the "Touchless Warehouse". It's no longer just about "minimizing touches" but now it's about "minimizing TOUCHING" altogether.

You Can Update Your Devices Without Touching Them - Or Traveling

We've been re-thinking many of the existing solutions and processes we are familiar with over the last few weeks, and be releasing weekly updates on what see will eventually be a series of quick-deploy solutions and another set of solutions that we expect will be more widely deployed as a permanent additions to many supply chains in what are now referred to as "essential" businesses. 

What if you could update ALL of your mobile devices from a single desk, regardless of how many sites and devices and their locations? That is exactly what MobiControl from SOTI does, and the benefits are more apparent this year than ever. With restrictions on travel, and an understandable aversion to handling equipment among multiple users, SOTI MobiControl. After an initial on-site installation to access each device, you'll now have:

• Complete remote capabilities and support features that reduce device downtime and maintains an app or suite of apps to improve security, privacy and productivity.
• Universal integration with all common OEM rapid enrollment solutions, with express enrollment and a self-service portal.
• Enhanced location services shows all current locations including last known location for offline devices, and precise user permissions applicable at various org levels or by individual user.

How Easy Is It To Get Started?

Getting started is easy. Some of the most common questions about Remote Device Management will be familiar, and tell you how easy it would be for your facility:

1. Do the devices need to be accessed physically for the initial installation?
The devices will need to be physically accessed initially. Simply by pointing the handheld, tablet, etc. to the SOTI server so it can pull its configuration. Zebra devices in particular make this very easy.

2. What does the business need to do to prepare for the initial deployment? There ar

e two options for depending on your facility setup and devices, either on-premise (where the you have a server running it locally) or in SOTI Cloud. We can provide a quick review of the minimum installation requirements based on your current infrastructure and profile of your devices.