Mobility Assessment - Extending Your Investment in Rugged Mobile Devices

The capital expenditure savings to your company can be anywhere from 15 to 25%, just from delaying the purchase of new equipment for one year.

Many organizations assume that purchasing new equipment is the magic solution to any and all technical issues, and that their old devices are unsalvageable (or far too costly to repair).

Before you make this decision, take the time to assess your current mobile devices, how they are used and what device and wireless issues are preventing full optimization of your existing equipment.

This white paper discusses common issues that can lead to device malfunctions and how your organization can overcome these problems without investing in all new equipment. We will review each issue in turn and provide insight into potential causes. We then outline the stages of the Miles Data Mobility Assessment, which helps determine whether your devices, software and network are fully optimized.

After reading this document, you will have a better understanding of the next steps to take to resolve issues with your mobile devices.

Mobile devices manage real-time flow of inventory, work-inprocess, and other business-critical data to your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) applications. Poorly functioning equipment has a major impact on daily operations.

When organizations experience erratic problems with mobile devices – including mobile computers and mobile printers – a common assumption is that the hardware is to blame and companies quickly conclude their hardware is suspect, as it becomes increasingly unreliable.

Rugged mobile computers are expected to last between 5 to 7 years, which is a much longer life expectancy than traditional PCs and printers. Aging hardware tends to run slowly and have an increased failure rate, which can give the impression that a total replacement is needed.

While it may seem like newer is better, oftentimes a company can save significant money by systematically assessing each device and triaging the related issues, rather than
completely replacing older equipment. In reality, there are many factors that can contribute to problems with mobile computers, printers, and the wireless infrastructure that supports their use.