Are Tablets the Next Hover-boards?

Seems like yesterday. The future was right around the corner, and hoverboards and flying DeLorean’s were about to appear on every street corner.  As it turns out, instead of hoverboards, we got something even cooler… smart devices, like tablet computers! Instead of finding a hoverboard in your local retail shop, tablets ended up reaching us first… just not necessarily always on the store shelf for purchase.

Imagine yourself lost in a department store, or waiting for the line to wind down, or even worse, you can’t find the cash register.  Out of nowhere, an employee approaches you to complete your transaction and check you out right there without you even having to walk up to the register!  Odd right?  Well, it turns out it’s becoming more and more common.

It’s no surprise that the tablet market is growing as Point-of-Sale devices in the retail industry.

A Follow-Up on BYOD

We held a webinar on Avalanche Telicost and how rTEM is becoming a key element in a modern-day MDM solution. One of the questions that popped up centered on “bring your own device” (BYOD) and what it is/what it means to the enterprise. Quite frankly, there is A LOT of buzz going on about it and as such, I wanted to share what I consider a very good, concise breakdown of what it means, and how it correlates to another common MDM buzz-phrase: consumerization of IT.

In particular, check out the section on “IT-ization of the Consumer.” Really good stuff. Hope you check it out! Make sure you check out the newest selection of webinars we just added, by clicking here.
 

NRF 2012 Show Recap!

First impressions on NRF 2012: that was a busy show! Hopefully the traffic and interest translates to good things for retailers in 2012 and beyond. The show was a tremendous success for the Wavelink team, as we were constantly busy showing voice-enabled applications with Speakeasy, smart device management with Avalanche, and the introduction of Velocity, which we believe will usher in the next generation of mobile web applications. In addition to the interest in our products, it was GREAT to see the sea of blue Wavelink scarves roaming the aisles! We even got Miss America in one (picture below)!

We were able to get some pictures (after the break) from the show, and we hope you enjoy them. If you have any pictures of your own you’d like to share, feel free to let us know in the comments, or even on our Facebook page.

Is TEM (Telecom Expense Management) Worth It??

It’s a big week for the tech world as CES and NRF are upon us again! As you know, we’ll be in New York City next week for NRF at booth 1768, signing people up for a FREE pilot of Avalanche Telicost, among other things. Meanwhile, at CES new tech toys and gadgets that the whole family, and/or enterprise, can enjoy are abound! With so much buzz these days with the latest gadgets, the industry just gets bigger and bigger, and more importantly, so does the need to manage and monitor them.

Speaking of managing, we came across this article that makes mention of how important managing mobile devices and data traffic are in today’s enterprise. You’ll be glad to hear that as a result, companies were able to save time and money as they invested in TEM (Telecom Expense Management), especially a solution that offers them real-time data, such as Avalanche Telicost.

Stop by and say hello next week, and you could win an Amazon Kindle!

Voice “Out-of-the-Box”

Welcome to 2012 everyone!

We already know that Speech-to-Text does well in the warehouse, but we came across an article that highlights how Voice is being used “outside the box”: the place that it is most important, the classroom.  The article highlights some interesting ways voice technology is being used in education.  Doing this saves money by reducing the need for a translator.

In this case, Voice helps educational institutions meet the growing demand for access to online education. As the Speech Technology article mentions, the alternative is hiring a professional translator for $20,000 per course. As you can imagine, that’s a hefty price.

The software uses speech-to-text or text-to-speech input and another program translates. It is then delivered as either a text or a subtitle, which will be used in videos for computers or tablet devices.

A Top 10 List with MDM and TEM

I’m a big fan of top-10-type lists, especially when it relates to enterprise mobility. So naturally, when I saw this particular “top-10” which discusses “Top 10 Mobile Voice Predictions” I was intrigued. Turns out, it’s also got some really good discussion on key industry trends, such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) MDM and Telecom Expense Management (TEM), which we are just beginning to see take hold in the enterprise mobility space. The author expands on the TEM front, by saying we should begin to see a greater need for the corporate TEM strategy to be included with the corporate MDM strategy.

“Greater integration takes place between the TEM and Mobile Device Management (MDM) propositions, as smartphone penetration in the enterprise market continues. MDM is one of the hottest topics around at the moment.”

This is something that few companies have yet to embrace, and just as the article explains, it should be something that we begin to see implemented in many companies throughout 2012 and beyond. Take a look and tell us what you think, or give us a few of your top topics for 2012!

Is Voice-Picking Gaining Traction?

Our good friends at BCI, a Wavelink Platinum Partner, recently shared an article on the possibilities of voice applications not having much of an impact. When asked about our thoughts, we said, “well sure.” But there is a big “but” that followed our response and I wanted to point out some very critical points when discussing voice. The biggest issue is the issue of cost, which all companies are concerned with, and this is 100% true with traditional voice systems.

“[Bill Kuipers, president of operations consultancy Spaide, Kuipers & Co] thought he was in the minority about pick-to-voice technology. “I’m not surprised based on my own observations, but I thought I was in the minority. Lots of clients consider but ultimately reject it (usually due to the cost of hardware, and the required software integration). It tends to be more expensive than comparable RF Scanning devices.

‘Plus, you almost always have to buy some sort of intermediate software system, whereas most applications already support basic bar code reading – or can easily incorporate it.’”

This is the fundamental problem with yesterday’s voice technology. It requires you to buy new devices and servers, deal with lengthy implementation times, a replacement of existing business processes, and an overhaul in training. In that case, who would want to deal with it?

And that’s where the value of a voice application like Speakeasy comes in. It doesn’t require new hardware, can be implemented in as little as 30 days, works with your existing applications, and as such, is easy for workers to learn. If you’re curious about the differences, I highly suggest checking out the recent webinar we held entitled, “Say Goodbye to Legacy Voice.”

 

10 Lessons for Managing Mobile Devices via Forrester

I know this is slightly behind us (Sept.), but I thought I’d share on the heels of our webinar yesterday, which discussed MDM for the Entire Enterprise and the current state of the MDM landscape. The article comes via Network World and is a run-down of the top 10 lessons learned about managing mobile devices. I won’t spoil any of the 10 lessons because it’s a good, quick read, but take a look and tell us what you think in the comments, or on Twitter or Facebook!

10 Lessons for Managing Mobile Devices, via Network World and Forrester

 

Healthcare CIO’s and Mobile Devices: What’s the Problem?

For those of you getting ready for the Holiday weekend, we hope you have a great weekend! But, for those who are not celebrating – or haven’t left the office just yet – we wanted to pass along a good read about MDM in the Healthcare.

InformationWeek had an article yesterday on the problems healthcare CIO’s are facing when it comes to the proliferation of mobile devices in the healthcare space. The article points out many of the common themes we are hearing (especially when it comes to BYOD) about smart-device management. However, it brings up an interesting point that is often overlooked when the smartphone/tablet/smart-device conversation comes up: what is their effect on the WLAN? Not only do you have extra demand on information traveling to-and-from, but you also need to make sure that the extraordinary amounts of data are secure.

As the article explains, “The ‘bring your own device,’ or BYOD, phenomenon in hospitals has created a networking problem for CIOs by driving up demand on wireless LANs and has kept security officers busy because it’s difficult to control all the data that flows to hundreds or thousands of handheld computers…”

The piece has a lot of interesting information, so if you’re looking for a quick read before you’re off for a long weekend, we suggest you check it out! Also, if you’re interested in learning more about smart-device MDM, check out our upcoming webinar here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Goya Foods, Speakeasy, and the Mobilizer Awards

As some of you may have seen last week, Goya Foods was recognized with a Mobilizer Award for supply chain operations by Mobile Enterprise magazine and their use of Speakeasy. The award highlights trends that we’ve seen for a while now, in that more and more companies are trying to leverage their applications while maximizing as much productivity out of them as possible. An easy way to do this is by voice-enabling applications without having to redo the entire application. Goya tapped into this and the early results are telling.

Look for us to have more and more information on the Goya example in the coming weeks and months. Additionally, if you’re looking for more information on Speakeasy and voice products, we recently held a free webinar that you can view on-demand.