Zebra foresees shift to Enterprise Asset Intelligence category as physical objects become digital

Eighteen months after its acquisition of Motorola Solutions Enterprise business, Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a global leader in providing solutions and services that give enterprises real-time visibility into their operations, today shares its vision for the company moving forward within a growing industry category, Enterprise Asset Intelligence (EAI). By providing “Visibility That’s Visionary,” Zebra increases businesses’ ability to track critical assets within their operations and know exactly what they are, where they are, and their condition so they can make smarter, faster decisions that improve their bottom line.

For more than 40 years, Zebra has developed the building blocks of today’s Internet of Things (IoT) technology with its global leadership in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) market, including sensors, barcodes, RFID, and wireless networks. The arrival of the cloud and the ubiquity of wireless networks have made connecting devices and mining their data much easier, and the IoT is bringing us into a new industrial age in which the physical is being converted to digital.

The evolution of the AIDC market to a more strategically oriented EAI focus is being driven by technology trends: IoT, cloud-based data analytics, and mobility. Zebra is leading this evolution through its operational framework of “sense, analyze, and act.” Its solutions automatically “sense” information from enterprise assets, including packages moving through a supply chain, equipment in a factory, workers in a warehouse, and shoppers in a store. Operational data from these assets, including status, location, utilization, or preferences, is then “analyzed” to provide actionable insights. And with mobility, these insights can be “acted” upon to drive better, more timely decisions by users anywhere and anytime. Today, 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies benefit from this framework using Zebra’s solutions in retail, manufacturing, transportation and logistics (T&L), manufacturing, and healthcare.

EAI IN ACTION

• According to the Zebra Technologies Global Shopper Survey, stellar customer service continues to drive retail, with 64 percent of shoppers claiming they are more willing to make purchases from stores that provide better customer service, and 41 percent of shoppers agreeing they have a better experience in stores where sales associates use the latest technology to assist customers.

• Zebra’s recent Global Warehouse Vision Study shows more than 40 percent of respondents cited shorter delivery times as a key measure requiring warehouse investment. With the visibility Zebra’s technology brings into manufacturing and T&L processes, the industry is in a better position to deliver on the promise of flawless fulfillment, especially as customer expectations increase regarding improved service and shorter delivery times.

• In healthcare, patient identification is an important application for Zebra and its customers globally. Smart, non-invasive technology that gives hospitals real-time, accurate time tracking, evaluation, and feedback is essential to provide greater attention and care to patients.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

Gavin Norman, Head of Business Services, Toll Customised Solutions
“At Toll, our purpose is to connect people and products. We see significant growth of sensors and data capture as among the most important global trends in our environment, giving immeasurable growth prospects to emerging technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, and predictive analytics. Innovation is a critical part of Toll’s global value propositions and our close collaboration with Zebra is an important part of our innovation strategy as we seek to work with the world’s best companies to provide the world’s best logistics tools. Last year, we were one of three companies to comprehensively trial Zebra’s TC8000 mobile computer in our distribution centers before its global launch into the market. The results were very exciting, both from a workforce and technical experience perspective, and on a productivity level. Zebra has a great record of success, a strong innovative culture and we are excited to continue working with Zebra to provide innovative solutions.”

David Krebs, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Mobility and AIDC, VDC Research Group
"The combination of mobile computing, automatic identification, and analytics solutions provide organizations with real-time visibility into critical activities and processes. Leveraging these capabilities to deliver more personalized experiences and to provide the necessary visibility to ensure that the right information gets to the right person at the right time is separating leaders from laggards."

Ryan Goh, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Zebra Technologies
“As APAC is poised for continued growth, enterprises are seeking technologies that can add value to their operations. Zebra’s focus on offering ‘visibility that’s visionary’ will enable our customers in this region to harness IoT, cloud, and mobility to gain actionable insights into their most important assets and people – to increase productivity, customer satisfaction, and their bottom lines.”

Jeff Schmitz, Chief Marketing Officer, Zebra Technologies
“Zebra makes businesses as smart and connected as the world we live in, providing the products, software and services that let our customers see the bigger picture instantaneously as hardware talks to software that talks to the cloud. We are moving into a new era of business in which connectivity and ‘visibility that’s visionary’ help organizations sense what’s happening in their operations, analyze that data to deliver insights and act on those insights to make better business decisions.”