This blog is part of an ongoing series around SOTI MobiControl’s Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) geolocation features. 

SOTI MobiControl – part of the SOTI ONE Platform – allows organizations to view indoor and outdoor device location history.

Knowing where a device has been, or the path traveled to reach its current location is essential to helping businesses optimize their processes. There’s always a faster, smarter and safer way to ensure business-critical devices are moving from location-to-location in the most efficient manner possible and SOTI MobiControl device location history can help unearth those insights.

Here are some examples:

The fastest way to get from point A to point B is a straight line. However when transportation and logistics (T&L) delivery trucks are making their way through the city, or when a worker is going from one end of a warehouse to the loading dock located on the other end, it’s rarely done in a straight line.

If the warehouse worker makes an unexpected stop on their way to the loading dock, that delays the truck getting on the road. If the truck takes an unplanned detour due to construction or traffic, that delays products reaching store shelves or front doors on time. And that could be problematic.

Consider the following stats for the retail industry (which is also heavily dependent on T&L):

• 65% of retailers say that failed or late deliveries cost their business over $241,000 (USD, converted from GBP) per year
  
  
• 57% of consumers would avoid shopping with a retailer again if they had a negative delivery experience
  
  
• Organizations spend 20% more on shipping costs to compensate for late deliveries
  
  

Optimize Processes While Devices are on the Road

Device location history can help organizations optimize their processes for greater efficiency. Here’s an example: Many T&L or field services organizations have corporate gas their drivers can use to fill up while on the road. However, if those gas stations are not on their delivery routes, it can lead to delivery delays.

Armed with this information, a business can take actions such as:

• Setting up a corporate account with gas stations which are more accessible
  
  
• Adjust their delivery SLAs to account for the extra time required to fill up and to establish new expectations for customers
  
  
• Mandate that drivers fill up before heading back to the warehouse, ensuring a full tank for the next day’s deliveries
  
  
• Shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles to maximize driver delivery times

The delivery process is now optimized. Drivers have the tools (a better corporate account), time (new SLAs and more fuel-efficient vehicles) and strategies (end of shift fill-up mandate) to ensure goods are delivered on time, every time.

Optimize Processes While Devices are Inside

Knowing the historical location of your devices indoors¹ gives you valuable insights into your processes, too.

Imagine a collector in a manufacturing plant whose task is to ensure all handheld tools are put away at the end of a shift. This is critical to operations as tools must be available and ready for the workers starting the next shift. Downtime spent looking for these tools results in costly productivity losses.

As it’s a large facility, an electric cart is used which enables them to collect and transport the tools. Affixed to the cart is a tablet with an app where the collector can digitally document what tools were left where and by whom.

Utilizing the device’s indoor location history, IT admins can see that the cart gets halfway through the warehouse, turns around and returns to its starting point, where it sits for 30 minutes. They can also see, via the data entered onto the tablet that’s affixed to the cart, that the collector has not completed their rounds.

Upon inspection, it’s discovered that the cart was not fully charged prior to the worker beginning their rounds. Furthermore, the cart is old, and its battery cannot hold a charge. The collector must return to the charging station to charge the battery before continuing.

With this information provided by device location history, the business can make some informed decisions:

• Implement reminders that tools must be returned at the end of each shift by the workers using them, thus minimizing the time required to collect them
  
  
• Install fast charging stations throughout the facility and eliminating the need for the collector to always turn back when the cart requires charging
  
  
• Either purchase a new cart or a new battery to replace the old one

Indoor historical device location shows the direction of travel of the device, how many stops along the way and how long the device spent at each stop. In the scenario above, processes can be optimized to reduce charging cycles and ensure more tools are returned.

Device Location History is Available in SOTI MobiControl

SOTI MobiControl’s device location history feature shows the historical movement of devices whether they’re indoors or outdoors. You’ll know where they’ve been, how they got there, how long they spent at each location and where they went next. Easily see if devices took the best, most time-efficient route across the warehouse to complete a task or across town to complete a delivery.

And with this information, you can make better, smarter decisions to help them get from point A to be B faster.

For more information:

• Have questions about device location history? Ask them and we’ll answer ASAP
• Want to see device location history in action? Book a free product demo today
• Want to try device location history for yourself? Try SOTI MobiControl free for 30 days