Intermec Technologies UK - The Interview
 At this month's UK Express Delivery Conference, Intermec Technologies UK, the mobile data capture specialist, will reveal how its mobile technology solutions, including the innovative CN3 integrated GPS technology, are empowering their client Home Delivery Network and helping it set the pace in express delivery excellence. Intermec Technologies' parent company, the US-based Intermec Inc, has a 40 year record of data capture innovation and experience, enabling customers in different industry sectors to implement their supply chain visions with total confidence. Intermec helps its clients achieve the maximum return from their automated information and data capture (AIDC) and mobile computing systems. It provides a complete line up of rugged, reliable and versatile equipment, and works with resellers and industry-leading alliance partners to create total solutions that harmonise with clients' existing networks, platforms and processes to ensure complete, seamless implementation. Jeff Taylor, Intermec Technologies UK's Enterprise Account Manager responsible for the Transport & Logistics sector, spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Warehouse & Logistics News - Jeff, you're presenting Intermec's Home Delivery Network case study at the Express Delivery conference. Is Express Delivery a new business area for you in the UK?
We've been working with the Express Delivery market since 2000, for such clients as Geopost UK, ANC, Lynx, which became UPS, Tuffnells, TNT and APC. Global accounts include Fedex, UPS and Aramex.
WLN - Your job title is Enterprise Account Manager. What does your role involve?
My role involves managing our relationships with the UK's top six mail and express clients, all multi-million pound accounts. Specifically I identify areas of business where data capture can make the client more efficient and customer-focused, and look for additional revenue streams and product opportunities for Intermec.
WLN - For clarity what do you define as the Transport & Logistics sector?
The areas we focus on are Post & Express, Freight Forwarding/3PLs and aviation.
WLN - How would you define your value proposition?
We help clients capture, manage and deliver data, which is becoming as important as the physical delivery itself. We do it better because we employ people from the industry like me, who understand clients' operations and appreciate the nuances and differences in how they function, so we can help them employ data capture to benefit both the business and the end user.
WLN - How much of your UK business is Transport and Logistics?
Some 37-38% is T&L, from 10% in 2000. Our other UK sectors are retail, industrial manufacturing and consumer goods. Our fifth vertical in the US is the government sector, which spends millions of dollars annually on data capture.
WLN - What proportion of your T&L business is Express delivery?
Express is 70%. Other T&L accounts include British Airways and 3PLs.
WLN - What is your personal involvement in the HDN contract?
My involvement has been managing the HDN-Intermec relationship and putting together a consortium of companies to provide the solution.
WLN - Who else is in the consortium?
Jade Communications, our implementation partner and the prime contractor, is one of the UK's largest mobility providers and implementers. Syclo is the software provider. Their application fitted in perfectly with Littlewoods HDN's back end system We've also partnered with the best company for commercial applications on GPS, ALK, with whom we have an exclusive supply arrangement.
WLN - Can you tell us about Intermec's work with Home Delivery Network?
HDN's existing hand-held devices in their delivery fleet were at the end of their life, difficult to procure and becoming increasingly hard to service.
WLN - How does your solution solve HDN's operational problems?
The overall solution is quick and easy to deliver and deploy, and at end user level the new devices look identical to the current application. There's no need to retrain drivers - which can take 3-4 hours per man - thereby dramatically reducing training and implementation costs.
WLN - How big is your contract with HDN?
In terms of size, HDN will be within the top three implementations of in-cab technology in the UK this year. This is a very large investment by HDN, which clearly demonstrates their commitment to their customers by providing a more stable and robust solution for the delivery of information back to their clients.
 WLN - How long before the various devices and applications need upgrading?
Our CN3 units are nine to twelve months ahead of competitors in functionality. There isn't another manufacturer to match them. They give HDN five years in the lead before they are superseded.
WLN -Tell us about the CN3 devices.
CN3 is slightly smaller than other handheld data capture devices, the result of major investment in customer research. Our "voice of the customer" program involves our production design, engineering and technical team spending time with the customer to understand their business, from IT through to end user, so we design products to fit their requirements.
WLN - What does CN3's integrated GPS technology offer?
CN3's GPS technology gives detailed journey records, aids navigation, creates 'breadcrumb' trails of GPS points for post-mortem audit and gives real-time location for quicker back-up and early intervention. CN3 is the culmination of our work with our global customer advisory council, bringing in customers' CIOs and CEOs and discussing present and future problems and how we can help.
WLN - What particular insights were involved in CN3?
CN3 was developed specially for express distribution around the world. The workforce is becoming smarter, younger and more female. For example at Correos, the Portuguese postal service, 80% of mail workers are female. Business is faster now, so devices are smaller with more functionality.
Another key element in CN3's design is that the cost of devices is less of an issue than running costs, which are onerous. Typically hardware manufacturers excluded wear and tear from their contracts. One express operator had to return devices once a year for chargeable repair. Repairs will still be needed, but won't be chargeable. With CN3 there will be no chargeable repairs: all devices share components, increasing our purchase power and reducing component sourcing.
We also identified a need for a device which end users benefit from owning: with CN3 we've given customers a device which encourages a sense of 'ownership' by the driver. CN3 can also be installed in personal vehicles as SATNAV.
WLN - Where was it developed?
CN3 was developed at Everett, Washington State and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where we develop our mobile PCs. Imaging and scanning is developed in Toulouse and media products - tags and labels - in Holland.
WLN - In non-technical terms, why is CN3 so innovative?
CN3 is the only rugged device with internal GPS, and is a very big development. We've added geo-coding, storing regular delivery addresses so replacement drivers' SATNAV can take them straight to delivery points. We're also working with the Dutch company QUINTIQ, which specialises in scheduling and dynamic consequence planning. We're removing the need to know an area like the back of your hand, reducing fleets by 10%, with fewer miles driven and carbon footprint implications.
WLN - What are CN3's business benefits for HDN?
It gives more delivery options for end users and more first time deliveries, with more interaction between carrier and consignee, including supplying more information to the consignee. HDN can also use the SATNAV for non-signature deliveries and prove they've been to a location. CN3's reliability reduces calls to customer services by over 40%, an ROI in itself. You get a two-way flow of information - if you can't make a delivery you can let the consignor and consignee know immediately, including feeding new addresses into SATNAV through ALK's COPILOT product.
WLN - Is the HDN case study available in electronic or hard copy?
We are currently in the roll out phase of the project. Once this is successfully implemented we will be discussing the release of a case study in both formats.
WLN - Will you roll out the CN3 integrated GPS technology to the wider Express Delivery market?
We're exhibiting this as a consortium with Jade, Syclo, ALK and QUINTIQ, the first step in releasing the new solution to the market, including the planning, rescheduling and consequence planning elements. Jade Communications and Intermec will be selling this solution as the implementation partners.
CN3 suits the Express market - there's no reason why it can't go global, once our partners get involved in selling it. Both QUINTIQ and Syclo cut across the vertical sectors - this works in all markets with mobile workers.
WLN - What are CN3's benefits to express delivery operations?
CN3 allows express deliverers to reduce their operating costs significantly, with smaller fleets and less environmental impact. They can easily plan resources and manage an incident's consequences on their business. CN3 in conjunction with our Partners' solutions could eventually reduce parcel miles by 20%.
WLN - How big is the potential market for CN3?
The UK market could be as high as one million devices over the next 18 moths. We have 9-12 months' market dominance before our competitors catch up on the technology.
WLN - Looking at the bigger picture, when was Intermec Inc founded?
The business was set up in 1966 in Washington as Interface Mechanisms and made machine-readable codes for typesetting. Intermec today is an amalgam of three businesses - Intermec, Norand and UBI (United Barcode Industries), with US$850m turnover in 2006 and offices in 70 countries.
WLN - Who are the biggest clients worldwide?
Intermec's global customers include Coca Cola, Philip Morris, NestlŽ, Tesco, Pepsico, Bayer, Johnson Control and Metro.
WLN - When did Intermec set up in the UK? How big are you here now?
Our initial UK presence in the UK was through Norand, which merged in 1997 into Intermec. We have 80 UK staff and a turnover of £35m. Our Managing Director has projected that Intermec will grow annually by over 50%, by developing our customer base, expanding our product offering and channel partnering, and gaining share in hand-held devices and printers.
WLN - Besides CN3 what other products do you supply?
We supply mobile computers; RFID - fixed and mobile readers and printers; and bar code scanners. Intermec owns the intellectual property in various areas of RFID in tags and readers. We've just released the most advanced scan engine in the world. Integrated into hand-held scanners and hand-held terminals, it is capable of reading both 1D and 2D codes from 6 inches to 60 feet in any orientation. For the first time ever, one engine satisfies every scanning requirement. Specifically interesting for the Express industry is that in the future the engine will be able to give volumetric measurement of a parcel with a single point and shoot, allowing a driver to 'cube' a consignment at point of collection.
We also supply application software toolkits for rapid development of applications, and device management software.
WLN - Which bit generates most revenue?
Mobile computing is by far our biggest income generator, but RFID will overtake it at some point. There's a real impetus now.
WLN - To what extent are your products ruggedized?
We only work in industrial sectors, so they're all ruggedized. "Rugged" means manufactured to specifications devised by the US government, with particular water and dust ingress ratings and drop test specifications
WLN - Which industry sectors are you active in, in the UK?
Overall our biggest UK sectors are industrial and consumer goods, field service, T&L, retail, public sector and healthcare providers. Retail is the biggest single market: retailers buy a lot of scanning and data capture kit. We're still fairly new to retail, which is our biggest opportunity.
WLN - What proportion of your UK business is IT for the warehouse?
30-35% of everything we sell here goes into warehouses, the rest being mobile. We offer a strong range of devices to work with WMS software, including voice activation and voice recognition systems. The new CN3 solution is 'pan-enterprise': you can also run it for mobile applications which are scan-intensive and involve voice recognition. CV30 and CV60, our 'CV' range of vehicle-mounted ambient and frozen temperature applications, are among the best in the market.
WLN - What are the biggest external factors affecting demand for your products and solutions?
In the Transport and Logistics sector, which I know best, the driver is the growth of mobile workers, especially in Express Delivery. Elsewhere, the number of mobile service engineers has exploded, all requiring real time information from host systems.
WLN - Finally, where do you see Intermec's UK business going from here?
As mentioned, our MD has put forward aggressive growth plans for Intermec UK, which I am confident are achievable. There are several markets where we've only scratched the surface. We're looking constantly at new business in new areas where we can add value and offer a strong value proposition. One of the most exciting areas is deregulation of postal services, which is producing an incredible amount of workers requiring mobile data solutions. As that market develops, there is huge potential for a company like ours with 40 years' experience of delivery to offer our clients good, solid advice on how they can use our technology to attack their new opportunities.
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For further information about this company's activities in the warehouse and logistics industry please contact:
Intermec Technologies UK
Tel: 0118 923 0800
www.intermec.com |
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