Often times, it’s smarter to pay more to get the job done right the first time. That’s essentially what managed services is: one company paying a standard fee to another to provide and maintain a service. American Barcode and RFID provides managed services to a wide variety of companies, and they are expanding the breadth of their services as well.
Return on Investment in Retail: Zebra Wireless Printing
The difference in cost between using a standard laser printer for a business versus the esteemed Zebra printers advocated for by AB&R cannot be ignored. Upon analysis, the money saved by the implementation of Zebra Wireless Printers exceeds that of $51,000 in a 50-store business. That means every store saves over $1000 per year solely on printing.
The biggest advantage of Zebra Wireless Printing, however, is not its cost-effectiveness in comparison to regular printers. In fact, it is the efficiency it provides to the business. In terms of labor-savings, Zebra Wireless Printers save over 330 hours per week in re-labeling printers and items. Over the course of a year, this adds up to a mammoth $216,667 in savings.
The investment in these highly efficient printers, however, can seem quite daunting. Luckily, AB&R offers managed services that allow companies to reap the benefits from these printers without covering their total costs.
Printing Services
American Barcode rents their specialized printers (labels, barcodes, ID cards, credit cards, etc) out to any company for unlimited usage. The company pays per label (or per print), but AB&R covers the cost of the printer and all of its maintenance. Essentially, the company only has to pay to use the printer, and AB&R handles everything else. It’s smarter to let AB&R get the job done right than to pay extra for a technology that isn’t fully understood by the company.
Hardware and Wireless Services
American Barcode and RFID continues to expand their managed services, and will soon be offering hardware and wireless technologies to companies for standard fees. They will lease their equipment with the same principle they use on printers, charging per use but covering the costs of the system and its maintenance.
Hardware that will soon be available as a managed service includes barcode scanners, data-collection devices, RFID reader infrastructures, and more. Virtually any service offered by AB&R can be covered as a managed service. Instead of making an upfront investment, it saves money for the time being, diverting all the management of operations for the hardware to AB&R. The company relies on AB&R, avoiding the need to do anything other than use the product.
Wireless networks are in the process of being made available to any company. The payment system works per month per access point. An access point is what communicates with the router and then transmits the internet signal to local computers. It sets the business rules as to who can access the wireless network. American Barcode then pays for the maintenance of the system and its effectiveness. If an access point goes down, an alert will be sent to the infrastructure to fix that access point quickly, to make sure the wireless runs smoothly, instead of a spotty connection that a business doesn’t know how to fix.
In a delivery application hosted at AB&R via Cloud services that can be applied to assets, the company does not have to buy the scanner, handle receipts, maintenance, or any other associated costs with owning and operating assets. The managed service provides the assets and tools necessary for a business without the hassle of owning them.
Be it in printing, hardware, or wireless, managed services are a mutually beneficial business model that can provide a strong return on investment to any company. The time and money saved by entrusting AB&R to get the job done right every time add significant value to the business. The labor savings and return on investment in managed services are just a few of the benefits that make managed services a fundamental aspect of the ideal business model.
To choose the right managed service for your company, go to http://www.abr.com/Solution/Managed-Services.