Palm Powered Handhelds Drive ROI Gains
--Limmer, how about every employee toting around a 1x-enabled PDA. -- Cooters
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- From retail sales to publishing, businesses in many industries are seeing rapid, high returns on investments (ROI) in handheld computing solutions based on the Palm OS(R) platform. Helping workers manage project information remotely, access up-to-the minute databases, capture signatures and make better-informed decisions more quickly, Palm Powered(TM) handheld computers are helping boost efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction.
More companies than ever before are recognizing the enormous potential of handheld computers -- which cost significantly less, and are much easier and faster to use, than laptop computers -- to improve their business productivity. These companies are turning to the Palm OS platform because of the wide range of software solutions and services available; the powerful tools for implementing and managing deployment; and the well-designed, intuitive functionality of the handheld products. Palm OS based solutions have become business tools of choice in critical enterprise applications in mobile field sales and service.
McKesson: Saving Costs, Reducing Claims and Errors
McKesson, the world's leading healthcare and supply management information technology company, reduced imaging costs by 100 percent, legal claims by 50 percent, order errors by 50 percent and delivery claims by 30 percent by implementing a Palm Powered handheld solution in its vast product delivery network.
McKesson drivers, making more than 25,000 deliveries of pharmaceutical and supplies every day, claimed an error rate of less than one percent in collecting signatures from delivery recipients. But that small percentage was very costly. The papers that held the signatures, when lost or misplaced, subjected McKesson to disputes and potential litigation. As a result, the company was spending significant effort and dollars annually on tracking and scanning the paper signatures and correcting errors when they occurred.
Today, using AvantGo Enterprise software on Palm OS based Symbol SPT 1700 handheld devices, McKesson drivers scan each package as it comes off the truck and electronically capture the customer signatures. The information is then synchronized via the Internet and integrated with the company's existing backend systems, providing instant updates and immediate customer access to the electronic "proof of delivery" data.
As a result of this streamlined and automated process, McKesson has eliminated the need for paper tracking and reduced its claims and errors substantially. Furthermore, McKesson's information tracking systems are more accurate and current at any given time than with the previous process.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Solicitor Subscription Productivity Up 30 Percent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the South's largest newspaper, increased solicitor subscription productivity by 30 percent and improved customer relations after it gave Palm handheld computers to its door-to-door sales force.
Before implementing the Palm(TM) handheld solution, the sales force would pick a street and move door-to-door with little or no knowledge about their potential customers. This resulted in unnecessary calls on existing subscribers or customers who previously told sales representatives they never want to subscribe.
Today, before beginning a door-to-door sales campaign, supervisors download customer and prospect information onto more than 100 Palm III handhelds. Sales people carry the handhelds as they walk a neighborhood so they can approach the homes in an efficient order and adapt the appropriate offer at each door. By simply tapping an address from the list displayed on the handheld, sales people instantly know if the household is a current or lapsed subscriber and how many days it receives a paper. The Palm handhelds also show sales people which current promotions they can offer the customer and automatically calculate applicable sales tax for each of 16 counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
The handheld solution has made the door-to-door campaigns much more productive and has allowed the newspaper to reduce the number of door-to-door visits overall. Furthermore, it has improved customer relations by giving the sales representatives the data they need to better understand their customers before calling on them.
Famous Footwear: Cut Errors by 75 Percent, Up and Running in Six Weeks
Madison, Wis.-based Famous Footwear, the largest chain of brand-name family shoe stores in the United States, has eliminated 75 percent of its pricing errors by implementing a Palm OS solution that took just six weeks to develop and implement. In conjunction with Palm OS based Symbol SPT 1700 handhelds, the retail chain uses integrated barcode scanners to ensure better pricing accuracy across 975 stores.
Before the handhelds were in use, store employees would hunt for specific shoes and manually change and verify prices with a price gun and printout. Typically, this process would take up to six hours each week and was prone to pricing errors.
Now, a Symbol handheld, located in each store at a bay station, is linked to a Cisco router, which connects back to the home office. Employees indicate that they want to change prices and enter the date they want these new prices to be effective. Then, when an associate scans a box, the item number goes to the home office, which sends the color of the sticker and the price for the date requested, back to the associate. The improved pricing accuracy has resulted not only in improved profits but also in happier customers.
More information on case studies and the use of Palm handheld computers in the enterprise is available at www.palm.com/enterprise/studies.
About Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) is a pioneer in the field of mobile and mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions.
The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Sony, Symbol Technologies, and HandEra (formerly TRG). Platform licensees also include Acer, Garmin, Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and approximately 170,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at palm.com .
NOTE: Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm and Palm Powered are trademarks of Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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SOURCE Palm, Inc.
CO: Palm, Inc.
ST: California
IN: CPR MLM CSE NET
SU:
08/23/2001 10:00 EDT prnewswire.com |
