Blackbay was recently selected by Motorola Enterprise Mobility as the 2009 Australia/New Zealand Independent Software Vendor (ISV) of the year. Blackbay was chosen for the third year running based on its ability to provide market-leading solutions in partnership with Motorola. Blackbay and Motorola’s largest clients in ANZ include Australia Post and Australian Air Express with over 10,000 users throughout Australia.
This announcement follows Blackbay's continued success with market leaders in the mobility space. Blackbay has recently achieved Microsoft Gold Certification with mobility competency for the fourth year running and continues to participate as an active member on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Advisory Council.
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For a field service workforce to be truly mobile, it not only necessitates that the workers are in possession of a mobile device, but that these workers are provided the real-time communication and work order completion capabilities via that mobile device (or those devices). For the Best-in-Class, increased productivity and utilization of resources is tantamount as revealed by 60% in Aberdeen’s 2009 Mobile Field Service study.
North American market demand for Blackbay's proven software as a service (SaaS) enterprise mobility software solutions, which can be deployed for as little as US$1 per user per day, has led to the company establishing an operations presence in Ohio, USA.
"The decision to extend our UK, European and Asia Pacific operations into North America, initially within our key business sectors of Field Service and Supply Chain, was driven by our understanding of the importance of meeting the increasing requirement for our mobility solutions with a local presence," said Larry Klimczyk, CEO, Blackbay. "Additionally, Blackbay has a strong financial position which enables us to grasp this growth opportunity firmly with both hands."
"The North American interest in our products is a direct result of Blackbay's growing reputation as a leading global provider of robust enterprise mobility solutions that provide real-time visibility of information to and from the field. This delivers a competitive advantage in lowering costs and improving service," continued Klimczyk.
Interest in Blackbay is also driven by its ability to provide a SaaS offering, which enables its products to easily integrate with additional applications such as remote device management, satellite navigation, telematics, route and job scheduling etc.
The features and functionality of Blackbay's solutions are only one of the reasons why it has a proven track record of delivering enterprise solutions to blue chip organisations such as DHL, Royal Mail, Hermes, Dyson, and National Road and Motorists Association (NRMA). What differentiates Blackbay from its perceived competitors is how it has used its extensive industry knowledge and expertise to deliver robust highly scalable solutions.
"Blackbay has tailored its project management methodologies to exactly meet the unique requirements of individual enterprise mobility solutions. Our methodologies, combined with Blackbay's collaborative approach with our customers' project teams, allow us to ensure that we are able to help our customers to meet the objectives of their mobility solution as quickly and easily as possible," explained Klimczyk.
2009 was a turbulent year for the global economy but there are clear signs that worldwide markets are on the road to recovery. Aberdeen's latest field service survey(i) backs up Blackbay's view that 2010 is set to deliver an improved marketplace for enterprise mobility solution providers. It shows there is an increasing trend towards the deployment of customised solutions rather than mobility development platforms, which often require a higher initial outlay of capital.
"There is a significant amount of interest in the deployment of mobile solutions across the enterprise field service market and our recent research shows that Best-in-Class companies are more than two times as likely to have mobile field service applications in place," states Sumair Dutta, Senior Research Analyst at the Aberdeen Group. "In response to cost, customer satisfaction and productivity pressures, service organisations are not only looking to become more mobile with regards to the purchase of mobile tools, but also with the workflows and processes that can be enabled in the field on a mobile device. Solutions, such as the on-demand offering provided by Blackbay, present evaluating service organisations with an incredible opportunity to empower their field workers and drive needed improvements to productivity and profitability."
Crucially, Blackbay has strong relationships with leading rugged mobile device hardware manufacturers.
"Working closely with Blackbay we are able to ensure that its software integrates with our hardware to deliver proven feature rich solutions that meet the unique mobility needs of our customers. Our continuing relationship with Blackbay has helped us to gain additional market share and will help us to meet the increasing need for mobility solutions across all sectors in the North American marketplace," added Patrick J. Byrne, Intermec President and CEO.
"Blackbay has worked closely with leading market analysts and believes that its SaaS model, combined with the strength of its managed services, available from as little as US$1 per user per day, can help North American companies to invest in enterprise mobility technologies that will deliver significant return on investment," concluded Klimczyk.
(i)Aberdeen Group Field Service Survey June 2009 - Sumair Dutta, Senior Research Analyst
Increasing demand for faster, more accurate, real-time information is pushing the boundaries of data capture technology. But is the plethora of bells and whistles getting in the way? Jessica Davies from Logistics Manager.com reports - http://www.logisticsmanager.com/Articles/12916/Too+much+like+an+iphone.html
Now more than ever businesses are under increasing pressure to comply with health and safety guidelines concerning mobile lone workers. But in today’s economic climate businesses should be looking at technology that will help them ensure the safety of their mobile workers at the same time as helping to improve productivity, efficiency and the bottom line.
The value of access to accurate and up-to-date information continues to increase, especially for organisations with mobile workers Remember when you had to wait days for an air conditioning unit to be repaired, and you had no visibility of where a delivery/engineer was, or if a delivery was going to be on time? Enterprise mobility has put an end to all that. It is no longer acceptable for supply chain or service companies not to proactively implement technology that ensures they are providing their customers with the right person, at the right time, with the right goods. Today, supply chain and service companies need to be first time right, every time.
Blackbay, a provider of robust and scalable real-time mobile worker solutions, has announced that its Delivery Connect solution is successfully implemented by Australian Air Express (AaE) to improve customer service by delivering a real-time mobility solution for AaE’s express freight services. AaE, owned by Qantas Airways Ltd and Australia Post, is a leading provider of express freight services throughout Australia with over 1,800 drivers in the field. Blackbay’s Delivery Connect, real-time mobile worker software, is running on Motorola MC70 rugged handheld computers which have been issued to AaE’s drivers.
Christian Harris of Business Computing World speaks to our CEO, Larry Klimczyk on the issues facing the industry and the role Blackbay plays in helping organisations in the Field Service and Supply Chain markets take advantage of mobile worker technology. Follow the link to read the full interview - http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/?p=727.
In today’s business environment, the value of access to accurate and up-to-date information continues to increase. All of us are seeking information, wherever we are, at all times of the day. This is especially true for organisations with mobile workers operating in the field.
At Blackbay our reach is truly global. Our innovative mobile solutions for supply chain and field service operations make us a preferred supplier to major international organisations.
Blackbay has achieved further Enterprise Mobility Validation on Motorola’s latest device offering, the MC55. Blackbay completed Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Validated Solution Program that includes joint testing at the Motorola Solution Center.
Blackbay announced that it has signed a contract with Star Track Express to supply a real-time mobility solution that will enhance customer service and streamline business processes. Star Track Express, is one of Australia’s leading express freight and logistics providers with over 1,500 drivers in the field, handling over 1,000,000 scans per day.
Attendees at the recent Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit named Blackbay customer, Royal Mail, as the winner of the inaugural peer award for Wireless and Mobile Excellence. This award honours Royal Mail for excellence based on its delivery of business value, technical implementation and best practices within its wireless initiative.
Blackbay has been included in Gartner’s MarketScope Report for Packaged Mobile Application Platforms1 which rated Blackbay as ‘promising’. Despite the global economic slowdown, Gartner Inc believes adoption of Packaged Mobile Application Platforms will continue to grow at a solid pace, faster than that of organisations opting to build mobile solutions themselves.
Despite the current recession, Blackbay bucks current economic trends by announcing that the company has achieved 52% revenue growth, has increased its mobile worker software solution users by 30,000, increased its successful deployments to more than 150 throughout the world and during 2008 handled over 500 million transactions.
Blackbay is seeing more and more enterprises realise the potential business benefits that can be achieved through the deployment of mobility solutions. Whilst the return on investment was not always clear in the past, mobility is now a strategic imperative with recent Aberdeen research showing significant increases in service margins (25%), improved productivity (13%) and considerable cost reductions for those implementing a mobility strategy.
Australia Post Parcels Division had their first foray into the use of mobile technology several years ago. The Parcels Division developed a tracking system that was deployed on 2,500 devices nationwide “…we developed a system internally with limited experience in developing track and trace systems,” said Brendan Boyd, Manager - Network Distribution and Transport. This initial move into the world of mobile technology proved to be a satisfactory experience, however, after 4 years the system had met its limitations in terms of future development and subsequently needed to be replaced.
Where: Hilton Munich Park Hotel, Munich, Germany When: 06-08 May, 2009
The environment gets tougher - Navigating successfully through difficult times
The world is experiencing significant economic turmoil. Predictions are that many economies in Europe will experience a real recession for the first time in many years. 2009 is for many even more difficult than 2008, and who can predict 2010 and beyond?
In order to meet the growing demand for reliable and secure real-time enterprise mobility solutions Blackbay today announced that it has chosen SOTI Inc as its preferred mobile device management partner.
At Blackbay we are always working to improve the experience of our customers. With this in mind we are pleased to announce the refresh of our website www.blackbay.com.