Panasonic Partners With SOTI To Eradicate Rugged Device Downtime

Panasonic, Europe’s leading rugged mobile computing manufacturer, recently announced its growing partnership with SOTI, the world’s most trusted provider of mobile and IoT device management solutions, to further secure its rugged device products.

In its drive to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers, Panasonic has engineered one of the lowest failure rate devices in mobile computing*. Partnering with SOTI adds critical smart device management, further lowering TCO in sectors as varied as healthcare, retail and logistics.

At a time when almost half (49 per cent) of mobile workers feel mobility downtime seriously hinders their ability to work^[1], this partnership is more business-critical than ever.

A better angle for business
Panasonic today also announced SOTI’s recent certification of its Toughpad FZ-N1 handheld product. Designed for postal and courier workers, warehouse, retail, manufacturing, field services and emergency services, the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-N1 is leading the company’s charge on the rugged handheld market. With its integrated angled rear barcode reader to protect against repetitive strain and increase productivity, alongside its voice and data capabilities, the device is rapidly becoming the rugged handheld device of choice.

Panasonic’s FZ-N1 includes the integration of SOTI’s MobiControl Stage app within its devices. IT administrators can use MobiControl Stage to define all the key parameters of the device for use in the field, including available applications, preferred communication networks and security settings. MobiControl Stage then generates a barcode for use in configuring all future devices. To replicate the configuration on each new handheld, simply switch on the device, open the local MobiControl Stage programme and scan the barcode. In seconds, MobiControl Stage automatically replicates the configuration on the replacement device.

This functionality has a number of advantages for businesses when deploying new devices or running repair and replacement programmes. For example, the manufacturer or reseller can hold a copy of the barcode configuration and then ship pre-configured devices directly to field workers, drastically reducing downtime.

In addition to the SOTI certification, Panasonic was also awarded SOTI’s “OEM Partner of the Year” award at its recent SOTI Sync conference in Niagara Falls, Canada. The SOTI partner awards celebrate excellence in driving innovation within the enterprise mobility market, as well as recognising growth in both revenue and customer deployments. SOTI currently has 150 OEM partners.

Shash Anand, VP Strategic Alliances at SOTI, said: “Organisations often struggle to manage the chaos of connected devices, especially where mobility is critical to the business. With research estimating the global mobile workforce will be made up of 1.87 billion people by 2022, it’s hardly surprising. We’re therefore delighted to be growing our partnership with Panasonic to guarantee the security and efficiency of its rugged device products. As two key players in this market, we’re dedicated to ensuring the global mobile workforce is working as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

“This certification by the world’s leading Enterprise Mobile Management company and the integration of SOTI’s time-saving configuration capabilities into our ground-breaking Android handheld device further demonstrates Panasonic’s commitment to reinvent the rugged handheld market for European business,” said Sylvaine Smith, Business Development Manager, at Panasonic Business.

“We’ve partnered with SOTI to ensure our rugged devices are secure and reliable for all of our customers. It is vital the devices we supply can be managed remotely to handle the worst-case scenario and that we can minimise costly downtime to ensure everyone from healthcare response teams to delivery drivers are able to perform their critical jobs around the clock. SOTI MobiControl and our evolving partnership with SOTI is key to reaching this goal.”

For more information about Panasonic handheld devices, visit www.toughbook.eu.

About SOTI Inc.
SOTI is the world's most trusted provider of mobile and IoT device management solutions, with more than 17,000 enterprise customers and millions of devices managed worldwide. SOTI's innovative portfolio of solutions and services provide the tools organizations need to truly mobilize their operations and optimize their mobility investments. SOTI extends secure mobility management to provide a total, flexible solution for comprehensive management and security of all mobile devices and connected peripherals deployed in an organization. For more information, visit www.soti.net.

About Panasonic System Communications Company Europe (PSCEU)
PSCEU is the European branch of Panasonic Systems Communications Company, the global B2B division of Panasonic. PSCEU’s goal is to improve the working lives of business professionals and help their organisations’ efficiency and performance. We help organisations capture, compute and communicate all sorts of information: image, voice, and textual data. Products include PBX telephone switches, document printers, professional cameras, projectors, large visual displays, rugged mobile PCs and fire alarms solutions. With around 400 staff, engineering design expertise, global project management capability and a large European partner network, PSCEU offers unrivalled capability in its markets.

PSCEU is made up of four product categories:

• Communication Solutions, including professional scanners, multifunctional printers, telephony systems and SIP terminal devices.
• Visual System Solutions, including projectors and professional displays. Panasonic offers the widest range of Visual products, and leads the European projector market with 28% revenue share. (Futuresource B2B market tracking, Q1/2014)
• Professional Camera Solutions, including Broadcast & ProAV products, security, fire alarm systems and industrial medical vision (IMV) technology. Panasonic is one of the top two professional camera vendors in Europe.
• Computer Product Solutions helps mobile workers improve productivity with its range of Toughbook rugged notebooks, Toughpad business tablets and electronic point of sales (EPOS) systems. As European market leaders, Panasonic Toughbook had a 66% revenue share of sales of rugged and durable notebooks and Panasonic Toughpad held a 59% revenue share of sales of rugged business tablets in 2015 (VDC Research, March 2016).

^*Based upon findings from the 2017 IDC whitepaper “Pay now, save later”

^[1]Arlington Research published July 2017. http://www.soti.net/resources/white-papers/managing-mobility-tsunami/