Revolutionizing the Moving and Storage Industry Through the Power of Mobility

Portable On Demand Storage (PODS) has revolutionized the use of mobility in the moving and storage industry to provide greater convenience, security and value to residential and business customers. PODS delivers specialized moving containers to customers, stores the containers in a secure environment and delivers the containers on-demand. At any point in time PODS knows exactly where every container is.

In order to deliver this level of accountability and responsiveness, PODS needed to overcome a formidable logistical challenge: coordinate over 130,000 containers, reserved over one million times annually across the US, Canada and Australia.

PODS met the challenge by mobilizing information to the front lines of their business - to their drivers and warehouse staff. PODS deployed over 1000 Motorola MC9097 handheld devices across 300 company-owned and franchised locations. The devices are preloaded with custom GPS tracking software and operate over the Sprint Nextel IDEN network. The solution incorporates bar code scanning, customer signature capture, and GPS technologies to tie containers to customers to precise location information.

By implementing these technologies, PODS was able to collect and use information in the effort to improve customer service. However, to maintain a high level of service quality, as well as to control costs, PODS needed to address several challenges created by the mobility project itself. First and foremost, the company needed to ensure the continuous uptime of their data-collection devices and take control of the ongoing maintenance process for over 1000 devices that are geographically dispersed and constantly on the move. PODS also needed to ensure end-user buy-in and overcome some technical constraints, like managing device storage capacity when collecting GPS information to track device movement.

PODS met these challenges by using SOTI's MobiControl advanced Mobile Device Management, Support and Security solution to support and manage their devices and increase end-user productivity. MobiControl plays a key role in keeping all the pieces of PODS' mobility solution functioning in real-time and in delivering the responsiveness that PODS customers have come to expect. Using MobiControl, PODS increased the ease and speed of device deployment, now provides over-the-air support to end-users, provisions devices with data over low and unstable network connections, and has achieved full end-user and support personnel buy-in.

Real-Time Remote Helpdesk Minimizes Device and Employee Downtime
One of PODS' foremost customer service priorities was to be highly responsive to customer requests. This meant being highly responsive to the mobile device support issues of drivers on the road. On every trip to customer locations drivers are guided by GPS enabled voice navigation to ensure the most efficient route and to eliminate wasted time searching for an address. Drivers are also provided with precise customer information to ensure authorized transfer of the containers to each customer. Keeping these devices running at all times is vital.

Using remote Helpdesk tools in SOTI MobiControl, PODS IT Helpdesk staff are able to establish remote control sessions with any of their devices in the field. If a driver experiences technical difficulties accessing route information from a device while in transit, helpdesk personnel at the home office can remotely log into the device, see the screen of the device and remotely troubleshoot with the end-user or take full control to resolve the problem. This allows the drivers to be on their way with minimal downtime.

"Before MobiControl, our devices in the field were not always functioning as expected. We had no visibility over the problems experienced by the users - we were working blindly. With SOTI MobiControl, we were able to remote control into the devices and see in real-time what our users really needed. The added visibility enabled us to develop and deliver solutions to the mobile devices to improve the end user's experience. With MobiControl, we got the devices out quicker and solved problems faster," said Tammy Carr, VP of Corporate Training & Development at PODS.

Provisioning and Scripting Capabilities Enable an Efficient and Consistent Maintenance Process AND Accelerate End-User Training
PODS also needed to regularly update over 1000 devices with software and settings with minimal end-user intervention. Their present system required end-users and location managers to cradle and ActiveSync all devices, which proved to be both time consuming and error prone. Many users did not have the technical savvy to complete the updates or to understand the consequences of improperly updating a device. This resulted in malfunctioning devices and frustrated drivers, causing them to circumvent the system.

Using MobiControl, PODS has centralized the device maintenance and upgrade process, achieving zero reliance on end-users to keep devices and software in working order. Devices are automatically and remotely provisioned at night to avoid service interruption. This brings significant time savings over the old manual process and reduces the element of human error.

"Instead of sitting there wondering how to fix the setting on 1040 devices we can actually fix problems in real-time by sending out a data package in less than 10 minutes to all of our devices. That kind of knowledge and visibility is great," said Carr.

PODS also delivers software training videos in compressed form to devices in the field. This innovative training method improves the end-user experience by providing better familiarity with onboard applications, and by reducing the amount of time drivers need to spend at the home office for training. A particular innovative use by PODS involves the use of MobiControl's advanced scripting capabilities to automatically launch the "video of the day" when the end-user opens the training application. MobiControl logs and reports this event and suppresses future automatic launching of that video to avoid end-user frustration.

Data Storage Management with Zero End-User Intervention
PODS needed to collect GPS tracking data for route analysis. However, to avoid quickly maxing out device storage, and potentially causing delays in container deliveries, PODS needed a method to regularly upload the data from devices to a central server and then purge the data from the device. All of this needed to be done without any action being taken by the end-user and without hindering device performance during business hours.

In addition, all of the above requirements, including the ability to provide helpdesk service and provisioning of data, needed to be met by a system that operates seamlessly over constrained network resources. PODS utilized the Sprint Nextel IDEN network, which has an average bandwidth of 14.4 kbps.

Using MobiControl, PODS was able to schedule a device 'wake-up' at midnight, wherein the MobiControl agent on the device automatically initiates a connection to the data network, uploads the GPS tracking data to the server and purges this data from the device once uploaded. This automated process, saves time and helps avoid calls to the helpdesk to fix problems related to storage resources being drained.

MobiControl also allows efficient remote management of PODS' 1040 devices despite low average network speeds. SOTI's advanced compression and check pointing algorithms allow data to be delivered even over very slow and unstable connections, enabling PODS to provision their devices daily with the customer and location information necessary to keep the trucks moving.

Information On The Move Allows PODS to Achieve a High-Level of Customer Service
The ultimate goal of this project was to achieve the highest level of customer service possible. PODS successfully integrated several key technologies, including Mobile Device Management, to support existing and new processes that have effectively positioned the company as a leader in the moving and storage industry. 

Contact details:
Ron Hassanwalia
Director of Sales and Marketing
T: +1 888 624 9828 ext. 224 (Toll-Free North America)
T: +1 905 624 9828 ext. 224 (International)
E: ron.hassanwalia@soti.net
www.soti.net