4 Reasons to Use Honeywell Mobility Edge for Your Mobile Workforce

This article is part of three article series which includes:

• 3 Reasons Why You Should Keep Ruggedized Android Devices OS Updated
• 19 Reasons Why It Is A Really Bad Idea to Keep Running Legacy OS Ruggedized Devices
• 4 Reasons Why Honeywell Mobility Edge Should be Your Android Platform of Choice

Today, many organizations have disparate devices in multiple form factors for many uses, a myriad of applications for different tasks, and complex IT infrastructure – all of which are difficult and costly to maintain. These mobile solutions are also built on different technology platforms that force companies into siloed provisioning and application support. It’s a technology minefield. Honeywell’s mobile device platform can help navigate.

A Unified Mobile Device Platform: Mobility Edge

Honeywell has the clarity of vision, domain expertise, and solution to your mobile device challenges:

Mobility Edge™ is based upon extensive research gathered from Honeywell’s global community of customers from a range of technologies. Honeywell recognized that businesses wanted a unified hardware and software platform for all form factors – one that allowed for rapid deployments, robust performance, and adaptability to changing needs.

We completely innovated our approach to meeting the challenges of supporting a mobile workforce, and Mobility Edge was the answer. This unified, dynamic platform for mobile computing is designed to:

• Accelerate Deployments. Validate once. Deploy everywhere. Faster, easier, and at lower cost. Enabling versatile out-of-the-box capabilities and a rapid provisioning suite, Mobility Edge expedites development, certification, setup, and training involving multiple form factors at once.
• Optimize Business Performance. Boost productivity and drive efficiency. Powerful, embedded tools across the platform drive faster data capture and secure, enhanced worker communications. The unified, intuitive experience facilitates user adoption and helps employee’s complete vital tasks.
• Extend Lifecycle. Forward compatible. Future-proof. Mobility Edge reduces TCO and minimizes headaches with an enterprise-wide approach to maintenance releases, and hardware designed to support ongoing upgrades to the operating system through Android R and extended support 5 years beyond that – much longer and across more devices than our competitors’ products.
• Strengthen Security. Mobility Edge is designed to unleash you from the burdens of fragmented mobile computing. How? By providing a unified, dynamic hardware-and-software platform that offers an agile approach to enabling enterprise IT to deliver better mobile solutions across your business.The Security best practice, backed by Google Android, is to keep device on the latest OS version and maintenance releases.Android typically supports an OS version for 3 years.Security features added to new OS versions are not backportable to prior OS versions.If you’re not on the latest OS version, you are at risk.Other device OEMs promote backporting (applying new OS version patches to an old OS version).The fact is, backporting to old OS versions is not supported by Google, and by definition is less secure by not being directly supported.

Established service and support data went into the development of Mobility Edge. We optimized our mobility devices based on the work patterns of many customers and actual users to deliver more realistic and precise engineering requirements. Using historical insights from service data, we addressed common failure points during the design phase, making our Mobility Edge products more resilient and stable. We also mined our detailed support data to further improve and refine product quality. By providing a unified hardware and software platform with an agile approach, we can bring you more secure and reliable solutions across your operation and we can do it continuously evolving to meet new threats, threat actors.

Mobility Edge offers an integrated, repeatable, scalable approach to workflow automation that is based on a common hardware and software platform. Designed for Android™, it delivers a unified platform that all software solutions are based on. Businesses can develop and deploy faster while reducing development costs.

The Mobility Edge unified platform is composed of:

• Common Hardware (System On Module, or SOM), which includes the CPU, memory, WWAN (in selected devices), WLAN, Bluetooth®, near-field communication (NFC), and Zigbee (in selected devices).
• Common Operating System Image with support for multiple generations of Android, from Android O through Android R.
• Common Software Ecosystem that includes not just Honeywell software, but also Honeywell-approved ISVs (independent software vendors).
• Add messaging about benefits of OS maintenance and upgrades.
  • Security
  • Feature adds
  • Google android recommended back practice
  • Better than competitors approach of backporting

Together these common elements minimize your company’s cost, effort, and risk. They accelerate your time-to-value so you can start deploying devices into the hands of your mobile workers much faster. And they maximize your ROI by extending the lifecycle of your devices.  And provide highest security, latest features/tech.

REASON #1 Accelerate Deployments

According to IDC Research¹, the average cost for IT staff to deploy a single device is $700.

In Honeywell’s view, this is unacceptable. We have the solution to slow, labor-intensive implementations: rapid deployment with Mobility Edge.

With the common platform offered by Mobility Edge, you can validate all your mobile devices, use cases, and software once, and then deploy across multiple devices in multiple form factors – faster, easier, and at lower cost.

For example, if you are a retailer, you may have a myriad of devices that are optimized for different environments such as the front of the store or backroom, and others for the distribution or fulfillment center.

With Mobility Edge, all these devices are on the same hardware and software core platform. Your one-time investment in setup, deployment, and provisioning is reusable across all devices.

Tools to Accelerate Deployments

Quickly configure and deploy devices into the hands of mobile workers with a comprehensive provisioning toolkit including:

Enterprise Provisioner – Allows you to create barcodes that contain provisioning instructions and configuration settings that can easily be scanned by the device operator to provision their device and make it ready for use – quickly, reliably, and with no error-prone manual entry of settings.

Setup Wizard – Enables you to quickly set up and configure devices by scanning barcodes, reading QR codes, or tapping an NFC tag.

Staging Hub – Allows you to push a bundle of applications and configuration settings to your entire fleet of devices. Staging Hub allows you to see all your devices within the network from a central console and push bundles to each device.

Secure Provisioning – Part of the architecture of the product, Secure Provisioning uses cryptographic methods to ensure that each device is securely set up and unalterable by a third-party intrusion.

Android Zero-Touch Enrollment – Allows IT to deploy corporate-owned devices in bulk without having to manually set up each device. Users just open the box and start using the device with management, apps, and configurations all set.

Reason #2: Optimize Business Performance

Consider the cost of a single device not being available for use during a shift. What about over the course of a year?

According to VDC², just one instance of device failure or unavailability per shift multiplied across a year can cost you $20,000 in annual support and productivity loss per mobile worker.

With Operational Intelligence, included in the Mobility Edge unified platform, Honeywell can help you avoid the high cost of an unavailable device, and help you maximize the value of your device investment.

Tools to Optimize Business Performance Take advantage of a range of features to provide the greatest reliability and uptime from your mobility solution including:

Data Capture Tools – Honeywell devices include state-of-the-art barcode scanning capabilities and best-in-class computing processor performance that streamline and error-proof work.

Wireless Tether – Stay connected to Bluetooth-enabled devices with wireless tethering that alerts you when you lose connection. For example, if your operator inadvertently lays down the device and walks away wearing a wireless headset, an alarm sounds, prompting the operator to go back and retrieve the device.

Keypad Creator – For device applications and workflows that require a non-standard data entry format, Keypad Creator allows you to create a custom on-screen keypad specifically for your application.

Battery Hot Swap – Select Honeywell devices support swapping out batteries without rebooting the device, enabling the operator to resume work at the point where they left off.

Software Client Pack – This suite of three business apps includes a Smart Terminal Emulator for data capture and input to back-end legacy server processes. It also includes the Honeywell Launcher and Enterprise Browser to control employee access to approved apps and websites only.

Operational Intelligence – A vendor-independent asset management solution that helps you track, manage, standardize, and optimize all your mobile devices, across all your locations. The platform delivers results that have previously been unattainable:

• Reduce wasteful “No Fault Found” returns
• Right-size your spare pool inventory
• Right-place your assets
• Consolidate RMA processes into one efficient system
• Verify adherence to RMA vendor contracts

Reason #3: Extend Lifecycle

Shorter device lifecycles cause frustration for IT departments with adverse impacts on productivity, security, and ROI.

Mobility Edge is Honeywell’s answer to the need to extend the life of your mobile devices – and get full return on your solution investment. Investing in a new Honeywell device in 2020, you will benefit from at least 10 years of useful life, through 2030. Here is how we do it:

Security Support through Android 13/T* – We have collaborated closely with Google on their Android mobile OS, and with Qualcomm® on their mobile device chipset, to provide a guarantee of compatibility and support for Mobility Edge all the way through Android 13/T. This is the longest mobile device lifecycle in the industry.

Mobility Edge platform devices are guaranteed to be upgraded through at least Android 11.  No other device OEM has this guarantee or broad device capability to do so.  Honeywell provides FREE Android maintenance updates and OS version upgrades.  The competition charges for this.  Honeywell also provides critical security updates for up to five years past Google’s last security patch through its Sentinel service, giving customers a product lifecycle through at least 2028.  Honeywell offers Sentinel service at a faction of the cost of what the competition charges.

Extended Android Security Updates – Once Google has reached the end of support for an Android OS version and stops issuing security patches, Honeywell extends support by providing critical security patches for an additional five years via our Honeywell Sentinel™ service. This commitment extends through 2028 for Android 11. Honeywell is the only solution provider who guarantees such long-lasting support.

Battery Optimizer – The Battery Optimizer provides information about current battery health and state of charge. It optionally allows users to choose different preset and custom optimization profiles to extend the available runtime of the battery pack, which is useful in situations where an external charger is not readily available.

Devices to Support Next-Gen SOM – The modular architecture of the Mobility Edge platform facilitates future development of a new family of models incorporating a next-generation SOM architecture, allowing customers to reduce their upgrade cost by leveraging existing peripherals and minimizing user training when upgrading their systems.

Self-Diagnostics – All Mobility Edge devices have an integrated self-diagnostics utility, allowing users to identify and diagnose basic device issues

Android Enterprise Recommended Program

Mobility Edge devices³ are validated through the Google-led Android Enterprise Recommended program. This means these rugged devices meet the defined technical specifications and extended lifecycle support requirements that customers have come to expect for their enterprise device deployments.

So customers can select with confidence knowing these devices are built for hard enterprise environments and can withstand the abuse of daily activities. They can deploy easily using multiple provisioning options including Zero-Touch Enrollment, Google’s fast and simple deployment method. And devices will remain up-to-date over long multi-year deployments with guaranteed security.

Reason #4: Strengthen Security

We live in a time where security breaches are a constant threat to business. In 2018, according to IBM⁴, the average cost of a data breach was $3.8 million – but it can easily be much more than that.

Just a few years ago, one large national U.S. retailer experienced a security breach that exposed the sensitive data of millions of consumers. The cost in IT, legal, remediation, and related expenses approached $300 million⁵.

How Honeywell Strengthens Device Security

Honeywell has a deep institutional and cultural focus on security across multiple domains. We invest over $50 million annually in cybersecurity and employ 300+ dedicated security professionals who are focused on protecting our customers.

We design security into our products, policies, and processes. The best way to ensure that you have a secure device is to make sure that you are using the most recent version of the operating system and up-to-date security patches. We provide a regular security patch cadence for Mobility Edge devices of at least every 90 days, and often as frequently as every 30 days.  OS version upgrades are provided annually.

Our security built-in, design-to-delivery process has a strong emphasis on programming security into products to anticipate and mitigate risk. We do this by embedding deep domain knowledge of industry-leading security practices throughout our full design and development process to ensure our solutions are as secure as possible from the start. We also make our solutions as free of vulnerabilities to attack as possible through such measures as continuous testing, authentication safeguards, and adherence to best programming practices. And, this isn’t anything new for Honeywell. We have had over 1,000 global engagements since 2006and are the provider of managed security services for over 350 industrial sites. To continue our focus and lead the way in the industry, we put in place the industry’s first Cybersecurity Risk Manager and developed strategic partnerships with leading cybersecurity product vendors.

Honeywell devices on the Mobility Edge platform are guaranteed to support Google operating systems from Android 8 through Android 11, and committed through Android 13. We are the only company that guarantees support through Android 11 or commit through Android 13. When Google ends its security patch support of an OS version, Honeywell is committed to extending security patch availability for five more years via Honeywell Sentinel, until 2030 for Android 13.

Are you ready?

What does ruggedized devices does Honeywell offer on Mobility Edge platform?

Honeywell is deeply committed to the longevity and quality of the Mobility Edge platform. The following products are built on the Mobility Edge platform: Honeywell™ CT40, CT60, CN80, CK65, and Thor™ VM1A, and VM3A.

You can expect to see the Mobility Edge family of devices continue to grow year after year. A brief overview of the current Mobility Edge family:

• Honeywell CN80 mobile computer, an ultra-rugged device for warehouse, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics environments. The most durable handheld Honeywell has ever made, it features both keypad and large touchscreen interface for quick, efficient data entry.
• Honeywell CT60 mobile computer, a rugged versatile business tool for highly mobile frontline workers in scan-intensive workflows in pickup and delivery, DSD, and parcel post. It offers a long-lasting battery, high-performance scanning, and exceptional durability and reliability.
• Honeywell CT40 mobile computer, a full-touch, five-inch display device designed for retail, hospitality, and light field mobility environments. It’s an intuitive, compact productivity tool optimized for hours of comfortable use.
• Honeywell CK65 mobile computer, a rugged, flexible solution for warehouse and manufacturing environments, with both touchscreen and keypad data input options for quick data entry and enhanced scanning read ranges of up to 15.2 m (50 ft).
• Thor VM1A, the world’s top-selling vehicle-mounted computer, upgraded to Mobility Edge. Hits the sweet spot of overall size, display size, and keypad. The Smart Dock enables use on multiple vehicles and reduces support and maintenance costs. A field-replaceable front panel minimizes downtime.
• Thor VM3A, designed for the toughest distribution center environments, manufacturing facilities and freight operations. In fact, it’s the industry’s most capable full-size vehicle-mounted mobile computer. The VM3 computer combines a 30.73 cm (12.1 in) display with breakthrough innovations that deliver rapid value for your workflows.

Honeywell’s Mobility Edge is a hardware and software platform that drives agile business outcomes – faster, better, with less cost, and less risk.

Contact a Honeywell Solutions Expert today! Call 1-800-934-3163.

*Honeywell has partnered with Qualcomm in the design of SOM, guaranteeing compatibility through Android 11/R, and potentially through 13/T. What does potentially/committed mean? Pending any unforeseen design changes with Android 12 and 13, Honeywell with input from Google and Qualcomm, anticipate that with reasonable commercial efforts, SOM1 will be compatible.

¹ IDC. The Business Value of Optimized Device Deployment, July 2018.

² VDC Research. New Data Finds Poor Enterprise Mobility Connectivity and Performance Costs Companies $20,000 Per Year, Per Mobile Worker, December 6, 2018

³. The Dolphin CT40, CT60, CN80, CK65, EDA51, and VM1A are Android Enterprise Recommended validated devices, with additional Mobility Edge devices pending validation.

⁴. McCarthy, Niall. The Average Cost Of A Data Breach Is Highest In The U.S. [Infographic], Forbes, July 13, 2018.

⁵. https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/2013-targetdata-breach-settled/