Micro Technologies
Micro Technologies Partners With Panasonic Mobility Solutions To Help Feed The World
Providing a durable, reliable and cost efficient technology tool to support efficiency and precision in livestock feed operations.
Established in 1971, Micro Technologies is a value added technology company that also supplies feed additive & animal health packaged products, helping their beef and dairy producing customers increase productivity and reduce costs. Technology plays a huge role in the production and distribution of all agricultural products, in fact, by 2050 we have to produce 70% more food to feed our growing world population and there is only one way that can be accomplished, that's through innovative technologies. Micro Technologies is widely recognized as a pioneer and leader in the beef and dairy industries, the majority of which uses its technologies to help bring the industry's products to market and ultimately, to the table.
Micro Technologies couples its innovative software packages for feed and animal health management with various kinds of hardware solutions. The environments these technologies are deployed in are extremely harsh and require the devices to be not only rugged, but reliable, user-friendly and cost-effective.
Challenges
Micro Technologies was seeking a mobile technology partner to assist them with their patented computerized feed management system called "Read-N-Feed." They needed a mobile device solution that could withstand the rugged terrain and weather inherent to their outdoor, remote work environments and provide high performance cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Solutions
They chose Panasonic TOUGHBOOK laptops and tablets for their feed delivery trucks and mobile feed bunk reading vehicles due to the TOUGHBOOK durability, and engineering design for maximum connectivity in remote environments.
Results
Micro Technologies saw an improvement in customer satisfaction feedback upon shifting to Panasonic's TOUGHBOOK device solutions and enhanced business performance in meeting their targets.
"Our customers are located in rural environments, on rugged terrain, with varied weather conditions ranging from both extreme high and low temperatures, making very durable and reliable enterprise-grade tablets and laptops a requirement for precise feed management and monitoring," said Patrick Russell, Field IT Service & Support Supervisor at Micro Technologies.
Micro Technologies has partnered with Panasonic specifically on Micro’s patented computerized feed management system called Read-N-Feed®, primarily utilizing the TOUGHBOOK 19 and TOUGHPAD G1 in feed trucks, as well as the TOUGHBOOK 54 in mobile feed bunk reading vehicles. "Over the years, we have used and tested different tablets and laptops to couple with our outstanding software packages", said Russell. "They are developed to help our customers maximize efficiencies and optimize their products' potentials," continued Russell. "We needed a mobile tablet and laptop solution that would allow our software to be utilized to its potential by our customers at a high level of excellence."
Delivering immediate updates or change notifications for real-time management out on the range
Currently, around half of Micro Technologies' customers are using the TOUGHPAD G1 tablet to run their GPS based feed management software, with another 40 percent operating on convertible TOUGHBOOK 19 laptops. Micro Technologies originally transferred to Panasonic's rugged devices products about five years ago and immediately saw a reduction in installation time, but more importantly a dramatic increase in reliability in the field for its customers.
"We have customers in the Southwest United States where field workers frequently encounter extremely high triple digit temperatures for 14-plus hours during a shift," said Russell. "We also have customers in North Central Canada where the temperature drops to 20-30 degrees below in the winter time, so the TOUGHBOOK 19 and TOUGHPAD G1 are ideal given the wide range of harsh conditions where our customers work year round."
Looking forward, Micro Technologies is bringing on additional new customers this year, and each will receive TOUGHPAD G1 rugged tablets (one each for their feed trucks and feed loaders). Additional deployments will take place over the next five years with most customers being converted to TOUGHPAD G1 tablets over that same time period.
With the efficiency improvements, cost savings, compliance and the consistency of the service and output, Micro Technologies continues to expand its use of mobile solutions using the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and TOUGHPAD devices.
