Zebra Technologies CTO Tom Bianculli and Zebra Technologies SVP GM APAC Ryan Goh explained that back in 2019, pre-COVID, Zebra’s research indicated 61% of enterprises worldwide are on the path to becoming intelligent. By intelligent, they mean the ability to connect physical and digital worlds to drive innovation through real-time guidance, data-powered environments, and collaborative mobile workflows.

As we know, the world had other plans. COVID hit, supply chains were disrupted, labour is in shortage, and ultimately there is diminished predictably for manufacturing and logistics as well as all other industries.

Zebra Technologies sees the squeeze its customers are under and says it’s here to help.

Bianculli explained Zebra Technologies is tackling these issues, noting its customers are prioritising personalising their own customers’ experiences, increasing inventory visibility, and empowering store associates. “We have the opportunity to connect the dots over these value drivers,” he said.

Specifically, he said, Zebra Technologies is providing greater visibility to customers of inventory feeds, real-time data to store associates to mobilise tasks across the entire store environment, automating customer assistance events, and providing computer vision at the checkout to reduce friction in the checkout experience while highlighting potential loss events.

You can see an example of a retail experience of the future, here, where a person tries on a shirt in a changing room and can use a terminal to request a different size and colour shirt with ease:

For the Zebra handheld user, these facilities will be represented on the new Zebra Pinboard (pictured above), Bianculli explained. Zebra Pinboard is a unified frontline worker experience, delivering customised and personalised information to each workforce member. It will also help the workforce use Zebra’s WorkForce Connect platform to speak with team members on the floor, help them stay connected to tasks and colleagues with direct messages, and provide access to other Zebra apps.

Meanwhile, "the Asian development bank is forecasting inflation to hit 4.2% in Asia, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned recession will hit a third of the global economy in 2023,” Goh said.

"Reinvention across industries is required to stay relevant and ride the waves and headwinds of change. Digitalisation is now a necessity for organisations to remain future-proof,” he said.

As such, Zebra Technologies has been doubling down on its growth and investment in APAC to support its customers in their digitisation journey. This saw the launch of Zebra’s new regional headquarters in Singapore in February 2021, providing the largest experience centre in APAC, and Zebra’s largest global enablement centre.

Zebra has also established customer-focused centres across south-east Asia, with its first Philippines service centre in November 2021, and the expansion of its Indonesia and Vietnam service centres in November 2021 and June 2022.

Additionally, Zebra is expanding its research and development centre by the first half of 2023 and will increase its investment in data capture to provide customers with capabilities such as a visual inspection to confirm a box has all its required items before shipping, as well as imbue fixed cameras with machine learning, and help factories become more intelligent.

The company further states AI and ML technologies will help companies advance as they shift to predictive operations, and real-time data will drive every decision and action from the dock to the doorstep.

"Technology is augmenting every aspect of how warehouse and distribution companies operate,” Bianculli said; “digital agility will be key for them to get ahead of ever-evolving customer expectations and rising costs.”

Goh puts it more simply, “customers first, outcomes delivered,” he said.

It's this digital agility that Zebra says it has right in its crosshairs, with its research and product enhancements all converging to provide Zebra customers with the ability to make faster, accurate data-driven decisions as well as meet their own customers wherever they are.

You can find more iTWire coverage of Zebra Technologies here, including handheld devices, Workforce Connect, and more.