Transform retail operations with Zebra’s retail technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improving inventory management and empowering teams.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s grocery technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improving retail shelf management, ordering and replenishment.
Enhance e-commerce operations with Zebra’s real-time inventory and automated workflows. Ensure accurate fulfillment, efficient returns, and seamless service.
Zebra’s technology solutions for department stores and specialty stores, feature hardware and software for retail management and workforce management.
Zebra’s omnichannel fulfillment technology solutions, feature hardware and software for timely order processing across channels and unified customer experience.
Zebra’s retail inventory management solutions, feature hardware, software and supplies for optimizing inventory management and demand forecasting.
Enhance transactions with Zebra’s POS technology solutions, featuring hardware, software and supplies for optimizing the checkout experience.
Zebra’s customer experience technology solutions, feature hardware and software for delivering personalized retail experiences and self-service capabilities.
Safeguard profits with Zebra’s retail loss prevention technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for enhancing security and product movement visibility.
Zebra’s associate engagement technology solutions, feature hardware and software for shift scheduling, task management, and team communications.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s healthcare technology solutions, featuring hardware and software to improve staff collaboration and optimize workflows.
Zebra’s hospital technology solutions, feature hardware and software for automating health system processes, reducing errors, and ensuring compliance.
Zebra’s patient registration technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, wristbands, and supplies improve patient identification for safer registration.
Optimize critical assets with Zebra’s healthcare asset tracking technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for ensuring equipment readiness.
Improve decision-making with Zebra’s Health Information Technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for enabling secure communication and data access.
Reduce lab errors with Zebra’s sample identification technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, labels, and supplies for accurate sample and specimen labeling.
Improve pharmacy workflows with Zebra’s pharmacy automation technology solutions, featuring hardware, software, labels, and supplies to reduce medication errors.
Zebra’s point-of-care solutions, feature hardware, software, and supplies for mobile access to critical information, patient ID, specimen collection and labeling.
Enhance processes with Zebra’s manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for automation, data analysis, and factory connectivity.
Streamline operations with Zebra’s automotive manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for reducing downtime and improving processes.
Optimize processes, assembly and supply chain efficiency with Zebra’s electronics manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software.
Boost production with Zebra’s food and beverage manufacturing technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for compliance and quality monitoring.
Achieve excellence with proactive quality management. Use Zebra’s solutions for precise root cause analysis and quality assurance.
Achieve seamless production with Zebra’s manufacturing WIP solutions, featuring hardware and software for tracking products and spotting bottlenecks early.
Ensure efficiency with Zebra’s material handling technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for automating systems to prevent delays.
Optimize operations and gain inventory and shipment data with Zebra’s supply chain visibility technology solutions, featuring hardware and software.
Boost performance with smart digital solutions. Equip your team with Zebra’s AI-powered tools for real-time guidance and efficient workflows.
Drive efficiency with Zebra’s unified communications solutions, featuring hardware and software for connecting teams for seamless operations.
Achieve excellence with Zebra’s proactive quality management solutions, featuring hardware and software for supporting root cause analysis and assurance.
Gain transparency with Zebra’s manufacturing traceability solutions, featuring hardware and software for tracking products for compliance and quality control.
Prevent downtime with Zebra’s manufacturing asset tracking solutions, featuring hardware and software for efficiently locating equipment and materials.
Zebra’s transportation and logistics technology solutions feature hardware and software for enhancing route planning, visibility, and automating processes.
Protect products with Zebra’s cold chain logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for accurate tracking, monitoring and data logging.
Enhance operations with Zebra’s post and courier technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for package tracking, proof of delivery, and more.
Zebra’s warehousing and distribution technology solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and warehouse automation.
Ensure accuracy with Zebra’s proof of delivery technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for capturing delivery data efficiently.
Improve efficiency with Zebra’s cross docking technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for real-time tracking and automating scanning and labeling.
Zebra’s order processing technology solutions, feature hardware and software for shipping optimization, order tracking, data analysis and better inventory control.
Zebra’s warehouse inventory management solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory tracking, space utilization, and data-driven insights.
Zebra’s inbound logistics technology solutions, feature hardware and software for inventory management, order fulfillment, and better visibility of shipments.
Zebra’s reverse logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for better visibility and streamlining receiving, sorting, and managing returns.
Enhance deliveries with Zebra’s outbound logistics technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for ensuring timely, precise shipments.
Zebra’s warehouse asset management technology solutions, featuring hardware and software for improved visibility and control of asset movements.
Learn how Zebra's public sector technology solutions empower state and local governments to improve efficiency with asset tracking and data capture devices.
Zebra’s printing, scanning and tracking technologies for public sector healthcare help ensure delivery of the best possible care for optimal health outcomes.
Zebra’s law enforcement and first responder technologies – scanners, tablets and mobile computers – give you real-time, accurate situational awareness.
Zebra’s asset tracking and data capture technologies empower federal civilian agencies to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Zebra’s printing, scanning and mobile computer technology gives state and local government agencies the tools to provide services quickly and efficiently, making the best use of resources.
Zebra’s military and Department of Defense (DoD) barcode printing and asset tracking technologies increase visibility into assets, personnel and equipment, for faster, more efficient and secure operations.
Create a safe and secure environment on campus with Zebra’s ID printing and tracking solutions.
With Zebra's law enforcement technology solutions, you can answer the call of duty with greater confidence. Spend more time protecting the public and less time doing paperwork.
Track your teams, equipment and vitals, so you're better prepared, better protected and better informed at the fire station and at the scene.
Let Zebra show you how our transformative emergency response technology can be your best ally in serving the public.
Zebra’s asset management devices for local and federal government enable agencies to track and manage total asset inventories.
Zebra’s identity management technologies for government include secure ID card printing, mobile fingerprint collection, document scanning, CAC card verification, personnel validation and more.
Zebra’s inspection and code enforcement technology provides fast accurate options for ensuring compliance.
Zebra’s disaster and emergency management mobile technologies allow for real-time communication for onsite assessment, asset tracking and identification, and inventory control.
Zebra’s mobile logistics solutions for military supply chains keep operations moving smoothly around the clock.
Manage the inventory of your military commissary and exchange service with Zebra’s practical and rugged inventory management printers and scanners.
Zebra’s MRO solutions enable personnel to access work orders and maintenance histories, track parts and inventories, and complete necessary documents.
Deliver the right human services, when and where they’re needed, quickly, efficiently and accurately.
Zebra’s electronic citation (E-citation) solutions provide enforcement officers with fast, accurate options for electronic ticketing.
Zebra’s ID card printers and scanners allow for high volume license printing and processing of drivers, marriage, insurance and wildlife licenses.
Zebra’s Communications & Collaboration solutions enable a safer, more informed field workforce, for both routine operations and emergency response.
Zebra’s situational awareness solutions for public safety include an array of purpose-built mobile computers, rugged tablets, visibility and support services enable a fully customized solution for your agency’s needs.
Zebra's hospitality technology solutions equip your hotel and restaurant staff to deliver superior customer and guest service through inventory tracking and more.
With Zebra's Hospitality Communication Solutions, you can enable real-time communications for your hospitality staff with mobile computers and smartphone devices.
Zebra's card printing solutions allows for fast, on-demand printing of room access keys, VIP badges, loyalty, membership and gift cards
Keep track and stay prepared by monitoring and tracking inventory and asset locations with Zebra's restaurant and hotel inventory management solutions.
Zebra provides food label solutions for restaurants, hotels and more. Our labels meet local regulations for direct and indirect food contact.
Zebra's restaurant mobile POS and ordering devices can increase your restaurant sales, enhance server productivity, and increase guest satisfaction.
Zebra's food safety hardware and software keep your guests safe and enable you to automate food safety procedures, reducing the odds of spreading food-borne illness.
Zebra's QSR software can enable you to increase inventory counts, scan guest loyalty apps, decrease wait times and increase customer satisfaction.
Zebra's market-leading solutions and products improve customer satisfaction with a lower cost per interaction by keeping service representatives connected with colleagues, customers, management and the tools they use to satisfy customers across the supply chain.
Enable field workers to perform pre-sales, sales, route accounting activities and more effectively interact with customers.
Instant access to technical specs and inventory helps improve customer satisfaction.
Mobile computers and printers ensure accurate chain of custody handoff during pick-up and delivery.
Empower your field workers with purpose-driven mobile technology solutions to help them capture and share critical data in any environment.
Zebra's mobile computing portfolio is designed to help utility companies improvement the management and lifecycle of their assets.
Zebra's mobile devices enable your entire staff, from call center representatives to field technicians, to deliver enhanced customer service through the use of mobile technology.
Zebra's rugged mobile technology solutions provide the field dispatch and routing tools needed to accelerate in-field operations. Learn More.
From first call through incident investigation, Zebra ruggedized mobile solutions enable emergency response personnel to serve public safety and utilities industries more effectively with industry-leading mobility strategies.
Zebra's rugged mobile devices provide your field teams and contractors with complete situational awareness to meet customer service needs.
Zebra's mobile computing solutions provide utilities companies with the tools needed for advanced GIS asset mapping of in-field infrastructure.
Zebra's mobile computing portfolio features tools to help you upgrade processes such as digitizing record inspections to speed up efficiencies. Learn More.
Zebra's mobile computing solutions specialize in the real-time, data-powered mobile workflows to help utility companies with inventory management. Learn more.
Zebra's rugged HazLoc mobile devices help optimize your critical operations with safety as a top priority. Learn More.
Zebras field-certified rugged mobile devices connect oil and gas field workers to real-time critical data. Learn More.
Zebra's mobile technology solutions enable your operators to get real-time remote asset monitoring across your operations. Learn More.
Zebra's rugged mobile computing solutions enable your staff to plan, schedule and complete maintenance and repairs in any environment. Learn More.
Drive successful telecom management with mobile devices designed to meet the demands of public safety and customer service.
Zebra's data-powered mobile technology solutions help you to generate efficiencies across your field service operation in the water industry. Learn More.
Zebra's mobile work order management technology allows you to leverage your existing systems to your operations perform at their very best. Learn More.
Zebra's range of Banking technology solutions enables banks to minimize costs and to increase revenue throughout their branch network. Learn more.
Zebra's range of mobile computers equip your workforce with the devices they need from handhelds and tablets to wearables and vehicle-mounted computers.
Zebra's desktop, mobile, industrial, and portable printers for barcode labels, receipts, RFID tags and cards give you smarter ways to track and manage assets.
Zebra's 1D and 2D corded and cordless barcode scanners anticipate any scanning challenge in a variety of environments, whether retail, healthcare, T&L or manufacturing.
Zebra's extensive range of RAIN RFID readers, antennas, and printers give you consistent and accurate tracking.
Choose Zebra's reliable barcode, RFID and card supplies carefully selected to ensure high performance, print quality, durability and readability.
Zebra's location technologies provide real-time tracking for your organization to better manage and optimize your critical assets and create more efficient workflows.
Zebra's rugged tablets and 2-in-1 laptops are thin and lightweight, yet rugged to work wherever you do on familiar and easy-to-use Windows or Android OS.
With Zebra's family of fixed industrial scanners and machine vision technologies, you can tailor your solutions to your environment and applications.
Zebra’s line of kiosks can meet any self-service or digital signage need, from checking prices and stock on an in-aisle store kiosk to fully-featured kiosks that can be deployed on the wall, counter, desktop or floor in a retail store, hotel, airport check-in gate, physician’s office, local government office and more.
Discover Zebra’s range of accessories from chargers, communication cables to cases to help you customize your mobile device for optimal efficiency.
Zebra's environmental sensors monitor temperature-sensitive products, offering data insights on environmental conditions across industry applications.
Enhance frontline operations with Zebra’s AI software solutions, which optimize workflows, streamline processes, and simplify tasks for improved business outcomes.
Keep labor costs low, your talent happy and your organization compliant. Create an agile operation that can navigate unexpected schedule changes and customer demand to drive sales, satisfy customers and improve your bottom line.
Empower the front line with prioritized task notification and enhanced communication capabilities for easier collaboration and more efficient task execution.
Get full visibility of your inventory and automatically pinpoint leaks across all channels.
Reduce uncertainty when you anticipate market volatility. Predict, plan and stay agile to align inventory with shifting demand.
Drive down costs while driving up employee, security, and network performance with software designed to enhance Zebra's wireless infrastructure and mobile solutions.
Explore Zebra’s printer software to integrate, manage and monitor printers easily, maximizing IT resources and minimizing down time.
Make the most of every stage of your scanning journey from deployment to optimization. Zebra's barcode scanner software lets you keep devices current and adapt them to your business needs for a stronger ROI across the full lifecycle.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
Zebra DNA is the industry’s broadest suite of enterprise software that delivers an ideal experience for all during the entire lifetime of every Zebra device.
Advance your digital transformation and execute your strategic plans with the help of the right location and tracking technology.
Boost warehouse and manufacturing operations with Symmetry, an AMR software for fleet management of Autonomous Mobile Robots and streamlined automation workflows.
The Zebra Aurora suite of machine vision software enables users to solve their track-and-trace, vision inspection and industrial automation needs.
Zebra Aurora Focus brings a new level of simplicity to controlling enterprise-wide manufacturing and logistics automation solutions. With this powerful interface, it’s easy to set up, deploy and run Zebra’s Fixed Industrial Scanners and Machine Vision Smart Cameras, eliminating the need for different tools and reducing training and deployment time.
Aurora Imaging Library™, formerly Matrox Imaging Library, machine-vision software development kit (SDK) has a deep collection of tools for image capture, processing, analysis, annotation, display, and archiving. Code-level customization starts here.
Aurora Design Assistant™, formerly Matrox Design Assistant, integrated development environment (IDE) is a flowchart-based platform for building machine vision applications, with templates to speed up development and bring solutions online quicker.
Designed for experienced programmers proficient in vision applications, Aurora Vision Library provides the same sophisticated functionality as our Aurora Vision Studio software but presented in programming language.
Aurora Vision Studio, an image processing software for machine & computer vision engineers, allows quick creation, integration & monitoring of powerful OEM vision applications.
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Find ways you can contact Zebra Technologies’ Support, including Email and Chat, ask a technical question or initiate a Repair Request.
Zebra's Circular Economy Program helps you manage today’s challenges and plan for tomorrow with smart solutions that are good for your budget and the environment.
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Zebra has a wide variety of courses to train you and your staff, ranging from scheduled sessions to remote offerings as well as custom tailored to your specific needs.
Build your reputation with Zebra's certification offerings. Zebra offers a variety of options that can help you progress your career path forward.
Build your reputation with Zebra's certification offerings. Zebra offers a variety of options that can help you progress your career path forward.
Zebra recently announced that it has acquired Profitect, a leading provider of prescriptive analytics for the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. That has led many people to ask us: what is prescriptive analytics? And is prescriptive analytics the same thing as predictive analytics?
Knowing that business analytics can be categorically complex (even for data scientists), we’ve asked our in-house experts Tom Bianculli and Guy Yehiav to explain the benefits and use cases in the most simplistic way possible…
Your Edge Blog Team: Prescriptive analytics and predictive analytics sound similar. Are they the same thing?
Guy: No, they’re not the same thing, but you’re right, prescriptive and predictive do sound alike. There are actually four types of analytics starting with Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive and Prescriptive. In simplest terms, descriptive analytics is “what happened”, diagnostic analytics is “why did it happen”, predictive analytics is “what will happen” and prescriptive analytics is “what should I do”. Technically all four types analyze large volumes of data to identify business trends and “events” that could impact business decisions.
However, predictive analytics requires users or workers to understand and know how to interpret “the future”. Whereas, prescriptive analytics are analytics for everyone (including those at the edge) with a focus on future performance through identifying controllable factors and providing actionable opportunities that deliver results.
Your Edge Blog Team: So, what are the differences between each of these types of analytics?
Tom: The best way to describe the differences between each analytical approach is to consider how and when the extracted business insights will be used to inform decisions or actions:
For example, Profitect’s prescriptive analytics solution will mine a retailer’s data to find inconsistencies that could impact sales or margins and then automatically notify stakeholders of the potentially disruptive issue using a simple description. But it doesn’t stop there. It also provides easy-to-follow guidance on how to address the inconsistency, whether further investigation is needed or a clear-cut fix is defined. It also identifies potential cost-saving and growth opportunities within the value chain, making prescriptive analytics a win-win.
Your Edge Blog Team: It’s not enough to have a predictive analytics solution then?
Guy: You’re right, prescriptive analytics goes beyond predictive analytics to give you the reason for those anticipated events and what to do about them so the outcome is optimized. Profitect’s prescriptive analytics solution even goes one step further by triggering a workflow that allows you to track subsequent actions taken by your team to respond to the issue or take advantage of the opportunity, which ensures accountability.
Your Edge Blog Team: So, in a way, prescriptive analytics is to the future what descriptive analytics is to the past as far as extracting the reason behind an outcome. Except, with prescriptive analytics, you’re in a position to take proactive measures to mitigate the risk or maximize the opportunity. With descriptive analytics, you’re making decision in reaction to something that’s already happened with the hope that you can replicate something that worked well or avoid repeating a mistake. Diagnostic analytics tells you why, but doesn’t provide any further actions. And predictive analytics can give you a heads up about what may be coming, but can’t tell you how exactly to leverage that information to your advantage?
Tom: Exactly. Prescriptive analytics offers very pointed guidance on what you should do in any event and why, as well as what could happen if you don’t follow recommended actions – and why.
Guy: Prescriptive analytics also translates the data into a description, this way you eliminate the personal and political biases that affect the way you read a report. Using plain-text removes any biases, ambiguity, or interpretation, and coupled together with a prescriptive action, increases efficiency and effectiveness. While Profitect’s solution can identify problems and suggest actions, a continuous feedback loop also identifies best practices that can be replicated across the enterprise.
Your Edge Blog Team: Are many companies using prescriptive analytics today? It seems like we hear more about descriptive or predictive analytics applications at the enterprise level.
Guy: Retailers have been using prescriptive analytics for several years to capitalize on the data they capture in-store and online. The Profitect solution is currently used by some of the most recognized retail and CPG brands in the world to improve inventory and pricing accuracy, reduce out of stocks, minimize unsellable merchandise, and fix assortment discrepancies. Our customers consistently report sales lift, as well as margin and labor productivity improvement. Ultimately this creates a better overall consumer experience.
Your Edge Blog Team: That’s interesting. Can you provide an example?
Guy: An interesting example would be one of our international grocery retailers whose U.S. division was challenged with Direct Store Delivery (DSD) vendors, process gaps that led to high markdowns, and technical issues impacting product resets being scanned for loss.
They started leveraging Profitect’s prescriptive analytics solution to track inventory data, remedy these process gaps and bring millions of dollars back to the company’s bottom line. To date, they have been able to create more than 750 “patterns” (or algorithms) to look for – and successfully find – areas that impact their business.
One example includes several stores identifying DSD deliveries that were not delivered according to the order. Now stores are informed of any DSD product that has been shipped to their store, but has not achieved sales. Profitect uses machine learning to cluster stores and compare behavioral consumptions and shipments. This helps identify any behavioral change which will point to a compliance or fraud issue created by the delivery company.
Your Edge Blog Team: That was a great example. But, how can prescriptive analytics be applied to areas beyond retail?
Tom: In retail, prescriptive analytics goes beyond inventory or vendor management. It can also be applied to functional roles like Asset Protection. For example, Profitect’s prescriptive analytics solution has been used to detect:
We know that prescriptive analytics can also be used for similar fraud detection purposes at multiple supply chain touchpoints, not just at the point of sale. Imagine the impact that these analytical tools could make on combating counterfeit drug distribution. There are numerous possible applications in the manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and logistics space that we will explore in the coming months.
Guy: Additionally, due to the increasingly complex nature of supply chains, prescriptive analytics offers Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) users a significant advantage over report-based systems. Using prescriptive analytics, raw data becomes “smart” tasks, distributed to the appropriate stakeholder with specific action steps to resolve. Under a report-based system, identifying who should perform what task could take a data scientist days, by which time the insight may no longer be actionable. It’s important to catch and weed out supply-chain inefficiencies and sources of waste in near-real time. Prescriptive analytics enables fast actionability.
Your Edge Blog Team: Is that why Zebra decided to acquire Profitect? To help Profitect scale their solutions and broaden the reach of prescriptive analytics to customers in other industries?
Tom: Zebra has been focused on expanding its global leadership in Intelligent Edge Solutions for some time. That is why Zebra Ventures first invested in Profitect in 2014. More recently, we have been seeking new ways to advance our Enterprise Asset Intelligence vision – to have every asset and worker on the edge visible, connected and optimally utilized. If you think about that last point – “optimally utilized” – it’s really about informing and empowering that worker to take the best next action. Offering the worker a prescribed action that will optimize their workflow is what it is all about. This is precisely what Profitect does and why we continue to invest and build out our capabilities at Zebra that contribute to advancing prescriptive analytics.
The addition of the Profitect technology and talent to our Zebra family enables us to more effectively build the "analyze and act" layers of our Zebra Savanna™ platform, which will enhance our existing Intelligent Edge Solutions. Combining the real-time data that Zebra solutions capture with Profitect's access to operational data, machine learning and analytics, we can now work with our partners and customers to empower front-line workers across all verticals, not just retail, with the focused insights they need to make smarter decisions and take faster, more effective actions.
Have a question for Tom or Guy about analytics? Share it in the Comments section below.
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Editor’s Note: Learn more about how Zebra’s combined Intelligent Edge Solutions, including the Zebra Savanna IoT platform and Profitect prescriptive analytics solutions, can benefit your business.
The “Your Edge” Blog Team is comprised of content curators and editors from Zebra’s Global PR, Thought Leadership and Advocacy team. Our goal is to connect you with the industry experts best-versed on the issues, trends and solutions that impact your business. We will collectively deliver critical news analysis, exclusive insights on the state of your industry, and guidance on how your organization can leverage a number of different proven technology platforms and strategies to capture your edge.
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