Airclic in The News
It’s a fast-paced world, you need to track your stuff: AirClic’s software system relays vital mobile data
NEWTOWN — Sure, you can move it around. But can you find it? Can you say for sure where you left the stuff? For distribution companies, transportation enterprises and a range of other businesses, it’s a pressing question.
“You have a field force out there repairing and installing items. You have delivery trucks on the road. You have transportation processes, you have distribution, but what is the status of all those things?” Tim Bradley asks.
As CEO of AirClic, Bradley has made it his mission to help others answer questions like this.
Founded in 2000, the company set out to convince people that they could use their cell phones to order products through the television, respond to bar-coded newspaper ads, and conduct other consumer-type transactions.
The play fizzled. “Just ahead of its time,” Bradley said.
So, in 2003, AirClic reinvented itself. Same technology, new application. This time the company would use its software as the hub of a system that could relay vital mobile data in the business-to-business environment.
From half a million in revenue in 2003 the firm has swelled to an estimated $10 million gross this year.
The turnaround started with a massacre. Headcount remains the same today as it was in 2003, but two-thirds of the people are new to the company. There’s been a culture shift, too, away from development and toward sales, with a new marketing vice president on board and scaled-up sales and marketing departments.
“Prior to all this, there wasn’t a clear focus in the organization on how to market and sell the product,” Bradley said.
But still: $10 million? That’s a heck of a jump.
The key lies in a strategic partnership with Nextel, a dominant force in the mobile-communication market, especially in the areas of transport and distribution logistics. Nextel has its 5,000-strong sales force referring customers directly to AirClic, whose product integrates easily into Nextel’s own offerings.
Integration is the key word here. In addition to its Nextel tie, AirClic has built a Motorola-branded bar code scanner that can be attached to a cell phone. Synergies like these help mobility managers keep their budgets in balance.
At courier company Priority Dispatch Inc. of Ohio, for instance, Logistics Specialist Eric Chesson has some 500 independent contractors doing delivery work. He opted for an AirClic solution to manage that traffic largely on the grounds that AirClic required no additional investment.
The drivers “already have a Nextel radio, which is standard in our industry, and AirClic was able to give us a scanner attachment to those radios, so they didn’t have to carry two pieces of equipment,” he said.
While Chesson uses AirClic to track deliveries, others turn to the technology to ensure prompt and effective management of their service fleets.
As senior vice president at Océ North America in Chicago, Dan Krzesinski helps to oversee the sale and service of high-demand printers. He relies on AirClic technology to dispatch and coordinate his service fleet.
“It’s very important for us to understand where inventory is at all times, especially when it comes to having spare parts for machines,” he said. “We need to correct problems on customers’ machines and get them back up and running as soon as possible, so we need to be able to plan our time properly. To do what we need, we need to see the movement of those parts as they move toward the clients’ location.”
There is competition in this space, but Bradley says he has an edge over most other players. Prevailing technologies, he said, typically plug into a global positioning system and can deliver only location data, such as, there’s the truck. AirClic on the other hand offers a fuller picture.
“We have raised the game with the ability not just to provide GPS coordinates but also to capture the business event: I’ve arrived somewhere, I’ve installed something; whatever the action is.”
To make the most of this advantage Bradley has developed some unorthodox management methods. When company executives meet, for instance, they keep an empty chair in the room labeled “customer,” just to make sure no one forgets the overall goal.
Looking ahead, Bradley would like to make health care his next big target market. AirClic could help track patient behavior in home health-care settings, monitor specimens as they travel to and from the lab, or help keep tabs on medical equipment in hospitals.
“At this point we are working with the large distributors, talking to the industry leaders and working with the health-care providers,” he said. “My strategy is to win a set of industry leaders in order to establish credibility in the space. We believe that if we win the leaders, the rest will follow.”
Read more: It’s a fast-paced world, you need to track your stuff – Philadelphia Business Journal
