Chris Murphy

Editor, Informationweek


 Email  Print  Share

0 Comments

Channel: Global CIO

See all blogs by Chris Murphy

What Brown Does For HP

UPS spent 18 months working with Hewlett-Packard to develop a wearable printer-scanner that should make its package sorting more efficient and significantly cut paper use. HP can now sell the printer to anyone, including UPS rivals. How's that help UPS? CIO David Barnes explains.

It's all about how the technology's put to use. "The engineering is novel, but the device by itself is just a device," says Barnes. "It's how you integrate it into a business process." The differentiator for UPS is to integrate the device, called the sp400 All-in-One, into its package-flow technologies and processes. Employees use it to scan packages as they come into a UPS center, then spray sorting information -- transmitted via Wi-Fi -- directly onto the packages with fast-drying ink.

Sorters previously carried packages to a fixed scanner connected to a large thermal printer. Besides improving efficiency of sorters, the device, once it's widely implemented, will let UPS save 1,338 tons of paper a year by not having to print sorting labels.





HP
Find out by downloading this article (and others) in PDF format, part of an exclusive InformationWeek Alert!



For HP, this is the first product in what it hopes will be a growth segment of mobile printing devices. Clay Higgins, general manager of HP's extended printing group, says that, when UPS came to it with this idea, it didn't have a product to fit the bill. "This wasn't a derivative of an OfficeJet," Higgins says. But the team thought it might be able to develop something, if it could get inside UPS, see the problems, and use the company as a real-world test bed.

There were problems to work out. HP needed quick-drying ink that would stick to anything from plastic to cardboard. It had to figure out what colors are readable in the variable lighting from sorting line to truck bay (magenta, it turns out). And it had to build something durable enough to last in a warehouse. "We viewed it like a crescent wrench," Higgins says.

CIOs like the sound of "partnering" with vendors. Fewer, closer relationships. And vendors talk about "co-creating" products. But it's hard to do, it requires time and risk, and most companies fall short of this ideal. There's a risk for a CIO like Barnes, to share his company's industry knowledge and business requirements. It only makes sense if Barnes and his business technology team are confident they can squeeze more advantage out of the technology than their competitors can.



This is a public forum. United Business Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. United Business Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.

Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of United Business Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in United Business Media's Terms of Service.

Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.


CIO TV

National Semiconductor Company takes the top spot on the InformationWeek 500 list of the nation’s business-technology innovators. ; 2008 InformationWeek 500 winner; collaboration; InformationWeek500 conference; innovation; National Semiconductor; product development; Techweb TV; Ulrich Seif; virtual inventory; Fritz Nelson spoke with Kent Kushar, the CIO of E&J Gallo Winery about what it takes to be the best and what qualities tomorrow's CIO should possess.; CIO's Uncensored; Gallo Winery; Kent Kushar; TechWeb; Tomorrow's CIO; One of the industry's leading CIOs, Ralph Szygenda, talks about what it takes to be a CIO and what tomorrow's CIO will have to do to prepare.; CIOs; General Motors; Informationweek; Ralph Sygenda; TechWeb; Techweb TV; Tomorrow's CIO; Fritz Nelson spoke with Dan Drawbaugh, last year's InformationWeek Chief of the Year, about what qualities tomorrow's CIO should possess. Dan is the CIO of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.; CIO's Uncensored; Dan Drawbaugh; Techweb TV; Tomorrow's CIO; CIOs from State of Michigan and National City Corporation Talk About the Innovative Projects their Teams Have Been Executing On, Including Core System Replacement and Business Portals; CIO Innovation; CIO Symposium; CIOs; Informationweek; MIT; TechWeb; Techweb TV; Scott offers his perspective on software innovation, the role of analytics in Disney's business, and more.; analytics; career; CIO; customer relationships; digitization; innovation; software; software as a service; Carter says the notion that innovation is dead is "preposterous!"; access; career; CIO; Connectivity; globalization; offshore outsourcing; software as a service; software innovation; Web 2.0; Redshaw sees a resurgence in software innovation and talks about the benefits of software as a service and SOA at Motorola.; business process management; career; CIO; software as a service; software innovation; Web 2.0; web services; Phillips talks about the benefit of global IT standards, innovation spending, and the future of IT careers.; business process management; career; CIO; global standards; governance; IT education; metrics; scorecards; Bailar discusses the role of IT in business growth, his must-read business book, agile development and he offers up some advice to the software vendor community.; agile development; business books; business performance; business process management; Call Center; CIO; customer relationships; innovation; IT effectiveness; productivity; Project Management; roi; scorecard; time-to-market; The co-authors of "The New Age Of Innovation" talk about their basic concepts of N=1 and R=G. ; CIO; customer intimacy; e-commerce; General Motors; globalization; Ralph Szygenda; re-engineering; GM's tech leader talks about consolidating, re-engineering, upgrading the company's application infrastructure. ; CIO; complexity; General Motors; globalization; integration; legacy systems; privacy; Ralph Szygenda; security; What does it take to be a CIO in the customer-oriented, globalized business environment today? Ask Ralph. ; business; CIO; customer intimacy; General Motors; infrastructure; Ralph Szygenda; supply chain; Learn how GM is building a global IT environment and what it takes to be labeled a dinosaur around his organization.; architecture; business acumen; business process outsourcing; collaboration; complexity; consumer technology; Global IT standards; globalization; IT management; real-time; roi; security; virtualization; Hear Randy's vision for the data center of the future and how he intends to slay the legacy monsters.; applications; business acumen; business processes; business-IT alignment; centralization; CIO career; complexity; data center consolidation; data centers; Data Warehouse; Efficiency; leadership; portfiolio management; reducing risk; roi; scalability; His challenge? Creating open environment for Internet users without compromising information security and privacy.; broadband; business acumen; capacity; CIO; CIO role; content generation; data centers; infrastructure; internet; privacy; security; social networking; video; Web 2.0; She considers business acumen just as important as technical knowledge for a CIO. Here's why.; business acument; Business continuity; career development; disaster recovery; IT recruitment; IT-Business Alignment; roi; security; wireless;