Rugged mobile vs consumer mobile costs – Use our calculator
01 October 2024
Rugged
mobile vs consumer mobile costs
Can you really save
up to 50% on Total Cost of Ownership?
The challenge of maintaining high levels of productivity is
ever present in the warehouse and supply chain sector. As the saying goes, time
is money.
It’s why companies are adopting the latest in rugged mobile
and consumer mobile devices. It’s a way to ensure teams are working at their
optimum.
This is especially true in peak periods when companies are
more likely to recruit seasonal staff to ease the pressure.
A familiar operating system, such as Android, (available
on rugged mobiles as well as consumer devices), will help speed up the time it
takes to be productive. The processes involved in picking, packing and putting
away are easy with an intuitive system. What’s more, it’s a way of keeping
delivery schedules on track.
Avoiding outages in consumer mobile or rugged mobile fleets
is also critical. It can cause unnecessary and costly productivity slumps. If a
device stops charging, or the scanner breaks it can be detrimental to the day’s
priorities.
Consumer mobiles vs
rugged mobiles. The trends influencing purchase decisions
However, mandates from the board to keep overheads down is
exerting even more pressure on the purchasing decisions. Warehouse, IT and operations
managers are therefore being encouraged to buy cheaper handsets to meet these
budget obligations.
The race to ensure productivity never dips must be balanced
against reducing expenditure. It’s probably no surprise to learn that there
have been more reports related to how consumer mobile trends are influencing
device purchasing decisions. It’s a popular strategy in the warehouse and
logistics environment.
TechTarget, a well-respected magazine for the
IT industry, recently looked in depth at the influence Android and iOS have had
in business environments.
It notes the rise of using Android devices
reflects the highly customisable user interface. This is especially helpful
when adopting business applications in the warehouse.
The rugged device options that Android
boasts is also compelling - some 100 rugged devices across the market compared
to just the usual consumer mobile form factor from Apple.
Certainly, deploying mobile devices that people are familiar
with using day-to-day is shaping purchasing strategy. Firstly, there’s the cost
of consumer mobiles versus rugged mobiles. It’s considerable cheaper to buy
consumer so it’s driving interest.
Secondly, employee engagement is compelling. If you’re happy to use iOS and Android to run your personal life, then
you’ll be more comfortable using those operating systems at work. In terms of
rugged devices in the warehouse, it’s worth noting there are options. Android
is prevalent and making significant headway in terms of boosting productivity
and employee satisfaction scores.
Does a strategy of
buying consumer devices vs rugged devices introduce more cost long term?
To answer this question, we need to look at the total cost
of ownership or TCO. It’s easy to think that the payback on a device will be
quick if you’ve only spent £400 on a consumer device compared to £1500 for a
rugged handheld device.
True. At face value, it looks like a no-brainer. However, at
TouchStar, we are aware of companies that have been caught out. Their strategy
to provide a device with a familiar form factor and operating systems at a
lower price has cost more, overall, than initially anticipated. Much more.
There are several factors for this. Rugged mobiles are built
for the most hostile of warehouse conditions. They will bounce if dropped on a
concrete floor, and the screens can withstand intense pressure.
Rugged mobiles with integrated heaters won’t freeze if
temperatures plummet. Conversely, thanks to their IP rating, they will
withstand humid temperatures. They are built to cope with condensation
and water effortlessly, just as they will stand up to the test of grit or dust.
But, consumer mobiles, even in durable cases, will not
withstand such gruelling conditions.
We hear of companies that have experienced disruption and
unnecessary downtime caused by dropped devices being sent for repair, through
to glitchy touchscreens that can’t cope with heavy and repetitive
use.
The cost of lost worker productivity is one thing, the costs
in repair and even replacement are another. In effect, the decision to use
consumer mobiles vs rugged mobiles has become a false economy.
Using ROI
calculators to illustrate the rugged device vs consumer device business
case
Exorbitant in-life costs simply can’t be sustained. But
persuading the business that it’s worth spending more up front, to spend less
overall isn’t an easy sell.
That’s why TouchStar has developed an ROI calculator to
illustrate the long-term value of investing in rugged mobile devices versus
consumer mobiles.
It uses some industry averages from rugged handset
manufacturers and our own experience of rolling out thousands of devices every
month.
The calculations also factor in the five-year support
contract we offer. With such a comprehensive set of criteria powering the
calculator, we are sure it will help purchasing teams identify the best route
to go down:
-
On
average it takes 2 hours to set up a consumer mobile for warehouse
operations, compared to 30 minutes for a rugged mobile.
-
Rugged
mobiles typically last around 60 months before they should be replaced.
Whereas a consumer mobile tends to last for 24 months, at best.
-
When
it comes to device performance you should expect an average of 20%
downtime over a consumer handset’s life, compared to 10% for rugged.
The TouchStar ROI calculator understands these parameters so
will apply the industry averages to the calculations it performs:
Let’s start with some basics. A rugged device can cost
around three to four times more than a consumer device.
For this example, a consumer device costs £400 and a rugged
one costs almost four times as much as £1,500.
Next, we’ll consider device life expectancy. That’s how long
the rugged mobile or consumer mobile needs to last in the environment you plan
to deploy them in. There is also a subtle difference at play here. The time a
device will last, compared to how long a company expects it to last.
On average, most companies expect an investment to last five
years. Of course, this is all subject to reasonable expectations on the durability
and lifespan of the device. You should expect a rugged device to last longer
than a consumer device.
How can the device
lifespan be reflected in ROI calculations?
But what happens if any of the following common mishaps
happen to a consumer device vs a rugged device?
The device is:
- Dropped
in a puddle
- Subject
to condensation
- Dropped
from a height onto a hard floor
- Exposed
to dust
is
thrown around i.e. it’s not treated in a way someone would treat their own
device
- Subject
to a touch screen fault from heavy use or scratched screen.
A rugged device is likely to come off unscathed. A consumer
one, however, is very unlikely to survive, and at the very least shows signs of
wear and deterioration because of a knock or a shock.
The average time to repair or replace a broken handset, the
drop in warehouse capacity and the length of productivity downtime, generate
high costs. Indeed, it won’t take long before the consumer mobile becomes
untenable for use.
To help calculate the full picture, our calculator uses the
industry averages associated to a device coming out of circulation for a period
of time.
Crucially, it will also consider staff wages and therefore
the costs associated to a loss in worker productivity, and the cost of
employing IT staff to rectify the problem.
The costs will grow exponentially if you are dealing with
multiple devices over a four-year period. It could be as much as 50% more.
Total cost of
ownership for consumer devices vs rugged mobile devices
Looking back at our initial parameters and the costs
associated with the disruption outlined above, the difference in total cost of
ownership becomes stark.
Over a period of four years, we can see the ROI in consumer
mobile vs rugged mobile as follows.
For a consumer mobile, the total cost of ownership for one
device amounts to £21,030. This is because the lifespan of a consumer device is
shortened in a warehouse environment. There are greater costs related to
the level of intervention by IT to repair/replace a handset, and the downtime
for workers.
Whereas in the case of a rugged device, built to last and
withstand the toughest conditions, the total cost of ownership is £11,597.50.
This is almost half that of the consumer TCO.
With numbers like these, senior managers can’t ignore the
realities of buying consumer over rugged. It really is a case of ‘buy it cheap,
buy it twice.’
Our ROI calculator
is now live, so why not test it for yourself to understand consumer v’s rugged mobile
costs? Play around with the costs and timespans and you’ll quickly see how
adjusting your purchasing strategy in favour of rugged mobile devices could pay
dividends in the long term.