The Role Of Rugged Tablets In Route Accounting

By Matt Miller, founder and CEO, MobileDemand

Food and beverage distributors have been realizing the benefits of equipping their field sales force with mobile technologies for a number of years. In fact, many of the large and midsize distributors are on their third or fourth generation of route-accounting software and mobile computers. Over time, distributors' needs have changed, technologies have converged, and route-accounting applications have become much more robust.

To support these applications and the ever-growing need for more data and graphics at the point of work, food and beverage distributors are trading in their handhelds for rugged tablet PCs. This trend, which began a few years ago, has accelerated recently with the introduction of the iPad and various Android slates.

In addition, the following efficiency factors have contributed to food and beverage distributors' decisions to migrate to rugged tablet PCs for continued improvements in mobile workforce productivity.