You'll still be able to find all the previously published articles here.  They're not going anywhere!  But for all the latest articles affecting data collection, check out our new RACO Pulse blog.

Sometimes it's hard to see concrete examples of how a change in the way you do business can benefit your bottom line.  But one of our clients had very specific events happen where he was able to save money and control his drivers' behavior in the first week.

One of our client's drivers came to him the first week our Fleet Tracking Service was installed asking for overtime.  The employee stated he hadn't had enough time to make all of his deliveries and would need overtime approved to complete his tasks.  Before approving, our client checked out this driver's activities on the Fleet Tracking Service.  Good thing he did.  It turns out that this driver's vehicle had been idle for the majority of the day.

Almost immediately, our client received a real-time email alert informing him that another of his drivers was speeding down the highway.  Obviously, the image of one of his trucks barreling down the highway with their logo whizzing through traffic didn't sit well with our client.

First thing Monday morning, he sat down his drivers and explained that these types of activities were no longer acceptable. Needless to say, driver behavior has been exemplorary since then.

If you'd like to get a handle on your fleet operations or save money on transportation operations, contact a product specialist at 1-800-446-1991.

There is no shortage of people willing to give you advice on how to handle your business.  But you may want to pay a little more attention when the source is the government department responsible for protecting America and preserving our freedoms.  

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security had this to say about healthcare organizations dragging their feet when it came to upgrading to mobile technologies and the dangers of having employees use their own devices for work purposes, also known as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

If IT administrators don’t implement the correct mobile device for the right job or are slow to integrate [mobile devices] into the work place, they run the risk that employees may use their personal mobile devices to perform their duties. If a healthcare professional uses a personal device such as a smart phone, tablet or USB device to access patient information, at risk for theft or accidental loss of the device is patient information on an unencrypted or protected device that is not password protected.

Doctors love their tablets.  Don't let them be the ones who determine the future of your IT endeavors.  That could be a negative for them, their patients, and your company.

For more suggestions from the DHS, check out these 10 mobile health best practices from the Department of Homeland Security . For more information about improving your company's healthcare devices and processes, contact a specialist at 1-800-446-1991.

This video is based on a true story.  The company called us because they couldn't run their fleet operations if their dispatch manager was out of the office.  Not only did we simplify their process, but we made it super efficient no matter who was in the office.

For more information about complete business solutions, contact a product specialist at 1-800-446-1991. 

The Peggy Smedley Show is a weekly radio show that helps listeners not only understand connected devices, but also how to make these devices a part of their everyday lives. 

She caught up with RACO Wireless president, John Horn, at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about the connected car, growth in the M2M market, and why 2G is alive and well at RACO Wireless.  

We are not abandoning 2G.  2G will stay in the network for the foreseeable future.  We're definitely behind 2G and T-Mobile as our partner is supporting that.

Call 1-800-509-3677 to learn more about the advantages of 2G for you and your business.  Listen here for more from John Horn.  A few weeks later, Rob Deubell, president of OpenMotion, discusses our connected kiosk system for printing instant, customized gift cards.

 The ROI is based upon the lift of gift cards that will be sold.  Consumers will be buying more gift cards because of this (kiosk) and it can be as little as an extra card a day sold by the retailer that could cost justify the kiosk itself and the software associated with it.  It would not take a lot of lift to be able to have this make sense for the retailers.

It won't take much for a custom kiosk to pay for itself and help grow your business.  Listen here for the whole interview. 

Money is the lifeblood of any business.  But for those that deal primarily with physical cash,  keeping track of this precious lifeblood is literally in your hands.  There are a number of options to choose from to make sure you can accurately and quickly count every cent you bring in.

For example, this Volumatic CountEasy IP Portable Cash Counter can count an entire drawer in less than a minute.  See for yourself:

For more questions about any of our cash counting solutions or other ways to improve your business processes with technology, contact a prodcut specialist at 1-800-446-1991. 

If you have a problem with getting up in the morning, there's a way the Quick Response code can help.  There's now an app that would make you scan a QR code to turn off your alarm clock.  You can set it up to require you to scan the barcode on your orange juice carton or one of those QR code coffee mugs.  That way you can't just roll over, push a button, and go back to sleep.  This would require you to get out from under those comfy blankets and go into the kitchen to turn off the alarm.  Or, at the very least, put that code on your nightstand.

Speaking of codes on your drink, if you want more information about the beer you're enjoying, you're in luck. Budweiser is using QR codes to allow their customers to track their Bud. 

The campaign — “Track Your Bud” — lets customers trace the beer in their hands from its production at one of Budweiser’s 12 U.S. breweries, including Columbus, to their refrigerator. It even has an app that allows users who are the first to register a particular “Born On” date to name that particular batch of beer. 

Even if you can't find the item with the QR code on it, this tech can still help you out.  If you put a custom QR Code on your key ring , you can put your contact information on it so if they are left somewhere, whoever finds it can scan the code and learn how to contact you.

Want to try it for yourself?  You can create a free QR code via our Barcode Generator or, for you developers, try the RACO Barcode API demo today and see what you can do with the power of the QR Code.  

That was the finding of one of our customers after searching for ways to lower his overall business costs.  After making all of their deliveries, his drivers come back to their headquarters and dock their mobile computers to synch all the data collected that day.  Mind you, that's could be dozens of additional miles every day that our customer was paying each of his drivers for.

At our suggestion, he began a pilot project with one of his drivers who had to go really out of his way to come back to base at the end of the day. These drivers are paid .$48 per mile to drive their own vehicles.  As a result, that turned out to be $20 per day just to have this particular driver come back to base to synch his data.  Compare that to when he would just go home after making his deliveries and synching wirelessly: less than 35 cents a day.  Needless to say, this company is going the data plan route.

At RACO, a 3 mB data plan costs just $10 per device per month.  With gas over $4 a gallon, doesn't the data plan sound like it might be worth a closer look?  Call 1-800-446-1991 to see if a wireless plan is right for your company.

Buying the right mobile computer for your business's needs can be a tough thing to do.  If you need more than one or if they need to go to multiple locations with many different accessories, the margin for error just gets bigger.  So why go it alone?  RACO Industries will walk you through the mobile computer purchasing process to make sure you get everything you need out of your new device.

See the RACO Difference in this animated presentation: 

To know more about the RACO difference, contact a product specialist call 1-800-446-1991. 

Sure, you've been hearing from us on a regular basis that QR Codes can be a good thing for your business. But don't just take our word for it, QR Codes were recently listed as 5 Technologies Your Business Should Be Using according to BusinessNewsDaily Contributor Kim Zimmermann.

Not necessarily a new technology, but QR codes have mostly been adopted by larger companies and placed on products and in advertising. But they are easy to set up and can be used to direct potential clients to a website or personal profile that you control.

"If you're a small law office, for example, and a potential client Googles you and sees negative comments, they aren't going to sign you up to defend them,"said James Alexander, founder and CEO of Vizibility, an online identity management platform. "But sometimes the negative comments are about another firm or another person, so we help businesses with an online business card that sends users directly to the correct online identity that you share and control. People include the QR codes on their business cards, in presentation and in marketing materials and potential clients just scan the code to go to the accurate information."

The bonus: you can get reports on who scanned your QR code and follow up. 

See?  Not just us touting this technology.  Lots of companies think this is the way to promote their products or services.  As always, we're here with suggestions and advice.

Want to try it for yourself?  You can create a free QR code via our Barcode Generator or, for you developers, try the RACO Barcode API demo today and see what you can do with the power of the QR Code.