At RACO Industries, we pride ourselves on using technology, information, and mobile devices to help save you money.  Now we’ve taken it to another level with  MobileCoupons.com.  With this application, you can access thousands of money-saving coupons on your mobile phone.  It’s a great idea that people are starting to talk about, including many news outlets.  WCPO-TV Reporter Larry Shields stopped by our offices to learn more about MobileCoupons.com and also one of the businesses using MobileCoupons.com to target dead times in their restaurants.

And WCPO isn’t the only one to notice.  News 9 in Oklahoma City also included us in a segment on the mobile coupons trend.  These are just the first of many as MobileCoupons.com is adding more businesses and more deals each and every day.  Consumers can find coupon offers easily on their iPhone, Mobile Web, Internet, and the Android and can even share the savings with social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter.  And for merchants, MobileCoupons.com is a great way to market and promote your business to consumers via specials & coupons.

Find out why MobileCoupons.com is a Phone Full Of Savings by downloading our iPhone app, going to the Android Market, visiting m.mobilecoupons.com on your cell phone, or going to our website http://www.mobilecoupons.com/.

2009 was considered rough for many businesses but RACO Industries was there for you creating useful and knowledgeable videos all year long.  In case you missed it, here are 9 of the most helpful RACO videos from 2009.

9. Color Us Impressed
            We spent a lot of time with Epson’s SecurColor TM-C3400 Color Label Printer and it has really made an impact on some of us here at RACO Industries.  We came away impressed with the ability device’s ability to handle high quality, high volume color printing.  We’ve even seen it perform well in the field.  Be sure to keep an eye out for that video coming up in 2010.

8. Green Means Go
            We had many opportunities to see Datalogic’s patented Green Spot technology in action.  As you can imagine, the visual indicator is great for noisy places where you can’t hear the sound that would confirm a good read.  The feature is even ideal for quiet environments where traditional beeps would be disruptive.

7. Troubleshooting Tips
            A regular feature of our videos is looking at common issues that cause our customers trouble.  Whether it’s showing how to cold boot a Motoroloa MC9090, loading a price label gun, installing a light beacon for an RFID beacon, or cleaning a Zebra printhead, our technicians have lots of knowledge to pass on that can save you time and money.

6. Funtime RACO
            It’s not all troubleshooting tips and speeds ‘n feeds in our videos.  Sometimes we like to let our hair down and have a little bit of fun, especially when we’re giving away prizes.  Whether we’re configuring a GPS unit, watching basketball, recreating our logo on an Etch-A-Sketch, or playing Wii ping pong, we enjoy sharing a smile with our customers and vendors.

5. Cassida Currency devices.
            Even those who were bringing in the money could be bogged down by counting and verifying the cash coming in.  Between the 3300 Counterfeit Bill Detector, 6600 Currency Counter, Tiger Dollar Bill Counter, and C100 Coin Counter & Wrapper, Cassida have plenty of devices to help you keep track of the actual cash as it comes through.

4. Happy Birthday, Barcode!
            RACO Industries is definitely a big fan of the barcode so we wanted to celebrate the 35^th anniversary of the first commercial barcode scan in style.  It occurred on June 23, 1974 right up the highway in Troy, Ohio.  We sat down with the original project coordinator about the first time a grocery store had ever been outfitted with this technology. 

3. Intermec Technology Day
            We love to see our vendors face to face.  It’s even more fun when they have new toys to show us.  Back in the summer, Intermec came to Cincinnati for their Technology Day to show off media products such RFID tags, bar code labels, hang tags, shelf talkers and prescription bottle labels as well as solutions for mobile workers such as the CN4 and CN50.

2. Food Labeling
            Unfortunately, health issues concerning food ingredients made the news often in 2009.  In the middle of these concerns, the folks from Monarch stopped by to reinforce how their Country Of Origin Labelling and freshness label solutions can help improve food safety.

Stay tuned as we have plans for more videos top help you in 2010.  And if you have any subjects you would like us to produce a video of, please let us know at giveaway@racoindustries.com and we will try to help you out.  Your video idea will automatically register you for a chance to win a Flip Video Camcorder.Thanks for staying in touch with RACO Industries and have a prosperous new year.

We’re having fun with Twitter and want to share the good time with our followers.  RACO Industries has been using Twitter to announce the arrival of new entries to our video page.  Now we’ll also be using it to help give away prizes.  For example, we tweeted the following challenge:

Look at our Axicon Verifier video & tell us company name on 2^nd label.  Email contest@racoindustries.com & you could win a Flip Camera! 

Here’s the video we were talking about:

And if you get what the company name is referencing, you also earn some kudos in my book. This will probably not be the last contest that we will be having on our feed so don’t forget to sign up to follow our Twitter account and keep an eye out for the latest news, specials, and contests from RACO Industries.

RACO Industries cordially invites you to tour an impressive mobile interactive experience and pick up a complimentary $25 gas card. The Motorola Mobile Briefing Center is coming to Cincinnati and this is your chance to get a sneak peak at products and services that will help you get a leg up on the competition.  Reserve with RACO and we will give you the fuel to get here while Motorola will provide a world of information designed to help you and your company learn more about enterprise mobility, wireless, wireless security, RFID and data collection.

When you step on this travelling showcase, you will find out how you can reduce the cost and complexity of Mobile Office solutions while driving business value and increasing productivity. While visiting the Briefing Center you will experience:

- Interactive demonstrations of Motorola hardware and systems
- Displays and solutions targeting vertical market segments such as transportation and logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, distribution, and more
- Expert’s recommendations and presentations on how solutions are being deployed in different vertical segments
- Technical expertise for your individual applications or solutions
- All of the newest products from Motorola

Personalized Tour if you reserve your spot, otherwise, please come when it is convenient for you.  For additional information and questions, (or if you don’t live near Cincinnati) please contact your RACO Account Manager at 1-800-446-1991.

The CBA250 Cellular Broadband Adapter from Cradlepoint is the ideal solution for connecting Ethernet devices directly to a cellular network or providing 3G failover and redundancy for an existing Internet connection.  Designed to work “out of the box,” setup typically consists of simply plugging in a compatible 3G USB Modem or ExpressCard, connecting the device’s Ethernet port to a personal or corporate switch or hub  and powering up the device.  Once the CBA250 is powered up and initialized the device will route outbound network traffic through the 3G modem or ExpressCard, allowing you to connect to the Internet Services provided by your Wireless Internet Service Provider. 

You can also utilize the CBA250 for Internet Connectivity Failover by connecting the device’s Ethernet port to a multi WAN router.  If the primary ISP experiences an outage, the CBA250 can automatically provide service without interruption. 

In addition to featuring a quick and easy setup process, the CBA250 is also very easy to manage using Cradlepoint’s powerful web based management wizard.  The management application allows administrators to configure wireless modem settings, check wireless connectivity details and status, manage LAN settings, and troubleshoot problems.

Cradlepoint's Web Based Management Wizard

The Cradlepoint CBA250 features compatibility with a multitude of HSPA or EVDO USB modems and ExpressCard devices, handy LED indicators showing the power, Ethernet LAN status , USB Modem and ExpressCard Signal Strength and internal flash memory for feature rich firmware upgrades.  The adapter can be used to provide Cellular Broadband connectivity for an existing PC or Mac based network or for M2M applications that operate in ATM machines, vending machine or coin op monitors, outdoor credit card terminals or asset tracking devices.  

In addition to offering sales and support for the Cradlepoint series of Cellular Broadband Adapters and Routers, RACO Industries also offers 3G wireless data plans that will allow you to get these devices connected right out of the box. 

There’s so many factors that you need to juggle in order to run a successful business.  Between all the exterior pressures like the economy and your competition, it’s easy to overlook those people in your own building.  But workers are something that the folks here at RACO take pride in focusing on.  Management journal SmartBusiness recently featured RACO Industries President Ted Kolp in an article about developing leaders and employee relations.

“Just showing appreciation is something that I make myself do every day. It can take up to an hour to do that, but it’s an investment in my time that I think is well worth it because you build trust, you build candor, you gather ideas, (employees) take ownership.” 

It’s a mindset that all of the management here shares and has led to RACO being named one of the Top 10 best employers in the state by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce for the second year in a row.