Empowering Couriers with a Single Device By Jeff Goldman
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, founded in 1941, is a research, education and patient care facility based in Houston, Texas. U.S. News & World Report's most recent America's Best Hospitals survey ranked MD Anderson as the top hospital in the U.S. for cancer care.
Charles E. Baker III, the hospital's supervisor of logistics services, oversees MD Anderson's courier service, which picks up and delivers packages, samples and films -- between 7,500 and 8,000 deliveries each month -- among the 36 buildings (covering more than 11 million square feet) on MD Anderson's campus.
To expedite the delivery process, 11 drivers were recently provided with BlackBerry Curve 8350i devices and EnterMoCase barcode scanning and signature capture cases.
When Baker was first exploring options for the deployment, he says he found several devices that provided barcode scanning and signature capture -- but he was specifically looking for a solution that integrated with a BlackBerry device in order to enable push-to-talk functionality. "We needed to be able to communicate with our drivers, and I didn't want them to have to carry two or three different devices to do their job," he says.
That combination, Baker says, is something he couldn't find anywhere else. "The solution that EnterMo and BlackBerry have come up with is unique, where you can also utilize the two-way communications, the Direct Connect... we were not able to find any other solution where the drivers were able to carry just one device," he says.
And while the price of the BlackBerry devices was attractive, Baker says that wasn't a deciding factor. "For us, the price was a bonus," he says. "What we were looking for was one device that could capture all the data that needed to be captured, and be able to communicate with the drivers... and for the EnterMo unit, for 11 units at roughly $750 a unit, our upfront costs were minimal."
For MD Anderson's courier services, the BlackBerry/EnterMoCase solution facilitates tracking of all pickups and deliveries. The procedure for the drivers themselves, Baker says, is very straightforward. "We show up at the location, we assign [the package] a barcode, we scan that barcode, and then we can track pickup through delivery of that particular package," he says.
Actsoft's Comet Tracker software allows Baker to view each driver's location, and enables assignment of pickups and deliveries. "We have the ability to track our drivers -- to see where the drivers are via GPS -- and we're also able to create the tasks as we get them for the driver," Baker says. "We create the tasks... and the tasks are sent to their BlackBerry devices so they'll know where their next pickup location is."
Baker says the couriers previously used pen and paper to get signatures on delivery -- so the EnterMoCase now makes the process infinitely more efficient. "All of the signatures are captured electronically, so with a push of a button we can find who has signed for them... and now my staff doesn't have to spend a lot of time looking up paper signatures," he says.
Ultimately, Baker says, the combined solution has been a perfect fit. "It's given us the freedom to capture signatures electronically, communicate with the drivers... and just carry one device," he says. "For what we do, for the amount of packages we handle, it's just been amazing."
