integrated solutions Providing data capture solutions and support to the Enterprise
Providing true cradle to grave Auto-ID Barcode label printing solutions solutions to address the requirements of today s modern businesses. With over 100 years of combined industry experience, Dakota has built a solid reputation in the provision of barcode solutions across a broad section of business environments, both within and outside the 4 walls. Our business offering extends to the core components of a successful data capture solution, including: Barcode label printing and RF tag encoding Integration with business systems Fully configurable managed service for fixed and mobile devices We offer products from the following leading manufacturers: Best of Breed Hardware Products As a trusted advisor, we will help you source the right products for all your labelling, product identification, barcode scanning, data collection or RFID requirements. Our product portfolio includes a comprehensive range of: Barcode label and receipt printers Barcode scanners and imagers Handheld terminals and rugged PDAs Tablet PCs Truck mount terminals Printer Supplies & Bespoke Labels As a Zebra Elite Supplies Specialist Partner and Zebra RFID Specialist Partner, we supply the full range of Zebra consumables. We can support your business with all its barcode label requirements, with products ranging across a wide range of material types and sizes, including custom design for bespoke business applications. We offer a selection of printer ribbons available for Thermal Transfer printers, from economic wax to image lock ribbons. Label Audits turn our expertise into cost savings We can offer you a no-obligation, free of charge consultancy service, whereby we come and visit you at your work premises to discuss your annual /quarterly label usage and help you rationalise your label requirements. At Alliance Healthcare, we supply medicines and other healthcare products and related services to more than 16,000 dispensing points through our network of 12 distribution centres in the UK. When Dakota offered to visit 9 out of our 12 distribution centres and carried out an audit of our requisite stock products, we were able to create a uniform price structure, with each site having the ability to place orders for barcode labels and ribbons directly with Dakota, against a fixed price guaranteed for 12 months. As a result, this has saved the group in excess of 20% on our annual consumable spend in 2011. Ever since we first engaged with Dakota, they have impressed me with their can do attitude and have worked very closely with us to identify and implement significant savings. David Lockwood, Facilities Manager, Alliance Healthcare Our portfolio also extends to labels and ribbons compatible with other brands of printers including: Avery Dennison, Cab, Citizen, Datamax O Neil, Intermec, Sato, Toshiba and TSC. Accessories Printhead and printer spare parts External rewind units Printer Integration Our solution offering includes integration work, to allow you to deploy your barcode printers on your choice of personal, local or wide area network. Annual Maintenance Contracts To help you protect your investment post integration and deployment, we offer you a Managed Support Service of your printer estate. Our customers include: AUTHORIZED CHANNEL PARTNER Advanced Data Capture Mobile Computing Value Added Reseller
Maintenance Call Plan (MCP) Voucher Scheme We bring you the peace of mind that should anything go wrong with your barcode label printers, your production operations won t suffer. How does it work? Each voucher represents a repair call Vouchers can be purchased in blocks of 5 or 10 vouchers Vouchers are pre-paid, giving you contracted response times for multiple printers across your business site 2 options for you to choose from: Labour only vouchers Parts and labour vouchers What are the benefits to you? No expiry date, unused vouchers simply roll on year on year No need to commit to full fixed period on-site maintenance cover Flexible, real value for money, making your budget management easier Ideal for large install bases and multiple sites Scalable response times: 4 hour response time / 4 hour fix 8 hour response time / 8 hour fix 2 day response time / 2 day fix Maintenance call plans are also available for barcode scanners, mobile computers and truck mounted terminals. We pride ourselves on the level of customer service we provide to our clients. Our 3 or 5 Year Managed Service offering is designed to protect your hardware investment post implementation, effectively dealing with advanced replacements to keep your business flowing and maintain minimal downtime. Our Managed Service Contracts can be tailored to meet a business s specific and varied requirements, and would typically incorporate a mix of the following: Dedicated helpdesk telephone number 1st and 2nd line support and helpdesk function Triage of hardware and advanced next day replacement of faulty unit(s) Buffer stock management for hardware devices and supplies Configuration and loading of customer software application, staging of the units, application support Real-time remote mobile device management Quarterly management status reports on your managed estate of devices and repaired units After care and full device repair service Dakota Managed Services When it came to evaluating new products, Dakota proved to be very knowledgeable and became an easy to do business with partner. The technical expertise of their Systems Integration division is second to none. Stuart Brook VP of IT Communication & Operations Menzies Aviation Application design and systems integration Dakota has the expertise and experience to address any customer s mobile computing and data collection requirements, from the initial consultancy, wireless survey, pilot testing, hardware specification and supply, through to the staging, installation and commissioning process. Following on from the deployment and integration of business mobility applications, as well as the hardware devices which these applications are running on, we offer you a Managed Support Service to cover your equipment estate. Our Systems Integration team can help you: Create mobile working applications to integrate and interface with existing business systems including: Supply Chain Management Systems Warehouse Management Systems Enterprise Software Management Systems Configure and install data collection, barcode scanning and printing hardware to existing wired and wireless networks Since the replacement of our legacy paper-based system with barcode scanning, we have enjoyed noticeable improvements. Our picking rates have gone up 100%, from 100 items picked every 60 minutes to an average of 100 items picked every 30 minutes. The picking accuracy is now approaching 99%. Since we have been using the barcode scanners to check stock locations, we have saved huge amounts of time, as well as costs as we no longer need to commission a third-party stock take company. Robert Bond Stock Control, Transport & IT Coordinator, GSM Retail Our customers include:
We have always found Dakota to be technically competent when suggesting solutions for our data capture, bar code scanning and label printing requirements within our operation. Not only are they always available on the phone for guidance or technical support when we need it, but they supply fit for purpose products at competitive pricing and I wouldn t hesitate to recommend their services to other companies. Chris Musgrave, Distribution Manager, Nycomm Dakota have proven to be a flexible and reliable partner in the challenges CRC faces on a daily basis through our periods of sustained growth and customer demands. Dakota understand our requirements, provide advice and solutions with a high level of quality service, ensuring a constant supply of products and the ability to react to changes in demand. Charles Thompson, Operations Co-ordinator, Chain Reaction Cycles KMF are the market leader in the sub contract supply of precision sheet metal solutions. The company is committed to Quality, Investment and Innovation, providing contract manufacturing solutions to a diverse range of industry sectors. Formed in 1971, KMF is still under the management of the founding directors and has grown into one of the UK s largest and most successful sheet metal manufacturing plants. Located in North Staffordshire, KMF has a 110,000 sq. ft. modern production facility that operates over 24 hours, 7 days a week and in excess of 350 employees. KMF has a broad cross section of customers ranging from blue chip organisations looking for long term partnerships to sole traders looking for a reliable customised solution. Investment in the latest technology benefits KMF s customers through Quality, Cost and Delivery. It is this investment that has kept KMF at the forefront of UK precision sheet metal manufacture. Challenges In July 2009, Dakota were approached by KMF to help design and implement a manufacturing business information system to capture shop floor work in progress data along with other production tracking information. The objectives of the data collection solution were: to move from a paper based production system to an automated, real-time job tracking solution to be scalable to allow for future in-house development to generate instantaneous management Information reporting to enhance the production and manufacturing process. Solution Following a rigorous selection process and formal tender process, Dakota was chosen as the successful partner. Based upon considerable expertise in the development of data capture applications using MCL Technologies, Dakota proposed to use the MCL platform as rapid application development tool. The MCL application Case Study - KMF development suite was designed to develop data collection application to run on Microsoft CE devices. Ideal for companies with a reasonable technical background, it allows for future upgrades or modifications to be undertaken in-house. The use of MCL allowed KMF to develop a real time solution that initially interfaced with the previous company information system (E2i Sybase database) but that now successfully works within KMF s recently implemented ERP system (Epicor 9) which operates with a Microsoft SQL database. The link with Epicor9 now enables a smarter production report which visually indicates the progress of the job through the entire production process. Dakota arranged for KMF personnel to undertake a 1-day MCL workshop training course to develop the initial transactions. Included within the project brief was the requirement to source and recommend the appropriate data collection hardware, which needed to be mobile to maximise KMF s wireless infrastructure. A range of mobile computers from leading manufacturers were reviewed. These were specified against criteria including reliability, functionality, ergonomics, ruggedness and more. From a wide range of devices available on the market, Dakota decided to propose the MT2090 from Motorola, which was able to meet the following criteria: easy integration with the MCL application deck lightweight, ergonomical design more dynamic than a basic scanner with a mini screen and programmable features ideal for scan intensive applications with minimum keyboard and user input Commenting on the roll out Managing Director at KMF Gareth Higgins added: Our brief for the data collection project was simple yet allowed enough scope for potential partners to get creative with their offering. The data collection element needed to be easy for our operatives to use, yet complement our production processes, which the Dakota application certainly fulfilled.
The success of CarpetRight plc. has been built on the combination of 3 key elements: quality, price and service. Ensuring that we get quick and easy access to printer consumables to meet the demands of our retail stores nationwide is a daily priority for CarpetRight plc. Dakota s continuous efforts in reducing the costs of our consumables and ensuring fast delivery have allowed us to optimise the management of our stock levels ahead of production peaks, ensuring we are never running out of stock. Dakota have become a trusted business partner, and provide us with knowledgeable and reliable advice, backed up with first class customer service. David Offley, Cuttings Operations Manager, CarpetRight plc AUTHORIZED CHANNEL PARTNER Advanced Data Capture Mobile Computing Value Added Reseller Dakota Integrated Solutions Ltd Carrington Business Park Carrington Manchester M31 4DD Fax: 0161 776 4268 Email: marketing@dakotais.co.uk