OEM customers ask five simple questions when evaluating options.

There aren’t many companies that can sell and support Zebra OEM scan engines, and the ones that can often look similar from the outside. We all list the same catalog of Zebra handhelds, devices and scan engines. The SKUs are all the same.

The real difference shows up after the sale. 

We find that our OEM customers often have five simple questions that help them separate typical catalog resellers from true OEM engineering and design partners. Let’s review them here and see whether we meet your requirements.

1. How familiar are you with Zebra products?
   and should that really matter to me?
2. Do you have on-staff engineers?
   or am I working with only salespeople?
3. Do you assist with regulatory approvals including UL, FCC, and FDA?
   or is that up to me?
4. Where is a specific product in its lifecycle?
   and how will I know?
5. What happens when a Zebra product goes end-of-life (EOL)?
   and will you tell me before it does?

1. How familiar are you with Zebra products?

The OEM integration market is a small one. A multi-brand distributor may offer broad product knowledge, but rarely the depth on any single platform that your integration decision requires. Dolphin is the only US partner that works exclusively with Zebra. That’s important, because when a problem arises mid-design, you need a team that knows the portfolio from the inside, not from a product sheet.

Selecting the right product from Zebra’s broad portfolio is part art, part science. We have found that holding a discovery call together works best to explore what you are trying to accomplish, from that we can provide you with our best guidance on the Zebra technology for your project.

Our engineers, product managers and sales executives are intimate with the entire portfolio of Zebra’s products and its many nuances. There is no one size fits all solution, but there is always an engine for your specific needs.

2. Do you have on-staff engineers?

For our OEM customers, we provide on-staff electro-optical engineers who can assist with initial design concepts all the way through evaluating final integration to make sure there are no issues down the road with performance. Our engineers review CAD drawings before anything goes to production, then they offer suggestions and make recommendations before moving forward with production.

Our work typically includes optical, mechanical, and electrical drawings, along with software integration support, often at no cost, depending on the complexity of the project.

We have expertise in developing products that excel at providing proper power consumption and illumination, while reducing heat. We have worked with customers requiring some unique engineering workarounds, for example, developing optical grade plastics for exit windows, special fold mirrors, and custom flex cables to work within size and format constraints.

In another case, we developed a circuit-board level beeper – a beeper board – to provide operators with an audible notification that otherwise would have been muffled by packaging. In this way, Dolphin acts as both an extension of Zebra sales and integration services, but also your own engineering team.

3. Do you provide assistance with regulatory approvals including UL, FCC, and FDA?

Many industries carry compliance requirements that can add to engineering challenges. Medical device OEMs, for example, need to meet FDA compliance. That takes a partner that understands regulatory requirements and can access Zebra’s documentation to support them.

This is important to note before selecting an AIDC partner. One competitor OEM supplier lacked US regulatory support, leaving a customer unable to complete their design. Ultimately they switched to Dolphin – at a premium — and said it was worth it for the level of compliance knowledge and peace of mind we brought.

We have expertise in obtaining UL, FCC, FDA, and other approvals on the design. While Dolphin isn’t the certifying body we are the conduit that gets the right information to the right people.

4. Where is a specific product in its lifecycle?

In our experience, Zebra typically rates its mobile products on structured lifecycle plans, for example 3 years of product availability and 3 years of support after that. Some products may have a longer lifecycle window, so knowing where a product sits in that window matters when you’re building a device that relies on a specific engine. We work with customers to understand what they need so we can best steer them to products with the best runway, not just availability.

Our familiarity and proximity to Zebra engineering and product management (we are located just a few miles away from Zebra’s Long Island headquarters) means we can often “read the tea leaves” before official EOL announcements are sent.

Here’s why all this is important. We know that a medical OEM design cycle can often run as long as 3 years. That means the product you choose today has to be available when the device ships.

5. What happens when a Zebra product goes end-of-life (EOL)

We always strive to provide transparency and expectations up front around expected product life span and where a specific offering is along that path. Dolphin provides our OEM customers with updates as they happen and we have a proven record of managing life cycle events.

However, EOL bulletins from Zebra are only useful if someone acts on them; Dolphin operates as a SWAT team when bulletins drop. We let customers know when an item in production is coming to end-of-lifecycle and we look for options they can use.

For example, when Zebra end-of-lifed its SE3300/3307 scanning engine, we were able to design a replacement that offered better performance and a modular roadmap, brought forward that inventory to bridge customers, and migrated our customer base proactively.

We protect the interests of our customers – from discovery to proactive product migration. The right data capture partner doesn’t disappear after the purchase order. They’re the ones who tell you the product you’re considering has 18 months of runway, who catch the exit window placement problem before your design goes to tooling, and who have a plan ready when an EOL bulletin lands. Those are the things worth asking about before you choose.

Contact the Dolphin team at 516-405-3990 or info@dolphindc.com for a Discovery Call and have your questions ready!

By Mike Bannister