ATLANTA, GA and LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - June 04, 2015) - AirWatch® by VMware, the leading enterprise mobility management (EMM) provider, and Webalo, a high-productivity mobile app development platform, today announced combined waste saving efforts on behalf of Bell Nursery, primary supplier to 178 Home Depot stores in seven states and the District of Columbia. Growing nearly 100 million plants each year, Bell utilized Webalo's mobile supply chain and inventory solution, deployed and secured with AirWatch, to cut waste by 50 percent, saving $7 million, while also significantly decreasing its gasoline and water usage.
iPhones are issued by Bell Nursery, secured with AirWatch, and provisioned with more than 36 custom-made Webalo applications. The business-critical applications are automatically updated through the AirWatch platform, easily equipping employees with the latest versions of each application. The new system has allowed Bell to optimize its inventory across stores to provide the right mix at each location, greatly limiting the number of plants that remain unsold and are ultimately thrown out.
In addition to the direct financial benefit of reducing scrap, Bell said it was able to cut the labor and water required to maintain the excess inventory. Unplanned stock-out deliveries to stores have all but ceased, and landfills are no longer burdened with hundreds of tons of scrap plant material. According to Bell, it saved millions in direct plant cost, thousands of hours of unnecessary labor, tens of thousands of gallons of water and an equal amount of fuel. Mobile inventory apps have also allowed Bell to go nearly paperless at store locations, eliminated faxing, paper logs and records.
"Not only has the new mobile supply chain solution greatly improved our profitability and efficiency, it has had a major impact in minimizing our overall environmental footprint," said Joe Perret, vice president, Bell Nursery. "Through our mobile solution, we've been able to reduce scrap by more than 50 percent, saving $7 million annually. As growers, it is important for us to be good stewards of the earth and this system has allowed us to accomplish more while using less -fuel and less water overall. Landfills are also positively impacted by our scrap reductions."
"Our customers are incredibly innovative in the way they use mobility and Bell Nursery is a great example of the return on investment mobile can bring to the business," said John Marshall, senior vice president and general manager, AirWatch by VMware. "With simple and secure mobile enablement from AirWatch and great resources provided by our partner Webalo, Bell employees are equipped with the tools they need to continue to transform business processes."
"Bell Nursery exemplifies the productivity gains that wholesalers and retailers in the perishable good space can achieve using Webalo's mobile app platform," Peter Price, CEO, Webalo. "We are pleased to celebrate their efforts in saving the amount of gas and water they use in running their business."
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About AirWatch by VMware
AirWatch by VMware is the leader in enterprise mobility management, with more than 15,000 global customers. The AirWatch platform includes industry-leading mobile device, email, application, content and browser management solutions. Organizations can implement these solutions across device types and use cases, including complete EMM for corporate and line of business deployments, and containerized solutions for bring your own device (BYOD) programs. Acquired by VMware in February 2014, AirWatch is based in Atlanta and can be found online at www.air-watch.com. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
About Webalo
Webalo is a high-productivity mobile app development platform that combines rapid access to back-end systems with the automatic generation of mobile applications for corporations to deliver more apps, more quickly, at a dramatically lower cost, while ensuring the highest degrees of enterprise security and governance. Webalo runs on all major platforms, including Android, Apple, BlackBerry and Windows smartphones, tablets, and desktop devices. For more information, visit the company's website at www.webalo.com.
About Bell Nursery
Bell Nursery is the largest wholesale nursery grower in the mid-Atlantic, and 11th largest in the nation, based on production space. Bell and its Network growers produce and ship approximately 100 million plants each year, including annuals, perennials and poinsettias. Bell plants are sold exclusively at The Home Depot in seven states and the District of Columbia. Bell is online at www.bellnursery.com.
VMware and AirWatch are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.