Tame the Complexity of Mobile Technology Projects with Stratix Corporation

The Silicon Review

With over three decades of experience, Stratix has the proven mobile expertise and service execution to help companies transform any mobility challenge into a competitive advantage. Through a proven outsourcing model, Startix enables its customers to manage their entire mobile lifecycle as they plan, purchase, deploy, support, measure, report and analyze their mobile solutions.

Stratix is the trusted advisor for many industry leading global enterprises, offering the most comprehensive managed mobile services portfolio to operationalize and deliver full value for its clients’ mobile investments.

Today, global businesses have more mobile technology options available than ever before, which is increasing both complexity and the demand for mobile expertise, deployment resources and 24×7 mobile support. Through its managed mobile services, the company works with and manages the customers’ needs for rugged mobile devices, “consumer” tablets or smart-devices, mobile device management, bring-your-own-device solutions, 24×7 support, mobile applications and many other complex mobile decisions.

Backstory

Stratix opened its doors in 1983, long before anyone envisioned a world driven by mobility. The company's roots are founded in mobile as supply chain consultants with a vision to help businesses capitalize on technology to streamline their operations and increase productivity. As mobile technology advanced, Stratix became the largest reseller of purpose-built mobile devices. The frequent release of innovative mobile technology and tools fueled the company's growth.

Startix has continually adapted its business model to ensure that they could always meet and exceed the mobility needs of the clients. Along the way Stratix created key partnerships, expanded its capabilities, and added high-value enterprise managed mobility services.

Today, Stratix is the largest U.S. pure-play managed mobile service provider, a trusted, long-term advisor for leading Fortune 500 brands – many of whom have been with the company since the beginning. For over 35 years, Startix has built that trust by delivering consistency – staying ahead of the market, evolving its services and pushing the limits to exceed expectations.

Helping one of the Nation’s Largest Railroad Systems

One of the largest railroad systems in the US wanted to leverage mobile technology in the field for its conductors to assemble trains and manage pickups and drop-offs along the route. The advantages of using digital tools in the process include:

Higher efficiency
Increased accuracy
Better real-time reporting
Improved data quality

Not only did the company’s internal IT team not have the capacity to procure, configure, and distribute the thousands of devices required, but there were unique technical challenges to overcome. Because of federal regulations, train crews are not allowed to send or receive phone calls or text messages. That meant the devices had to be locked down for data only.

The railroad was looking for a partner to procure, configure, and send iPhone 11s to conductors systemwide. In addition to mobile device management applications, the installation of a proprietary train management application was needed. All the devices had to be tested to make sure they’d be out-of-the-box ready and that they were locked down to prevent phone calls and text messages. Stratix was chosen because of its unique ability to scale and its expertise with mobile device deployment.

Before starting the configuration process at our Atlanta Mobile Configuration Center, the Stratix team did extensive testing. Stratix was able to make changes to the ProCheck automated configuration tool to test each device to ensure it couldn’t make outbound calls or accept calls. Similar tests for texting were added to the configuration process. Its testing also revealed issues with the railroad’s mobile device management platform and its train management application, which were resolved before they could cause any post-deployment problems. In all, Stratix procured, configured, tested, and delivered more than 8,000 iPhones for the program.

Partnering with Stratix on the mobile technology for the train conductors program took the pressure off the railroad’s internal IT team, which didn’t have the capacity to take on a project of this scale. With the railroad's resources, Stratix was able to cut the deployment time from an estimated 12 months to six.

Now that they’re in the field, the iPhones with the train management app are dramatically improving the accuracy and efficiency of the train-building process systemwide. It’s also led to enhanced real-time reporting and data quality.

Louis M. Alterman, President and CEO

Louis Alterman is President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board of Directors at Stratix. Alterman brings over 20 years of executive experience in managed services with global technology companies.

Most recently, Louis served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Rackspace, a global leader in managed applications, data, clouds and security. Prior to Rackspace, he was with EarthLink, a nationwide provider of cloud-connected network services to over 750,000 businesses and consumers, in operational, financial and customer-facing roles, most recently serving as CFO.

Before EarthLink, Louis worked in a variety of roles at BellSouth (now AT&T), focused primarily on the company’s cellular/mobility growth in Latin America.

Louis serves on the Board of Careerbuilder, a data and technology company at the forefront of innovation to evolve the human capital management space, with solutions that help employers find, hire and manage great people. He is also a on the Board of the Ron Clark Academy, a ground-breaking and innovative institution which is transforming education around the world.

Louis earned a BBA in Finance from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, where he was a Presidential Scholar, and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.