Green Screens, RF Guns & AI Voice: The Modern Warehouse with Hardesty Technologies

Brett Cooper sits down with Joe Leucht of Hardesty Technologies (formerly Barcode Depot) to break down what's actually changing on the warehouse floor. 

Joe has spent nearly 20 years in data capture and reseller channels, and he goes deep on why green screen terminals refuse to die, how tablets are replacing RF guns and VMUs, the real cost of lost devices, and where AI, voice, and robots are headed over the next five years.

→ Hardesty Technologies rebranded from Barcode Depot to reflect its shift into Android, software, and emerging tech
→ Green screens aren't dying because they stopped working. They're dying because younger frontline workers expect touchscreens
→ Tablets are taking over two spaces: floor manager dashboards and forklift-mounted VMU replacements
→ Honeywell's new tablet/VMU hybrid mount signals where vehicle-mount hardware is headed
→ Virtual lockers (smart charging cradles) are replacing bulky locker systems for device accountability
→ AI-driven voice picking is getting more conversational and pairing with vision/camera systems
→ Robots won't replace frontline workers. They're bridging old systems into "rocket ships"

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I'm Brett Cooper and this is the Frontline Mobility Edge, where we discuss the latest in mobile device technologies and how they're shaping the frontline landscape business. Thank you for joining us. Let's get started. I'm Brett Cooper, and today I joined by Joe Lucht. Did I pronounce it Lucht?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

It's Lloyd, but that's okay. Lloyd. It's one of those spellings that uh is is not phonetically friendly. So I'm very used to it. I've heard a million different ways. So all good.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Okay, that the this the C is silent. Got it. I I I always what it's it's weird because certain things about this. I I definitely got somebody's name wrong. They had a G and I thought it was like an O-U-G-H sound and uh did it wrong. But so Joe is here from uh Hardesti Technology, and I'll hop into what they do here in a second. But we want to talk about the modern Android experience in the warehouse. So Hardesty does a bunch of work with a lot of different warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, and uh Joe and his team have a ton of experience there. So I guess Joe, maybe better to hear from you of what you guys work on, what you focus on, and and if somebody's hiring Hardesty to come in and do something, what are they they're looking for your help

Hardesty’s Worker-First Approach

SPEAKER_01 1:07

with?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Sure. Well, for those of us that know us, many of them probably still know us as Barcode Depot. And we rebranded this year in January. Cliff, Cliff Hardesty, the owner, is he took over, he's been with the organization really obviously since birth. His dad founded the company almost 30 years ago. But what we found happening was that the barcode depot name was kind of pigeonholing us into the barcode scanner label space. So we rebranded this year because we, you know, some time ago pivoted to more of the emerging technology space, focusing on, you know, Brett talks about Android, you know, what Android really can bring to the warehouse and the operations of our customers. So Hardesty really focuses on, you know, the customer experience and what that means for the frontline worker within warehousing, distribution, manufacturing. So the easiest way I can describe that is we really look at these solutions from the worker back and we focus on that user experience, and that's where the outcomes that all these operations are looking for come from is the worker. You know, big brains can sit in an IT room and think that all these products are going to work wonderfully, but they don't necessarily, you know, operationally work. So focusing on what really moves the needle for those types of organizations that we focus on is who we are. And we try to do it with uh, you know, with with a very humble approach and a very people-first approach. We we we take a lot of pride in focusing on the frontline worker.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

In the you your personal backgrounds, I've known you for half a decade now or more than that. Sure. What have you done in your career leading up to this, or what what areas and other industries have you worked in outside of this?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I think honestly, for myself, not uh I always struggle with this question, Brad, because or Brett, I apologize. Uh I struggle with it because I'm I don't take myself very seriously, I

Joe’s Path From Repair To Strategy

SPEAKER_00 3:10

suppose. I think I'm special in the sense that my my my background really goes back to working hands-on with these products as a service technician. I got started playing with the devices, fixing the devices, and really understanding what was critical with the customer because I had a chance to really help them solve problems from the the brake fix side of the world. And this goes back into yesteryear, the old Windows systems, where these these products they bought, they wanted to get 10 years out of them. So just again, going back to that customer experience and delivering on real outcomes, the brake fix service side of that world is where Barcode Depot was founded, and it's where my career started. So I I have a like a really humble beginning in the uh data capture industry. So I've been in I've been doing this for darn near 20 years, just short of 20 years. I worked for two other large uh industry resellers, you know, helping you know, one of those resellers really kind of grow significantly over the years, along with the the wonderful teams there. And you know, I got exposed to you know yourself, the zebras, the honeywells, and everybody in between, you know, over those 20 years. And I've just really focused on strategic partnerships, really good relationships, and it's provided a wonderful career for myself that honestly in 2008, when I started, I never really would have envisioned myself being in this industry. So it's been a it's been a really fun ride. It's been really interesting to see where this industry has gone in those 18 years that I've been doing it. And uh it, you know, it seems like every five to ten years there's there's something new and something fancy. So always learning, right? You know, so as much as the warehouses are growing, my career is always evolving. And, you know, I take a lot of pride and and uh I have a lot of fun with with just constantly learning about new technology and focusing on how that can help help the end user, you know, with their day.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

That's an awesome segue to my first question, which is uh about one of those archaic technologies.

Why Green Screens Still Stick Around

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So the uh the green screen. So I remember late 90s, early 2000s, some of the first projects I worked on were it was green screen on a terminal, and it didn't even, yeah, it was on the terminal. You had to dock it, replicate anything, get data replicated back and forth. Uh I feel like there's still in this is 2026, there's yeah, almost 25 years later, there is an incredible number of warehouses still running on the green screen. How do you see, or how have you seen that landscape change over the last five to ten years? And you know, what is uh, you know, maybe as a follow-on for that, what where is that going to go over the next five years?

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Well, you're talking about Telnet, and you know, when I started in 2008, I was hearing how Telnet's going away. In reality, I don't even think it's it hasn't really skipped much of a beat, but it is kind of hitting that point in time in its lifespan and its feasibility and our in you know, in many spaces, specific specifically the supply chain space, where you know green screens aren't dead per se, but they're no longer the end game in terms of the interface for the end user. Many you just mentioned, you know, many warehouses are still using TE. And really what that boils down to is the underlying ERP or the WMS is still relevant, it's rather stable, and it's business critical for you know the organizations that still use it. And the challenge so much isn't that the green screen doesn't work, the challenge really is becoming that the 20-somethings that are coming into the workforce, they're coming in where they grew up on touch screens, right? You know, so when you hand them something that looks like MS DOS from the 80s, they look at it like, what is this? And so it's not so much that I see the technology changing or the demand for the interface changing as much as the worker changing and what they expect when they walk in. So, you know, with warehouses hiring younger workers, training new employees, turnover is already high enough. They don't need to drive you know the workforce away because their technology seems archaic. So by modernizing those touch screens, which I think is the biggest change I've seen within that technology, I think that's probably the biggest change I've seen in TE, as well as some of the TE players, like your Stay Links of the world, you know, moving to some browser-based applications to support existing customers making those changes. You know, I know Infor, for example, moved from Telnet over to a browser-based application last year. So a lot of those users faced a lot of pain points in that transition. So, you know, the screen modernization, I think, has been the biggest thing. But the reality with Telnet, Brett, is the green scene, the green screen is not dying because it's stopped working. It's it's dying because the workforce and the expectations around it have changed.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Driven by the uh demands of the younger frontline workforce.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Absolutely. Absolutely. And obviously, they're just gonna continue to keep coming and get younger. So those expectations, you know, are gonna follow that change.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah.

Tablets Replace RF Guns For Some

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Uh the next question we were we were actually joking in the office about RF guns, which was if you've if you're not familiar with the uh the format that was incredibly popular, I'm gonna call it from 2001 till 2015, like a gun style with like a phaser from Star Trek, those were everywhere. You had them on forklifts, on strings, every in a lot of people still produce uh Zebra Honey while both have gun style devices. Absolutely. I feel like a lot of people are moving towards tablets though. I'm seeing a lot more tablets, and it's not the the legacy windows tablet. It's it's a different like Android type experience. What are you seeing around for your customers in the warehouse specifically, the ones that are using tablets? What are the what what is working um and what are you seeing in the hardware landscape?

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Well, it's a it's a that's a tricky question, only because in the warehouse, I actually see the tablets being used in two specific use cases. Retail is a totally different animal. Tablets are extremely advantageous within retail, and I'm sure everyone can figure out why. You know, imagine walking up to a customer, talking through inventory, putting an order in. I mean, I remember years ago then being able to do that at famous footwear. So, you know, in retail it's completely feasible, but in the warehouse, getting your workers to be as hands-free as possible with technology is actually a major driver with technology change. So wearables uh have evolved considerably where you're not just using a dedicated wearable device. You can take you can take those you know, phone-looking touchscreen devices, and now they've got you know wearable, you know, sleds and whatnot that are provided that you can use those as the as the wearable interface and pair that to some sort of ring scanner, right? Tablets, I think they're very good for the manager, the floor manager, the shift manager, watching the KPIs, the metrics, you know, using it as a mobile dashboard per se. We see a lot of that. I also see a lot of it in the uh on the they're moving to the forklift side of the world, right? So the old larger V uh VMU dedicated vehicle mount units are starting to slowly be phased out for tablets. So those are the two spaces I think in the supply chain side where I really see a heavy use of tablets.

Forklift Tablets Need Better Keypads

SPEAKER_01 10:48

What what are the use cases there? When somebody puts a VMU, can you talk about that? Because not everybody has worked in as many warehouses as you and I have.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Like VMU, it's a vehicle mount unit, right? So traditionally you had two flavors of VMUs. You had a touch screen only VMU, but the more common VMU would be a smaller screen with keys underneath it. And for forklift drivers wearing gloves and things like that, that's a very easy interface to use. Tablets can pose a little bit of a conundrum when it comes to putting a tablet on a forklift for a gloved user, right? So for people who use VMUs, you still have a lot of companies that love the VMU form factor. And I think one of the things that I have seen done poorly over the years with tablets on a forklift from a variety of manufacturers is they they depend on either the touchscreen only or some sort of external keyboard. And let's be very honest, the forklift is already a pretty tight working environment. So having another keyboard laid out underneath the tablet never really made a whole lot of sense to me when I was working with the with the organization. So I very seldom ever presented that option. The key, the the VMUs with the keys on the front, especially if you're running a Telnet instance, so you have the function keys, very, very relevant. So Honeywell is actually coming out with a new tablet that it's it's physical mount and it's it's I don't want to call it an accessory, it's literally the mount that you're gonna have a couple flavors of this of this case, I guess you'll call it, that the tablet will snap and lock within. It's going to make it like an old school VMU where there's some bottom keys still available, like the traditional users are used to. So it's taking a tablet and turning it into a VMU, which I think is a very smart play. Giving the businesses that want to have the flexibility of touch-only or incorporating a keyboard, I think is very smart. So I'm excited to see that come to market. You know, the Honeywell VM1, for example, which is a traditional VMU, has been a very successful product for them. So kind of using a tablet to complement that form factor, I think, was actually a very brilliant move. Some of the other manufacturers, I still think they need to kind of look at what their plans are for the next gen of tablets and how they're going to position them as a traditional VMU. Because there's no tablet that's traditional in terms of the VMU space.

unknown 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Do you think there's white space for the um, I'm gonna call it the RAM mounts, space poles, tailors, where they have specific size cases where they're they're gonna start adding in more, I guess, Bluetooth keyboards on those?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Is that something that you've seen out there? Yeah, RAM already has a really nice ProClip and a lot. A lot of these uh you know, Gamber Johnson, they've got really good products that allow you to mount a fork a tablet on a forklift. Now, one thing to understand is you know, yes, they offer some of the consumer grade stuff as well, but the consumer grade stuff doesn't really roam well within a warehouse from access point to access point. They're developed to stick to a single AP. So when you're talking tablets, really the industrial rugged tablets by your main data capture players, your zebras, honeywils, data logics, GTAx, they've got the tablets that are really purpose-built for those environments. Now, regarding your question on the you know, the third-party peripheral companies, you know, Rammount and you know, those types of organizations, they still tend to have those external keyboards that are underneath it, right? And that just takes up more real estate on the forklift. So I would love to see them come out with something similar to what I just described, where it's on the front and it's it's you know, you can just hit the keys as needed. Because quite honestly, that's really all that's needed to be able to do a couple easy keystrokes, couple digit strokes, and a function key, and you're off to the races. And then you can interface with the touch screen as as as needed. So I think they got a little bit ways to go in terms of how they're gonna make the forklift work. I can't tell you how many times I've gone into an organization. I tend to see Brett more wired USB-based forklifts still be more popular than Bluetooth because anytime you add something Bluetooth, it's just another device they have to be responsible to charge. So again, you know, and then now you're talking more wires and things like that. So that's again where having an interface on the front panel sent it streamlines it and it makes it uh it just makes it a smaller form factor and and easier to to mount and and make space for.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

What's a sort of add-on question for that?

Voice Workflows Get Smarter With AI

SPEAKER_01 15:30

The the form factor is more of an interface factor for voice. I feel like the voice picking has been around for like 20 years. Like there's you know, a ton of vocal X, the Jennifer's, those types of things that are out there. How do you see that technology progressing in the warehouse and supply chain side?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Well, that's you know, that's actually something I actually see making some really big jumps over. I'd probably say if I were to make a prediction of like what's gonna happen the next five years, voice along with some other technologies, I think, are really going to grow. And I really that really boils down to just AI helping it. You know, AI is going to make the interface with the and with the with the frontline worker, it's gonna make it more natural, right? So the old voice systems were very rigid, you know, almost kind of like a robot talking to you, where new AI-driven voice experiences are going to, they're gonna feel more conversational. And I think that's gonna help a tremendous amount with uh adoption in in a number of workflows, you know, because now it's not voice isn't only just your voice picking and shipping applications. You've you've got you know, fleets using it for just inspection and maintenance. I be I even see it being paired up with a lot of the the vision technology, your your your glasses and some of that heads-up display type stuff. Um, you know, there's some really interesting stuff that's happening when you're comparing vision systems with voice and AI being the bridge between the two, especially in some of that inspection maintenance. You can start you know applying that to a lot of different uh applications, you know, a lot of large uh you know motorcycle dealerships and things like that that have to do regular maintenance inspections on on a number of things, different fleets, you know, your uh you know, police squad cars, all these other things, and not just your trucks and your uh your your T and L customers, right? So there's a lot of areas where I think voice is going to start to trickle into paired with AI and vision.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

So my next topic, your next question I had for you.

Software Layers That Modernize Legacy WMS

SPEAKER_01 17:44

So Hardesties traditionally, at least as long as I've known it from sort of before Cliff took over, was very heavy in devices, device repair, maintenance, and a lot of those pieces. I feel like you guys are doing more software and combining that with your offerings. What's, you know, when you think of pulling in software into the warehouse, how do you guys decide what's a good solution that's going to help your end users, that's that's worth hard AST supporting and putting onto devices?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

I think that really boils down to hardware versus software as a value, right? So when we're looking at software, we don't discount the hardware side of that. What I mean by that is you know, hardware is still critical, but software is always what seems to be where customers are asking for help with. And what I mean by that is you know, I go back to the first question, which was you know the green screen, and those legacy systems, you know, customers aren't necessarily looking to just jump into a brand new WMS. That's a that's a pretty big lift for a lot of organizations, and it's a you know, it's a it's not just the cost, it's the disruption, right? To rip and replace something like that. So you know, a lot of a lot of businesses kind of take the risk adverse approach to the to the changing of software and they stick with what they have because it's what they know and it's it's what you know what the people have been using for who knows how long. So change can be scary. I think we all know that in our personal lives, yet alone our professional lives. And a lot of businesses kind of just say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So our approach with software is really how can we work with you know, a lot of these systems have hooks and connectors nowadays where you can plug things in to make significant improvements. And it's really about bridging those technologies and making them work in one cohesive ecosystem. So, how do we look at it is how can we improve what you're working with today without having to go through and create a significant amount of disruption. Sometimes the answer is you need a new WMS. Sometimes it's you just need a third party that integrates with X ERP system and adds a layer of productivity that they don't have today. So we at Heart of Steve, we partner with, you know, I don't we're not one of these companies that goes out and boils the ocean and works with a significant number of software software partners, but we definitely have a strategic half dozen or so software partners, I'd say in a multiple, you know, in the MDM space and the single sign-on space and the UMS slash data collection space that have you know standalone solutions or plugins that really augment certain workflows and help with that productivity. So that again, if what we're focusing on is where the pain is, and it's always where the frontline worker is. So, what are they struggling with? What is it that they need to do better? And what can we bring in that helps solve that issue? And the reality of it is that the hardware that a lot of the hardest-y like resellers sell, it's there's only really two compelling reasons you need to upgrade your hardware, and that's it breaks all the darn time, so I need to get it, I need to get new stuff, or I need to do something on the software side that this hardware won't work with. So without the software and the and the workflow, you know, augmenting some of the workflows, the demand for some of the hardware is not even there. So when we're looking at how to solve problems, hardware is relevant, but we're not starting with the with the hardware. We're starting with the pain points and the systems that they're you know doing their operations through. And then how do we help improve those, streamline those and make them better?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Full full end-to-end system. I like it. Next topic I had for you was uh this is something we were we've had a lot of discussions around recently.

Virtual Lockers Bring Accountability For Devices

SPEAKER_01 21:52

So there are when we think about devices in the warehouse, they get lost all the time. They put on shelves, they don't get put back in the the chargers. There are different solutions. There's the the hardware side of the house, which is a lock-in cabinet, so podlock, a zebra guardian cabinet. There's a bunch of other vendors we requested, Datamation, a couple other ones have different types of cradles that help with device check-in checkout. And then there's software solution side. So the blue fletches, you know, the ability to see that. There are certain MDM tools. When you guys think about device loss, like what's what are you looking at when you're helping a customer drive down device loss or improve device visibility in a warehouse?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I mean, we all if you're if you're somebody that's watching this that either works in a warehouse or you're somebody that has you know been supporting a warehouse, we all know that they love to have they all have their favorite device, right? It's my locker.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

It's in the locker right now. It's in the locker.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

So you know the worker has like, this is my gun. This is you know, this is the one I like because it works the best, and whatever their reasoning is. And they stash it somewhere so that by the during shift tomorrow, they can go where they stash it and grab it, right? But oops, shut second shift, did something with it, knocked it over, broke it, whatever. So there's a lot of costs incurred when when when the when the workers are allowed to do things like that. So five years ago, I would have leaned towards a locker solution. And I think those were the best way of controlling that habit. Today there's a lot of different options. I mean, lockers are still relevant, but I think one of the things that is really starting to happen is what the manufacturers and software providers are calling virtual lockers, where it's the traditional cradles that we all are very familiar with that charge and dock these devices on a daily basis. But now they have magnets and they're able, they have technology in them that's able to lock them to the base, where the worker not only has to go through a checkout procedure to get that device, but now because they've checked it out, there's accountability. And I think that's the biggest thing that I've that I've learned in supporting the find my device type of solutions, is it's not just about can I find my device, it's holding the the staff accountable. And I've heard that time and time again. It's like, great, I found it, but how do I make sure Steve doesn't keep doing it? So that accountability piece paired with single sign-on solutions, paired with that accountability, is critical with the find my device. Because it's not just about finding it, it's about shaping habits and and proper, you know, proper check-in and checkout standard operating procedures. So, with that being said, you know, I see the technology with virtual lockers being a lot uh it's significantly more advantageous from a cost perspective than a really large, bulky locker system. Now, with that being said, some of the locker systems make sense in super industrial environments. Um, they're more protected. There is a degree of safety because not all businesses want stuff laid out on a table, taking up space. They'd rather it be kind of in a isolated area. So there are use cases for lockers still, but I definitely see things starting to move more towards that virtual locker model where it's paired with really, you know, really easy to use single sign on. You know, you can set parameters, for example, around your devices. So Steve doesn't end his shift. When he ends his shift, if two hours later that device isn't checked back in, you can get automated alerts to the shift managers or to whoever's responsible for the devices. You know, when you're checking these devices back in, you have to put the condition of a device back in. So now the next shift isn't grabbing a broken device or something that's not scanning appropriately or communicating with the Wi-Fi. So there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of perks in terms of the feedback a worker can give about the performance of the of a device, yet alone did I just return it. So all that data becomes very useful for the next shift or for the shift manager getting in in the morning, you know, getting the, you know, getting the workload prepared for the workers that are about to check in. So, you know, I I think it's not just about find my device. I I think that leads itself to a whole different way of these devices being mission critical in operation and ensuring the best amount of you know, the best level of performance out of them that you can expect based on user feedback, user, you know, user accountability on returning them. And then not only that, you know, if you know who's using it and they know you know who's using it, they're probably gonna be a little less likely to be careless with it and break it. So you can drive significant savings through just appropriate accountability, through you know, the find my device type of solutions.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Like it. It sounds like Joe's gonna be selling a lot of Blue Fletch virtual device locker next year. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Let's do it.

Warehouse Devices Are Not Office Devices

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Um the next question I saw so you've worked in a couple different resellers. I know you've been in the warehouse a lot. You've also done some work with the I I call it the carpet side of the house. Sure. When you think of the the warehouse versus the back office or carpet or even a resale space where people are out sort of in a a safe area, what are the biggest differences between a device or managing devices and warehouses versus managing them in a in a environment like a back office?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

The warehouse is not very forgiving, right? I mean, the the the office space is when you're running your applications on a mobile device from the carpeted side compared to the warehouse side, what are we talking about? We're talking about email, Teams, maybe a browser. You know, you're they're very static environments. In the warehouse, you're worried about drops, dust, forklifts moving around. Maybe you have large temperature swings because it's a cold storage facility. You have workers wearing gloves, so how do I touch a device? How do I handle a device? You're definitely you definitely can you can't even compare unless you've got a wonderful IT team. RF coverage in a warehouse is always changing. Where again the the office tends to be very static, and and the warehouse tends a lot of warehouses are 24-7, where the office is nine to five. So they're very, very different environments. And I think the biggest difference is the common mistake I see some IT staffs, especially those maybe going from, and this is crazy, but there's still paper and clipboard out there quite a bit. And those folks going from traditional, you know, manual writing stuff down type of procedures into the digital world, they tend to take those devices they're used to using at home and are like, I can use this iPhone or this iPad in my warehouse and do all these great things with it. And in reality, no, you can't. And the biggest mistake I see IT folks making is treating a warehouse device like it's an office device. And I think that's that's something that they learn the hard way. You know, and it what it boils down to, Brett, is you know, again, if an office laptop goes down, someone's annoyed and frustrated. If a warehouse device goes down, processes stop. And that's a delivery.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Miss a delivery, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Money, money getting lost. Last question for

Cobots And AI As Productivity Bridges

SPEAKER_01 29:34

you. I know we're we're we're out of time here, but you you talked a little bit about AI and voice earlier and some of the trends you think are gonna change. Are there other trends in the warehouse you think we're gonna see come in or happen over the next five years?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Well, I think you're gonna see a lot more there's gonna be a definite uptick in robot and human collaboration. I don't see you know the whole doom and gloom of robots are gonna replace workers. I mean, let's be honest, you're not we're many years away from that ever happening. And that's a long time. So what I think you're really gonna start seeing is the adoption of certain cobots, let's call it, augmenting workflows, speeding, speeding teams up. You know, there I don't think the next five years is about replacing people. I think it's about giving frontline workers better information. Um, so what I see is you know, you bring up tablets and you bring up some of the the technology that's coming. I see a lot of these systems, it's not that they're gonna be collecting data. It's they're gonna be they're gonna have an influx of data at them that's gonna allow them to do their jobs better. And I think AI is going to help them make really quick sense of that. And so the decision make the decision making is gonna be quicker. I I really view AI and things like and AI and robots specifically. I don't view them as replacement technology, they're bridges. I think they're gonna take systems that are old and they're gonna make them modern. I think they're gonna take systems that are modern and turn them into rocket ships, right? And you know, you're gonna get a lot of predictive support models out of this stuff, batteries failing, scanners degrading, coverage issues. You're just gonna be able to do more with less. And I think that benefits any business because doing more with less saves you money, makes you more profitable. So you're gonna, and we're hearing this right now where I walk into you know an end user and they're asking me for the you know, I've I tell this story a lot actually, where you know, I get asked about the new stuff, and they're not asking about you know version seven of the MC90 series, right? You know, they're not asking about like, oh, this you know, they changed the scanner from yellow to green, or the you know, the laser is not red anymore, it's green. That's they don't care about that. If they've been doing some sort of scanning or barcoding for however long in their warehouse, they want to know what's gonna replace that technology, or how do they get to their next version of data capture? And I think some of that barcoding technology has hit its peak. So, how do they take existing systems, augment it with something more modern and new, bring up voice earlier? How do I take voice and pair it with you know AI-driven voice technology as well as scanning technology and help that drive efficiencies? And I think that's what I see happening over the next five to six years, especially in established digital inventory systems, right? You know, I I am hearing a lot more from the small business uh world where they're trying to make that digital transition. The customers are asking more of them than just Excel reports. They're asking for real-time visibility. Um, you know, they're asking for you know their systems to talk to each other. There's gonna be a lot more digital adoption, I think, on the SMB side of the world. And then on the enterprise side of the world, you're gonna see them driving that bridge I just described with AI, voice, vision, and camera systems. Going back to the forklift, we're gonna start seeing that tablet be more of a dashboard as opposed to a data collection terminal, right? It's gonna be more of a dashboard where they're getting their dimensioning. They're gonna be getting a ton of analytics. No, I can go, I can go on and on about the different analytics they can get on this this forklift dashboard. And that's ideally what I think most of these businesses are looking for is doing more with less, empowering the worker to work smarter, not harder. And what a lot of our partners are doing are really steering that ship to exactly that.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

I love it. Yeah, the the SMBs, as you said that, I'm like, yeah, they they probably can get a lot more productivity gain out of I than signal. Yeah, that's excellent. Yeah, so I know we're at the uh we're at the bottom of the hour or bottom of the half hour.

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SPEAKER_01 34:08

Um I guess for if people want to find out more about Hardusty, what you guys do, where can they where can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Well, I mean, hardestytech.com is the website. You can you can obviously hit us up there in the uh let's talk feature. Sales at hardestytech.com would be another easy way to get a hold of us. Or you can reach out to myself, Joe at hardestytech.com, or our president Cliff at hardestytech.com. And those are probably the easiest ways to get a hold of us. I think you'll be surprised at how fast Cliff, myself, and our team uh respond. We're we're pretty Johnny on the spot with a lot of our communications.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Yeah, you guys are awesome. You also got a good game on LinkedIn. I like a lot of your posts too. A lot of good content out there. So Joe, thank you for coming on today. Appreciate it. And uh, if anybody has questions, definitely follow up with Joe. And uh thank you very much. Have a good one. Thank you, Brett. Thank you for tuning in to Frontline Mobility Edge. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe for more content every month. If you'd like to learn more about Blue Fletch, check out the link in the description or visit at bluefletch.com. See you next time.