[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Second Sense. I'm your host, Allison Mitchell. Every episode we explore the complex supply chain behind the mobile device industry. From data driven decisions to sustainable solutions and how smarter systems can give tech a second life.
Because when you trust your data, second life tech just makes sense.
Today we're joined by Tim Esteb. Tim is the director of Customer Experience at App Kudo. Thanks for being a guest on the podcast, Tim.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Thanks Alison. Happy to be here.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Tim, you've been on the podcast before. What have you been up to since we last had you on?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been a busy several months. We've been working very closely with our internal teams, our development folks and our partners to redesign and relaunch the App Kudo Recover platform. We delivered that UI about two weeks ago and we believe it is a much more improved intuitive UI and improved reporting. What the goal was with this was to call out for the admins and the end user what actions were required of them more clearly on the dashboard. And Alison, specific to your world, what we're working on is a brand new redesigned sustainability dashboard which will allow our customers to report on and track their environmental impact against their goals. So really excited about that one. That will be a follow on release here in the near future.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah, we're really excited about supporting your team and the build out of that. We've been looking forward to that for a while. So Tim, let's start by having you give us an overview of the customer we're going to be talking about today. It's a global tech giant with a significant device footprint.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: As you said Alison, this is a global technology enterprise that what they do, they own and operate social media platforms and communication services as well as having some, some hardware products in their portfolio. As you said, this customer has a global footprint, a large inventory of leased and corporate owned assets across numerous device types and manufacturers with the nature of remote work. In the last several years following Covid, these devices are spread all around the world. So that's where we plug in. We're trying to make their recovery and their, their lease termination process a little bit easier.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: So Tim, what was the situation with this customer before they started working with Appcuto?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: This partner had a large warehouse, several large warehouses around the world and are working on a hub model. So each regional hub would fulfill orders and they would centralize those devices on the return side back to those warehouses. And our focus, starting with this particular customer was liquidating those IT assets they had stored in those warehouses. These warehouses had manual processes, a lot of Touches on those devices, a lot of data quality issue because of the manual touches and manual data entry processes. And this was all the way through their process from requesting packaging from the processing partners, all the way through to how do they receive the device process details and retire or release those from their management systems.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: So I can tell right away that this was a customer that had challenges both with the data that they were trying to manage and the experience of trying to manage these devices. What was priority number one for this customer?
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Priority number one was standardizing that data and standardizing the process for that customer. So we know where we can standardize data, we can automate processes, where we have expected inputs and expected outputs, we can build automation around those things. So that was really the goal with this customer, with the leasing aspect of this relationship. This customer, the devices are bid out to different processing partners and trying to recover the most, the maximum value for these devices. Multiple partners were at play. So what we did across that partner network is we standardized the expected reporting data. So normalizing that data, ingesting it into the App Kudo platform, gave this customer an expected output, something that they could build as a foundation and set automation behind. And this starts all the way through their process. As I mentioned, this starts with the requesting of packaging. Within the App Kudo recover platform, we provide back tracking information. That tracking information follows the device back to the processing center. The tracking number is associated with a serial number. The serial number is further associated with a device management status. And it is really, it is truly an end to end data normalization. This standard output, as I mentioned, allows this customer to know what they can expect from the platform as an output. And regardless of who the processing partner is in the background, the data always looks the same and the experience for the customer is always the same.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, data standardization is one of those early starting points in the process that it's not very glamorous, but it's incredibly important as the foundational first step. So I can appreciate that doing that data cleanup is very critical as a starting point. So how did your team get its arms around the process to get started on those first priorities?
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Our priority one was standardizing the data both inbound and outbound for this customer. So we know where we can standardize data, we can automate processes, which really, at the end of the day, is the goal in any of these projects. So with the leasing aspect of this relationship, there were multiple processing partners at play, which meant prior to App Kudo, there was no standardized process in making a request for packaging or in the way that the customer would receive the process device reports.
So where we started was with that request for packaging. And starting with the request for packaging, we tie a tracking number to that individual request. That tracking number becomes a serial number and then that that follows the device all the way through the to the finalized reporting and the device release.
This creates a standard output from our platform which allows the customer to build a foundation around automation and a foundation for a normalized process.
And regardless of who the processing partner is in the background, the experience is always the same. Because of the App Kudo platform for the customer, it's always the same reporting, it's always the same process. I go here to view my locked device inventory or I go here to request my packaging.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Wow, that's pretty impressive. The ability to sort of seek out and find those discrepancies and work backwards to build a solution has got to be massive in terms of just knowing what you've got and getting more devices through the system in terms of routing for recycling or for reuse.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: So how did your team, the work that your team did improve this customer's overall experience?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: After the first few initial proof of concept projects or returns, the customer really leaned into what it is we do as a platform. So we provided our API documentation and this customer was able to leverage API connectivity in a way that we've not seen before. So really proud of this customer being a tech company and having the experience and the employee base that they do, took our API documentation and ran with it. So what this customer was able to do was take our standardized data and our expected statuses within the platform and build upon our locked status. That locked status, they would pull back into their hardware asset management system and then further into their device management platform to release and retire those devices. So that release and retirement process is often a big roadblock in the device return process.
And because of this unique use of the APIs that exist for the Appkuto platform, the customer was able to reduce hours of workload every week.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And the back and forth of the data like that, you know, not just the push in one direction or a pull in the other direction, the but being able to work collaboratively with a customer to say, okay, here's the data we've got, you re ingest it and create some action items on your end in order to be able to get more release from lock of devices.
That's huge. It sounds like a perfect kind of collaborative customer situation.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. And prior to the App Kudo platform, this all lived within email inboxes within emails and spreadsheets. And if John Doe was out on vacation this week, then you didn't get, you couldn't show progress that week on the device unlocks because he was the person that owned that process. And automating that, putting that, you know, putting the machines to work, putting the technology to work for us, greatly benefits everyone.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And it begins again with that sort of data standardization. It makes that process absolutely function more smoothly.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: So Tim, how did our solution for this customer have a greater impact for other customers?
[00:09:10] Speaker B: What we found very early with this customer was that due to the volume of devices that they had in their warehouse and the liquidation process that they wanted to undertake, we quickly decided that freight shipments were going to be the best way to handle this. So prior to this, we didn't have the ability to track freight shipments within the platform. We have since developed a report that is specific to freight tracking. We have a widget on the dashboard that shows total number of freight shipments, the status of each, whether it's pre pickup in transit delivered. We can show all of that now within the platform, which is a huge improvement.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: So when you say freight shipment, that what you're saying, there is instead of an individual tracking number for an individual device, you're talking about multiple devices that are maybe palletized and combined as one shipment with therefore one tracking number. So being able to differentiate between those two different methods of shipping, is that what you're saying?
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Correct? That is correct. We've seen up to 20 pallets of devices upwards of, depending on what, what form factor of devices. I think on one shipment we had 16,000 devices in one tractor trailer. So very impressive that the customer was able to organize that on their side, point the resources at it and get 20 pallets of devices loaded onto a semi.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: That's gotta be more cost effective too, to ship in a freight format versus an individual format.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: It is, yeah. And our processing partners really appreciate when we can go the freight route because it makes it easier for them to receive, it's less space for them to manage. You can imagine 20 pallets sit much nicer in an area than, you know, thousands of boxes. It's easier for them to receive and to start that initial check on the devices.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: I can hear some opportunities in there for sustainability. Were there some other benefits to the customer related to sustainability or circularity?
[00:11:07] Speaker B: There were, yeah, as part of this. And once we decided freight was going to be the preferred method, we worked very closely with our processing partner to find the most sustainable way that we could handle Pallets and freight. So we worked with that processing partner to develop a Gaylord, a big shipping container, big shipping box that not only could hold, you know, more efficiently a number of devices, but it was reusable. So we are not consuming materials for this project. Everything that we've got at play is reusable from the pallets through the Gaylord. All of the sleeves, the foam sleeves, the dividers, all of that is reusable. The larger win on this project, in particular for this customer, is that because of this liquidation process, this customer was able to downsize their warehouse. So because they didn't have the. The huge number of devices on hand, they've done 40,000 devices returned to date. You can imagine the space that 40,000 devices take up. They were able to downsize their warehouse, which is not only a cost savings for them, you know, dollars, that's dollars saved in the maintaining of that warehouse, but that is a huge win for energy consumption and not having to maintain a huge empty warehouse at this point.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. The downsizing of a warehouse, that has got to be the best outcome of efficiency, right? When you can actually see the efficiency take place just through the footprint. So that's pretty incredible. And then obviously the cost savings and the energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings from, from reduced energy use, pretty impressive. So, Tim, what's coming up next for this customer?
[00:12:48] Speaker B: This customer has a, again, a global footprint. So we've recently moved into the UK and Ireland, and we've got our eyes set on expanding deeper into the European Union, servicing their additional hubs there, and working through this liquidation process all around the world. So hopefully with the same outcomes, reduction of workload, reduction of space, and all the sustainability improvements that come behind that.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Well, that's pretty exciting. And I know that when you move into other continents, the opportunities and the requirements, frankly, for addressing sustainability and circularity are going to be there. So I'm sure they're going to be very excited about that as you expand into those other regions and therefore kind of have that greater impact for their footprint and for their operational costs and needs, let alone just the efficiency for the process to manage the devices. So it's one of those things where the partnership and the collaboration is maybe focused on devices and the process of devices, but really expands into other parts of the business and will show up on the budget in subsequent years.
So that's pretty exciting. Well, Tim, I really appreciate you joining the podcast today and talking about this customer. It sounds like they realize the benefit pretty quickly and are eager to expand and capture more benefit from working with App Kudo and your team in particular. So thank you again. Let me know if there's any other reflections on this particular customer that you'd like to share.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Sure, yeah. Thank you for having me. I. I really believe that our solution is best in class and that the platform and this redesign has. Has been built in a way that it is very flexible. And because of that flexibility, our team of Experts here at AppCudo, we can be very prescriptive in the way that we tailor or set up programs for each customer, depending on their specific use case. So we've got a lot of options so we can make something work, whether that's getting devices back to a processing partner, centralizing them back at your headquarters. We can help you meet your sustainability goals and drive efficiencies throughout the business.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: That's really a big win. So. Well, thanks again, Tim. I appreciate you joining the podcast today. Have a great one.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Thanks, Allison.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to this episode of Second Sense. Learn
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