Synnex Launches Mobile App for VARs to Order, Track, Check Inventory

Synnex has launched its first mobile application, a new version of its ECExpress that allows solution providers to place and track orders over their smartphones.

ECExpress Mobile is available in Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Web OS platforms in the United States and Canada and was launched at the company's National Conference last week in Greenville, S.C., said Kevin Murai, Synnex CEO.

"We have significant use of our customers using the Web site. They do a lot of order search, realtime price and availability checking. Now we're mobilizing that app to get them real-time price and availability and to check order status," Murai said. "This is driven out of two places. When we talk to customers they want to be able to leverage the power they have in their hands, their smartphones. The strategy we've taken in mobility is to use the smartphone and tablet more in commercial use. The killer app is true business workflow. This [ECExpress] is part of that."

ECExpress Mobile was in development for several months and is the first fruit borne from an in-house mobile apps development team created by Synnex, said Murai.

"We will continue to develop more features. One feature that has available today on an Android device is barcode scanning. You can use the camera, scan an item and the app will find it and ID it and give you real-time price and availability. Imagine if you hve a tech in the field and they need to buy a replacement part on the spot, rather than get to you notebook, you can scan an existing asset tag to ID the product and order a new one right there," Murai said.

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Solution providers at last week's conference received an HP Palm Pixi with 30-day trial contract from Sprint in order to try out the new mobile app.

Synnex is believed to be the first major distributor with a mobile app to order products and check real-time inventory.

"This really demonstrates the capabilities and innovation we bring to the marketplace and points to the fact that we're listening to what the market is looking for," said Murai.

Last month, Arrow announced a mobile app for Oracle VARs that includes detailed channel program, product and marketing information but sales and tracking information was not included in the initial release.