Paging resellers will no longer have to go through carriers to get pagers for their customers under a new program from paging device giant Motorola Inc.
Motorola introduced a new program aimed at creating a direct link with its resellers. The Motorola Messaging Express program gives resellers a fax and phone number to order pagers directly from the source. Motorola promises a turnaround time of 48 hours.
“It just makes the ordering process easier and more timely,” said Josephine Posti, press relations specialist for messaging products in Motorola’s personal communications sector. “It streamlines the process for resellers.”
The program is designed to provide an alternative to Motorola’s traditional model of distribution, which involves sending paging devices to carriers, which then deliver them to resellers.
The company said the new distribution method minimizes the inventory and fulfillment costs for the carriers and creates a new paging resource for resellers.
Posti said the traditional turnaround time for some products, especially some of Motorola’s less-ordered products, could take up to “a couple of weeks.” The new program is aimed at cutting that time down, which was a problem for some resellers.
“We were definitely responding to the needs of our resellers,” she said. “So far the interest from our resellers has been very good.”
If this program works out, Posti said, Motorola will look into expanding the types of products offered and the methods of ordering.
“Down the road there’ll be an easy way to do it on the Internet and a way to track orders,” she said.
The program now offers three Motorola paging products: The 8R850 numeric pager, which features 60 message slots, silent vibration and an E-Luma-Glow display; the Talkabout model T10 numeric pager, which features 20 message slots and a built-in alarm clock; and the company’s Talkabout T350 word message pager, which allows users to receive messages through phones and the Internet.
Posti said if there is demand for more products, such as Motorola’s popular T900 two-way messaging device, then the program’s product line could be expanded.
“That’s definitely a possibility,” she said.
