Automate Operational Efficiencies with VisibilityIQ APIs

By Dan Quagliana
@danqzebra

Enterprises are increasingly needing to digitize their workflows and gain greater insights into their operations. With customer expectations rising around inventory and supply chain visibility, businesses must act on the insights their systems are detecting. 

Solutions like Zebra VisibilityIQ™ OneCare® and Foresight are designed to address facility managers’ need to understand complex information about their mobile devices by consolidating that information into one common user interface through three key business sets of information:   

• Knowing what assets you have 

• Knowing where your assets are 

• Knowing your assets’ health 

This user interface is incredibly helpful in recognizing and diagnosing issues, but what if customers are wanting to automate the subsequent actions required to implement change? How can customers, or their managed service partners, create customized views or additional insights based on the underlying data? And how can a customer or partner with multi-vendor device deployments incorporate the unique Zebra insights into a comprehensive solution? 

The VisibilityIQ APIs, powered by Zebra Savanna™, provide direct access to the data powering VisibilityIQ OneCare and Foresight for customers and partners to integrate VisibilityIQ insights into their software systems. Ten Value-add APIs provide REST API access to VisibilityIQ report data including device inventory, device health, device utilization, operational trends and a complete view into the support and repair lifecycle for Zebra Android Mobile Computers. Eight Aggregated Data APIs give access to over 50 data points on software application, battery, and device usage and performance.  

Zebra is excited on the impact these APIs can bring to customers and partners. 

Sense: Every Zebra Android Mobile Computer has a Zebra Data Services (ZDS) Agent pre-installed that, when enabled, can collect over 250 data points around the health, usage, and identity of the device.  

Analyze: When a customer enables the ZDS agent, the data is regularly aggregated in the Zebra Savanna Cloud where it is analyzed to derive insights such as Remaining Useful Life of PowerPrecision+ Batteries, i.e. when a battery can no longer hold a charge through a full shift.  

Act:  By integrating the VisibilityIQ APIs into corporate systems, Facility Managers can be alerted when a battery is nearing end of Remaining Useful Life and automatically trigger maintenance or purchase of replacements through a task management or purchasing system.   

Additional Actions derived from the VisibilityIQ APIs can include the following:  

• Operations teams gain visibility into device fleet size and location to prevent loss and shrinkage. 

• IT and Operations are able to programmatically identify problem application based on errors, usage, or not being up to date. 

• Managed Service providers can build a multi-customer view into the repair and support ticket lifecycle to know which sites, customers or devices are having the most issues or require attention. Additionally, identify service entitlement across devices and customers. 

The VisibilityIQ APIs can be purchased in a comprehensive package that includes both the Value-Add APIs and Aggregated APIs or the Aggregated APIs can be purchased separately. Additionally, the APIs can be purchased in conjunction with VisibilityIQ Foresight. 

Learn more about the VisibilityIQ APIs including the insights and available data points at https://developer.zebra.com/apis/visibilityiq. Please contact your Zebra account manager if you are interested in learning more.