Powerful Intelligent, Multimodal Communication Solution Now Available Through Carahsoft’s SEWP V and ITES-SW2 Contracts

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca and RESTON, Va. – August 5, 2021 – Orion Labs, Inc., the leading voice-first, intelligent collaboration platform that empowers deskless workers, and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Orion’s Master Government Aggregator® to bring Orion’s industry-leading frontline collaboration platform to the U.S. Intelligence Community, Military and additional Federal agencies.

“Orion serves several Government and Public Sector agencies that recognize that our platform aligns with the secure, real-time collaboration requirements of their frontline workforce,” said Mort Jensen, Head of Sales and Partnerships at Orion. “We look forward to working with Carahsoft to serve additional agencies that will benefit from our ability to transform how the frontline workforce communicates, collaborates and operates.”

Orion is the leading voice-first intelligent collaboration platform that provides real-time team communication, process automation, access to knowledge bases and systems, and analytics for Public Sector frontline personnel, including defense and civilian agencies.

With Orion, Government organizations communicate securely with voice, text, photos, videos and files — on any device, on any network and over any distance. Orion’s next-generation voice technology includes end-to-end encryption (E2EE), advanced location services, real-time language translation, and interoperability with land mobile radios (LMR), Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

“Adding Orion to our offerings enables Carahsoft to better serve Public Sector and Government organizations with a voice-first, real-time collaboration solution that transforms how they operate,” said Tiffany Goddard, Sales Director for Law Enforcement Tech at Carahsoft. “We are pleased to work with Orion and our reseller partners to offer this end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform built for frontline workforces that need secure communication solutions.”

Orion’s software, hardware and services are available through Carahsoft’s SEWP V contracts NNG15SC03B and NNG15SC27B and ITES-SW2 Contract W52P1J-20-D-0042. For more information, contact the Orion team at Carahsoft at (703) 230-7445 or Orion@carahsoft.com.

About Orion Labs, Inc.

Orion is the leading voice-first, intelligent platform that empowers deskless workers by enabling real-time team collaboration, process automation, location mapping, and access to enterprise systems to improve workforce productivity, safety and compliance, and customer engagement.

Orion holds 55 patents that support its award-winning solutions, has been named an IDC Innovator, and was awarded a Top 10 Industrial IoT Solution Provider 2020 by Manufacturing Technology Insights. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading investors. For more information, visit orionlabs.io.

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Orion Media Contact:

Jacqueline Wasem
Orion Labs, Inc.
415-800-5467
press@orionlabs.io

About Carahsoft

Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Customer Experience and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com.

Carahsoft Media Contact:

Mary Lange
703-230-7434
pr@carahsoft.com

Today’s retail environment is as challenging and competitive as ever. Retailers must provide superior service, requiring workers to manage thousands of SKUs, assist with omnichannel order execution, accommodate spikes in customer volume, execute new protocols for safety and compliance, offer expert product advice, and more.

This post is co-authored by Greg Albrecht, Co-Founder and CTO, Orion Labs and Colin Goodwin, ISV Business Development Manager, Zebra Technologies Corporation.

Retail executives know providing this exceptional customer service is key to the bottom line and need solutions that support customer service, reduce costs, increase sales, and speed operational throughput. To do this, retail organizations must invest in the right technology that empowers workers with fast access to information, reduced training times for new employees, and optimization and automation of routine processes.

As partners, Orion and Zebra help solve these everyday challenges for retailers. Orion’s voice-first, intelligent collaboration platform improves workforce productivity and employee engagement. And Zebra’s retail solution connects people, assets, and data to help retailers make better decisions in real-time. Orion and Zebra’s combined solution for the retail workforce supports the realities of customer-facing roles with voice-activated collaboration and access to information, enabling workers to stay engaged while offering a superior retail experience.

Together, Orion and Zebra systems provide always-on, scalable solutions that offer improved employee collaboration, productivity, visibility, and customer experience through operational control, process automation, and intelligence amplification that connects on-the-floor workers to SMEs and systems providing the knowledge they need to do their jobs expertly and confidently.

Learn more about Orion for Retail

Operational Control

Orion and Zebra provide operational control by connecting workers to teams, regional managers, and headquarters, enabling organizations to coordinate and centralize operational visibility across the enterprise from warehouse, distribution, transportation to store operations, and department and regional managers.

This access to centralized visibility enhances decision making and productivity and ensures managers know precisely where workers are located on-premises — down to the aisle. Added precision decreases response times to requests for assistance with customers or the redeployment of workers to high-traffic areas like busy cashier registers.

Real-time visibility into inventory also assists in eliminating human error. Orion is the voice operations system of record, and Zebra provides the real-time data workers need to ensure they always have the most up-to-date information. Retail executives need assurance that their workers have access to the latest information on inventory levels, products, and promotions.

The combination of Orion’s voice-first solution with Zebra’s operations technology assures managers that floor workers use the real-time data that best serves customers and increases productivity.

Process Automation

Together, Orion and Zebra automate routine and procedural tasks that people do every day, allowing them to better focus on improving the customer experience and increasing product turnover.

Game-changing, automated workflows support fast action by retail employees. Workers use Orion’s voice-first, intelligent platform to query Zebra’s system and kick off workflows. Voice triggers or requests provide access to the store’s inventory or operations databases, allowing workers to remain heads-up and hands-free as they engage customers, restock shelves, move inventory, access product information, and more.

In omnichannel commerce, process automation improves execution for online order pick-ups and customer fulfillment. Automated workflows also help retailers reduce customer wait times by optimizing register back-ups and locked case requests. In other examples, workers can kickstart the restocking of items using workflow voice commands that begin the process by alerting workers responsible for restocking, querying stock levels, and ordering more products if needed.

Orion and Zebra combine to enable these workflows that don’t take employees away from their point of work. Automating or even eliminating routine steps ultimately increases sales and improves customer response time by creating more time to focus on the store’s unique retail experience.

Intelligence Amplification

Many organizations turn to artificial intelligence (AI) technology that seeks to replace workers with robots. Alternatively, Orion believes in the intelligence amplification (IA) of workers. Intelligence amplification aims to empower retail workers at the point of work — wherever that may be.

Retailers oversee workers routinely distributed across inventory stock rooms, management offices, the retail floor, and check-out. Challenges arise when retailers need to communicate product and promotion information of thousands of SKUs to employees in real-time. Hands-free, voice-activated solutions ensure workers have access to the right information in real-time with instant access to experts and retail systems like Zebra.

This need is particularly critical in environments requiring heavy expertise in merchandise like wine, beer, and liquor, hardware supplies, sporting goods, or technology stores. These stores need to support their retail associates with access to SMEs with the expertise or knowledge to immediately assist customers without leaving the floor or calling for back-up.

Intelligence amplification also ensures all workers are ready and productive on Day 1. In an industry with a high-turnover and/or seasonal workers, retailers are assured that new workers have immediate access to the information they need to get up to speed fast. This reduces training times for new hires by providing voice-activated access to enterprise-wide expertise.

Orion and Zebra immediately enable employees to deliver value at their point of work and provide the highest customer service levels.

Always on. Always Secure. Always Available on Any Network.

Orion supports the always-on ability to communicate with teams of any size, including unlimited groups, 1:1 communication, and mass communication — from the registers to the back office, from delivery drivers to loading docks, and floor managers to security teams. Message storage, playback, and archival abilities ensure workers never miss a message. Orion likewise supports retail operations that manage their entire supply chain, connecting workers in distribution centers to logistics counterparts to individual stores or to headquarters.

No matter the distance, Orion supports the highest quality of multimodal communications with voice, text, files, video, or images across any network, including LTE (5G-ready), private LTE (CBRS), Wi-Fi, satellite, and mesh.

Orion and Zebra for the Retail Industry

The retail industry is under extraordinary pressure to modernize and digitally transform across the enterprise. New omnichannel business models, competitors, evolving consumer expectations, employee safety protocols, and complex supply chains all drive the need to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer experience.

Together, Orion and Zebra uniquely meet the needs of retail customers that are implementing digital transformation strategies and modernizing operations and worker collaboration.

Learn more about Orion     Learn more about Zebra

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