RACO resellers profit from
ever-evolving mobile world

For release: Sept. 23, 2002  8:30 AM EDT

Contact: Tom Lehn, RACO (513) 984-2101 or TLehn@RACOIndustries.com

[CINCINNATI, Ohio] Like the PC in the 80’s and the Internet in the 90’s, the high-tech pace of handheld communications in the 21^st Century is also charting new territory.

RACO Industries Inc. of Cincinnati, OH is at the forefront of the mobile communications frontier, most recently with the addition of the Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) capabilities of the T-Mobile nationwide GSM/GPRS network.

The core of RACO’s strategy is the empowerment of the mobile wireless worker, increasing productivity by providing the same vital communications tools available to traditional PC users within the walls of the office.

Tom Lehn, vice president of technology with RACO Industries, said the alarm has been sounded: “Somebody is going to help your customers go mobile. Will it be you?”

“The handwriting’s on the wall: customers are going to move to mobile data applications,” Lehn continued. “The big question a reseller should be asking themselves is whether or not they’re going to be in a position to grab a share of this dynamic, rapidly-growing market.”

The market has already been responding in force to RACO’s call to arms: RACO has recently signed up 30 value-added resellers, integrators and resellers as authorized T-Mobile dealers. Another 25 are currently in the approval process.

Consider the chorus of consensus emerging from various points of authority, all of which point to a booming business for multi-faceted mobile communications:

• More than 50 percent of large U.S. businesses plan to roll out wireless systems by 2003, according to a recent report from The Yankee Group of Boston, Mass. The Yankee Group is a research and consulting firm for communications and IT products, services and software.
   

• A recent survey of IT managers conducted by Synchrologic determined that 50 percent of respondents plan to use handheld devices over the next 18 months. The firm is based in Alpharetta, Ga., and develops data synchronization tools and applications for connecting remote databases.
   

• By the end of 2006, two-thirds of the U.S. workforce will be mobile, according to IDC, a leading provider of technology intelligence, industry analysis and market data to the IT industry based in Framingham, Mass.
   

• Mobile sales force applications increased sales up to 20 percent per salesperson and reduced cost-per-customer transactions by 90 percent, said iGillot Research, a wireless research company based in Austin, Texas.

The T-Mobile network supports a wide variety of voice and voice/data devices such as the new Symbol 2837 mobile terminal. Two new vehicle-location devices, the L2000 and the T3000, have also joined the fold. In addition to vehicle tracking, both new location devices have a serial port that allows any serial terminal to connect to the high-speed GPRS data network.

About RACO Industries, Inc.

Founded in 1991 RACO Industries, Inc. is a leading value added reseller of bar code printers, readers, scanners, CCD's, slot readers, PDA's, POS equipment, barcode labels, tickets and tags.  RACO also sells the software, supplies and accessories necessary for complete barcoding systems.  RACO Wireless is a new division focused on providing WWAN devices and services and vehicle tracking products and services to the VAR and reseller community.

For more information, visit www.racowireless.com or call Rob Deubell, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at (800) 446-1991.