Color Spot Nurseries Agriculture

SONIM KEEPS CREWS CONNECTED IN OUTDOOR WEATHER CONDITIONS

The Company
Founded in 1983 by Michael Vukelich, Jr. and Jerry Halamuda, Color Spot Nurseries has become one of the largest color nurseries in the world, catering to more than 2,000 retail and commercial customers such as Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Kmart, and Rite Aid. The company specializes in the wholesale distribution of high quality bedding plants, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, premium blooming plants, ground cover, ornamentals and much more. Color Spot operates multiple production facilities in California, Texas, Arizona, and Oregon, and is continuing to grow their business every day.

The Challenge

While working with beautiful plants and vegetables may seem like a relaxing pastime to the average gardener, Color Spot takes the beloved hobby to extreme heights. Responsible for the production and distribution of over 2,500 varieties of live plants, Color Spot management needs there be an efficient and reliable communication process in place to ensure the safety of field workers and to provide on time delivery of products to their end customers.

Workers are out in the field at all times where consistent communication is crucial for worker productivity and safety. Color Spot field workers operate noisy machinery in environments containing large amounts of soil, plant chemicals, and water. With some nurseries as large as 1,000 acres, previous mobile devices deployed were incapable of holding a strong PTT connection between the field workers and onsite controllers under the harsh environmental conditions.

Unable to hear their phones while operating tractors, management noticed a delay in worker’s productivity and a lag in communication between departments. “Devices are constantly being dropped into the dirt and mud with the potential to getting run over by a tractor or a piece of heavy machinery” said Cheryl Matheson, AP Manger. The device their field workers carry needs to be able to stand up to the rigorous environments in their industry including the large amounts of water they use to keep their plants alive and healthy.

The Solution
After recognizing that their previously deployed Samsung devices were neither loud enough nor powerful enough to compete with their rugged environment, Color Spot Nurseries cell phone purchasing team Cheryl Matheson and Justin Keeler realized that in order for the nurseries to continue running smoothly they needed to find a different mobile solution to suit their specific needs. After connecting with their AT&T sales rep and explaining their specific needs, Color Spot Nurseries deployed 100 XP5560 BOLTs and 500 XP1520 BOLT SLs to their team leads and field workers.

“When Our Workers Don’t Have A Reliable Form Of Communication Out In The Field, Tragedies Can Happen. Our Team Leads Need To Know That Everything Is Working And Everyone Is Safe. Our Sonim Solution Provides Us With That Comfort.”