We currently use a Motorola MC3190 hand scanner (windows CE based) which was recommended on the linnworks support documents and to be honest it's worked great for months.

Now I read that linnworks are discontinuing the old API from January 2017 making this piece of kit that I spent hundreds of pounds on obsolete.

You have to move with the times so I thought I'd check out just using the stock in feature of desktop and I can't believe how many more steps there are compared to using the hand scanner.

With the hand scanner you would just select your purchase order and then scan each item and after each beep it would mark it as delivered against the purchase order.

With the desktop app you have to go and find the barcode, click a button, enter how many there are click another button and then when you are finished click another button.

The biggest failure in a stock in is the human element , old way it takes that out as you don't have to count manually how many you are taking in. new way you have to physically count them and then enter the value so introducing the human error factor

I've even tried the apps that they are touting to replace it and neither come close to ease of use that the old terminal way does.

If I've got a purchase order with 1000 items on it I don't want to be having to manually count them in and enter the quantity I just want to scan, scan, scan, scan

I've put together a video for linnworks support demonstrating why they SHOULDN'T retire the old API in January 2017
https://youtu.be/1FK2nF5Dy04
I can't of been the only ones to purchase the Motorola MC3190 hand scanners which were recommended on the linnworks documentation pages.

One thing I didn't cover in the video is that even with doing a stock in against a purchase order (book in) using the linnworks desktop application you have to manually type in the qty of the items that you are booking in. With the system using the old API via terminal web emulation you don't have to do that as you are scanning each item in and with each scan it is marking it as booked in automatically

 

Ok I've been speaking to Linnworks and 100% they aren't going to continue with the old API , which does mean that the hundreds of pounds we spent on the hand scanner is wasted.
On the postitive side we have re-tested Stock Wise and the app does now do a stock in against purchase order which is great and it also connects to a bluetooth scanner if needed (although we will probably purchase a dedicated Android based Scanner for this task).

We have had a few problems with stock wise where it would just crash during opening on the test mobile device I used (LG G3 Phone) but that was 1 out of 10 tests.