SmartTE: A Game-Changer for Connectivity and Warehouse Productivity

CUSTOMER: Zespri

INDUSTRY: Global Agriculture and Distribution 

SOLUTION: StayLinked SmartTE

About StayLinked

StayLinked is the proven market leader in Terminal Emulation for the supply chain industry and continues to drive innovation with the most advanced software solutions available for the warehouse. StayLinked enables customers to easily migrate to state-of-the-art devices, measure and optimize productivity with cutting-edge business intelligence, and interface with ground-breaking technologies in the areas of automation, robotics, and emerging IIoT technologies. For more than two decades, StayLinked has delivered revolutionary software products with unparalleled customer satisfaction and world-class support to hundreds of partners and thousands of customers around the globe.

  The Customer

If you love kiwi fruit, there’s a good chance you’ve eaten one grown by Zespri. As one of the world’s largest kiwi co-operatives, Zespri operates across New Zealand, Tokyo, Italy, and Belgium, ensuring its fruit is enjoyed by customers around the world. With more than 20,000 trays of kiwifruit shipped daily, the company’s supply chain must operate with precision and speed to keep produce fresh and on time.

The Challenges

For years, Zespri relied on Psion Teklogix XT15 handhelds and TekTerm controllers to move fruit through its global ports. At the time, these rugged devices were considered the gold standard. But over time, their limitations became clear.

The devices were not 5G-ready and often required rebooting to restore connections, particularly during peak seasons. What had once been dependable technology had become a liability, with dropped sessions and scanning errors disrupting shipments. This was not just a local issue—it was happening across Zespri’s global depots, adding unnecessary delays to shipments of a product that cannot afford to wait.

Zespri relied on Zebra Psion XT15 handhelds to track kiwis at global ports, but the legacy devices began showing their limits:

  • Not 5G-ready, causing bottlenecks during peak season

  • Dropped sessions requiring constant reboots

  • Scanning errors slowing throughput

The Solution

By early 2024, Zespri recognized that both the hardware and software stack needed to move beyond the Teklogix/TekTerm era. The company adopted Zebra’s TC78 rugged mobile computers together with StayLinked’s SmartTEK software, the only Zebra-endorsed drop-in replacement for TekTerm.

This combination gave Zespri a unique advantage: they could deploy modern touch-form factor devices while still connecting seamlessly to their legacy Teklogix controller, without needing to re-engineer applications or modify ERP systems — a task that would have been costly, time-consuming, and in some cases, not even possible. SmartTEK ensured complete session persistence, intuitive touch interfaces, and a low-risk migration path that alternatives simply couldn’t match.

  • Seamless 5G + Wi-Fi roaming with zero dropped sessions

  • Touchscreen-optimized workflows and intuitive smart menus

  • Instant scan response times — down from 20–30 seconds to less than one

Why StayLinked?

  • Proven elimination of dropped sessions

  • Intuitive user interface enhancements

  • Fast, low-risk migration of existing workflows

  • Expertise in mission-critical environments

“StayLinked is known for eliminating dropped sessions, so it was the perfect match for the TC78. Teams took to the new way of working quickly—even those who were resistant at first.”

—Aaron Diggleman, Global Service Operations, Zespri

Fast and Easy Migration

Despite initial concerns about migrating critical workflows, the process turned out to be both fast and seamless. With StayLinked’s expertise, existing applications were transferred to the new devices in just a matter of hours. The entire project, from start to finish, was completed in less than two weeks with only two remote calls required. Even with a 12-hour time difference between teams, the transition was smooth and free from disruption.

The rollout proved so successful in New Zealand that Zespri is now planning to extend it to other key locations around the world.

Migration took just a week and a half and was managed entirely remotely:

  • Existing workflows transferred seamlessly to new TC78 devices

  • First devices up and running within hours

  • Only two remote calls required to complete migration

  • Zero disruption despite a 12-hour time difference

“What could have been a disruptive task simply wasn’t. StayLinked managed everything—from staging SmartTE onto the new devices, to optimizing workflows, to configuring the user interface."

—Aaron Diggleman, Global Service Operations, Zespri

The Results

From Dropped Sessions to Seamless Shipments

Previously, switching between Wi-Fi and mobile networks was a major source of dropped sessions and frustrating delays. The legacy Teklogix handhelds had no support for 5G and struggled to maintain connections during roaming. With the move to Zebra’s TC78s, Zespri gained 5G-ready hardware, and with StayLinked SmartTEK, sessions now persist seamlessly as devices move between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. What once caused delays of 20–30 seconds now happens almost instantaneously.

The benefits of the new solution were immediate and measurable. Scanning speed improved dramatically, while the error rate fell to just 0.1–0.2%, virtually eliminating misreads. Session persistence meant that workers were no longer forced to reboot devices during critical shipments, saving valuable time. Just as importantly, the migration required no disruptive ERP changes — something that would have been unavoidable with alternative solutions.

The success of the project demonstrates how advanced terminal emulation software can transform global operations. By adopting StayLinked’s SmartTEK alongside Zebra’s latest rugged mobile devices, Zespri eliminated dropped sessions, reduced downtime, and ensured its operations could keep pace with growing global demand. With shipments now moving faster and more reliably through ports, Zespri can continue to deliver its fruit fresh to customers around the world.

  • Error rate reduced to 0.1–0.2% — virtually eliminating misreads

  • No more reboots or dropped sessions during peak operations

  • Instant 5G/Wi-Fi switching across ports and warehouses

  • Higher throughput and faster shipment turnaround times

“Without StayLinked, we would have faced significant operational disruption. Instead, the migration was easy, and the efficiency gains have confirmed it’s worthwhile to roll this out globally,"

—Aaron Diggleman, Global Service Operations, Zespri