Mandalay Newsletter October 2021: Ongoing hardware delays and our take-homes from WARRQ

If you’re a Council then at least 40% of waste being generated within your community comes from a customer that you don’t know. If you’re a commercial facility there is a good chance you will know who your customer is, but it's likely that you won’t have an understanding of their behaviour and how the waste is being generated.

In my view, in order to achieve the waste and resource recovery targets being set by states and the federal government, there is really only one solution, which is to understand who your customer is. For councils, this means increasing your understanding of the 40% of residents that you currently don’t have a relationship with.

I presented this story at WMRR’s 2021 #WARRQ Conference in Bundaberg last week and shared an overview of some of the projects that our council customers are implementing to build their understanding of their residents. Plus, how this is allowing them to personalise future waste services to both better understand waste behaviour but also to influence the right behaviours and outcomes.

If you were unable to attend the conference or would like to hear more about this story, please reach out to me.

The WMRR 2021 #WARRQ Conference was held in Bundaberg last week, with several key messages standing out for me during the event, including:

FOGO (food and organics) trial across Queensland with the intent to roll out services to households over the coming years. There is a wide variety of experiences so far - but a one-word summary would be... Promising!

There was repeated discussion around the need for consistency in the levy and regulatory framework moving forward, and the plan so that Councils and private industry can plan and make investments accordingly.

There was also a lot of discussion around increasing product stewardship programs that were coming and how Councils and industry could work together to solve the challenges associated with product stewardship schemes.

It was a really engaging conversation all around and we thank our customer Bundaberg Regional Council for hosting this year's conference.

Lastly, and as mentioned in my intro message, I presented the topic 'understanding your customer better' along with all the 'customer problems' you may have... that now really do have a solution! Please reach out if you would like a copy of my presentation - skalinowski@mandalaytech.com.

Seen as a relatively small customer in the eyes of our suppliers within a very small market of the world means we are easily affected by supply chain disruptions. In addition, we are ordering equipment from Europe and the US meaning we are also getting caught up in general shipping delays. We are continuing to try every avenue.

For items such as POS terminals and tablets, we are currently being advised that you can expect to wait as long as 12-24 weeks for delivery (both parts and replacement units). Where possible we are trying to order hardware ahead of time but we are currently experiencing higher volume than usual with new customers and new projects.

problem with the application, rather than use of the application itself, or concerns the technical interface between hardware and software. Software installation and device configuration also constitute a level 2 support request.

Peter will spend time checking through logs and reading services to identify where a problem may lie when it is not initially obvious. Extending beyond assisting in the use of our application, Peter works with our customers to delve deeper into issue resolution all the while ensuring operations are impacted as least as possible.

As part of the broader support team, you will find Peter answering support calls, and reaching out for additional information to solve a request where the issue has been escalated due to the nature and complexity. Peter’s strength lies in determining root causes, hardware configuration, and troubleshooting hardware integrations. For this reason, Peter is also a key member of the team who will set up new clients and add or renew parts of the Mandalay solution at an existing site.

Need assistance? Reach out to Peter and the Support Team.