The challenges that Canadian retail enterprises face are numerous and leaders of the various lines of business have started to use mobility to solve their operational problems and become more competitive.

Present helped a leading Canadian retailer, with a mobility solution, improve several essential processes in their stores to allow managers to focus more on their key management role.

Processes optimized by a mobility solution

Price Displays

The logistics involved in the printing of signs and price tags while at the same time selling on the floor was complex. It  required significant preparation time, thus preventing rapid deployment.   Above all, the complexity of the AS/400 system which managed this process was such that only managers could do this clerical task,  as it required a high level of technical training on the system.

The mobile solution put in place uses the data from the ERP system, which can identify the details of a product, its description, and price. Staff can now scan the product label or the sign and get the price of the day. A terminal installed centralled in the store, usually in the customer service office, allows anyone to print a new sign quickly with the correct price.

To optimize the printing of prices, the work is done by lot. Therefore, it is possible to scan a large number of labels and then print everything in one shot. Print batches are classified by department. If several people from different departments require printing at the same time, the software separates the batch according to the department.

Inter-store transfers

When it came to the daily inter-store transfers, employees had to search for items using a list of various information such as a product code and a description of the item, but it did not help with the visual identification of the article. For example, the employee knew they were looking for a shirt, but did not know the color or pattern requested, making the search ineffective, long and mistakes easy.

The solution to this challenge with inter-store transfers was through by a mobile application installed on iPods that could scan the bar codes on the transfer slip and get all the descriptive information of the article as well as an image of it.

The search for products on the floor is now very fast and errors have been significantly reduced, making the process much more efficient.

Refocusing the management role for managers

Replacing the complex and unintuitive interfaces of the ERP by an iOS interface developed according to the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) standards allowed the company to shed unproductive tasks so that managers could focus on management. The standards set out in the HIG are based on a precise methodology for developing mobile applications, so that they improve the user experience by being more intuitive and consistent. This approach cuts out complex tasks and builds a solution offering a suite of simple and easy to use functions.

No training was required for the floor staff to master using the application and questions on its operation have been few.

The solution was built on the combination of iPods with Infinite Peripherals Linea Pro scanners and Present middleware. It was possible to deploy at least 15 mobile terminals per store, versus the prior 2-3 by reducing the cost of the terminals and by making management tasks more simple, and therefore performable by all staff. All these factors made this 'democratization' possible in just a few weeks.

Thus, the tasks that were reserved for managers (2-3 per store) are now delegated to several employees in one store, which helps managers to more effectively manage operations during busy times of the year. The stress associated with these intense periods when customer traffic is very high,  is reduced because the work is spread out over more people, and it also helps to reduce employees overtime costs.

Highlights

The process improvements by implementing a mobility solution is applicable to a wide range of operational problems in the retail sector, but also in all industries.

Just as IT has been helping companies be more productive and profitable for decades, mobile solutions are now adding new opportunities for improvement that were not possible before the democratization of mobile devices.

The guide 10 reasons your business needs mobile capabilities today, will help you understand how mobility can propel your company, download it below.

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