Retail excellence requires store operators to improve the buying and customer experience, inventory management and staff productivity. At all times, managers need to stay on top of what is happening on the sales floor, at the checkout stands and in the back room in order to keep associates productive, ensure customer service quality and proactively address customer or employee issues. Store associates must be reachable at a moment’s notice, regardless of whether they’re in the back room or manning a register. Associates need to be able to reach managers and department experts to find answers to customer questions and address customer issues on the spot.
To keep track of day to day operations, retailers deploy management tools and data devices to address business tasks, such as sales reporting, out of stock items, cash status, labour scheduling, ordering, receiving, reprising, merchandising, email and mobile phone. Of critical importance is business intelligence – retail managers want to track sales, monitor profit and loss, pattern of hot selling items, supply chain management.
With the many choices that enterprises have – from consumer smartphones to intelligent pads to rugged devices – what are some of the guidelines to help enterprises choose?
- Platform: Enterprises have realised mobility matters when driving productivity into key functional areas of their business. Different roles and tasks require more than one device. For example, managers may need phone and organiser capabilities, blue collar task workers may need rugged and scan intensive functions, yet both groups are expected to access and share information via the same application suites. Enterprises should choose vendors who support a common platform of diverse devices that allow portability for Line of Business applications and common functionality e.g. barcode scanning, common accessories that can be leveraged across the capital investment.
- Rugged: Downtime and unserviceable devices are one of the largest contributors to poor productivity and inefficiency. The 2009 VDC Research Group, Inc, Mobile and Wireless Practice Study showed that 15 to 20 percent of non rugged devices fail in the first year of operations; 35 percent fail after the second year – impacting business critical operations and total customer experience for a long time after capital investment is made. Lost productivity – as a result of mobile device failure – was a leading contributor to total cost of ownership. It costs an additional USD1200 per year to support a consumer device compared to a rugged one. Enterprises should choose vendors supporting a range of rugged and durable device offerings.
- Integrated Solutions: Both voice and data communication are important features in the retail store. Retail managers or associates need voice and data services on PDAs, field sales executives need voice and data on their mobile terminal and the truck driver needs two-way radio service and direct store delivery solutions on his rugged device. Enterprises could choose solutions that provide unified voice and data communications across devices allowing for instant collaboration for quick problem solving.
- Management: As enterprises scale operations, the management of remote task workers and functions will efficiently drive productivity forward. Enterprises need to invest in tools that address the most significant and costly challenges associated with enterprise mobility solutions – deployment, optimisation, management, and security of the mobility solution.
- Extended Life Cycle: Premature end of life, limited servicing and parts may bring devices to a silent halt and is disruptive to enterprises. Backwards compatibility for applications & accessories may not be a priority for next generation consumer devices. Enterprise devices are usually developed with a six year product lifecycle, comprising of a typical period of 3 years manufacturing window before End of Life and with the further availability of an additional three years service plan to ensure longevity beyond roll out and application investment protection.
When consumer data devices aren’t smart enough to drive business, and industrial mobile computers are bulkier and more expensive than what you might need, the ES400 is the ultimate cross-over device. It blends the best features of mobility and task functionality into one device without compromise. Of the 100 over retail solutions, this device can be used to manage a majority of these applications – therefore there is no major tradeoff between form and function. The ES400 brings the mobility of business intelligence to a whole new level, on the go, allowing retail managers to make informed decisions quickly and accurately.
Built on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 platform, Motorola’s ES400 Enterprise Digital Assistant enables managers and workers in transportation / distribution to collect data and access business critical applications and back end systems on the spot.
The ES400 integrates voice and data capabilities to empower mobile teams with the information and interaction they need to transform operations, increase enterprise profitability and complete their jobs anywhere, anytime.
To learn more about the Motorola ES400 or to obtain a free live demo, please go to http://www.motorola.com/AP/ES40