Overview
Centralized planning, coordinated execution and real-time visibility into performance across all stores are goals that all retailers aspire to, but few actually achieve. Together, Bluespring and Microsoft are helping retailers close the gap between top performing stores and those with a poor operational track record.
Situational Analysis
Most companies have well-documented compliance-impacting processes, but documentation only shows how the process is supposed to occur. Auditing what has actually occurred is too often post-mortem and in the form of expensive annual audits that add little to no business value.
Best-Practices Store Execution
- Tasks received at the store level are prioritized and aligned with company goals
- Corporate is automatically updated as employees complete tasks in the stores
- Two-way feedback from employees as they complete tasks to fuel continuous improvement
- Defined KPIs that initiate remediation procedures when key metrics fall outside of acceptable thresholds
- Store Managers get all the information they need in one place, instead of having to rely on a barrage of uncoordinated email, voicemails and faxes
80% of retailers have never effectively measured their store operations to determine where the biggest problems are.
Solution
This best-of-breed Store Task Manager Software solution is built on a fully web services-enabled composite solutions architecture comprised of Bluespring Software and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. It comes pre-configured with best-practice workflows, KPIs and dashboards that manage overall store performance by region, store type, and/or role.
Business Value
- Centrally managed promotions, product recalls, maintenance activities
- Manager portals with Management by Exception (MBE) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) interfaces with drill-down capability to actual tasks and details
- Module to allow integration to Product Inventory Management Systems (PIMS) for recall and promotion task management
- Easy-to-use data entry and task management forms that can be accessed from both Office products and via the web
- Highly scalable and flexible framework that is both rapid to deploy and agile enough to facilitate easy changes
