Microsoft Retail Store Systems solutions
Microsoft Store Systems solutions help you to better connect information, systems, and people, giving you a competitive advantage through an enhanced customer experience, improved employee productivity, better inventory utilization, and efficient store operations. Microsoft and its partners provide solutions that are manageable, cost-effective, and designed to work well together and to integrate smoothly with other platforms and applications. These solutions provide people with the right information at the right time, enabling innovation, services that are easy to add and integrate, and value-added capabilities for customers and employees.
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Business challenges
The retail industry faces several challenges:
| • | Aging point-of-sale (POS) systems: POS systems nearing the end of their life cycles force retailers to make choices that will enable next-generation POS capabilities while simultaneously addressing changing customer expectations. |
| • | Customer loss: Customer loss due to competitive product pricing and the difficulty of differentiating the customer experience requires retailers to address changing customer needs and to enhance the customer in-store experience through value-added offerings. |
| • | Dwindling IT resources: As much as 70 percent of retailers’ IT resources are devoted to sustaining and running existing capabilities. This leaves very few resources devoted to exploring and implementing new capabilities, such as integration technologies, in-store applications, and store-to-headquarters systems. |
| • | Lack of multi-channel integration: An integrated store operations architecture enables retailers to better control labor expenses, increase productivity, and provide the highest level of customer service. Eliminating duplicate information across multiple channels can save retailers an estimated $1.7 million per year. (Source: An analysis of IMRG Staffing Solutions, Forrester Research, RIS Paper, and the A.T. Kearney global management consulting firm) |
| • | Loss of revenue due to operational inefficiency: To remain competitive, your people need to be empowered to maximize in-store operating efficiency, increase inventory efficiency, minimize stockouts, and reduce the costs of providing service and maintenance. |
Solutions
Microsoft Store Systems solutions address four key solution areas: point of service, store operations management, ordering and inventory management, and mobility.
| • | Point-of-service solutions address the needs of your people to provide enhanced customer service and checkout functions, from traditional cash registers to wireless checkout through hand-held devices. These solutions enable your employees to provide an enhanced customer experience, reduce staff training and the cost of providing service, and help resolve the issue of aging point-of-sale systems. |
| • | Store operations management solutions enable monitoring within a distributed environment, including the monitoring of point-of-service and back-office data; functions such as auditing, human resources, and labor; and training by way of various access points (for example, a PC, portal, or mobile device). These solutions enable you to deploy, configure, operate, update, and centrally monitor all in-store systems. Retail portals enable you to create a Store Manager Workbench, which provides a personalized view of information that promotes the store manager's face-to-face interactions with employees and customers. |
| • | Ordering and inventory management solutions provide a set of tools that enable your people to monitor and control inventory and to allocate the cost of goods to inventory and products sold. These tools also include visual merchandising solutions that optimize the layout of in-store merchandising. |
| • | Mobility solutions provide a wide range of new opportunities for you to improve productivity while offering enhanced customer service. These solutions empower your people to extend all basic functions and services to customers by way of mobile-based solutions and to deliver a wide range of new sales and services scenarios. Microsoft technologies, such as Windows Vista-enabled mobile PCs, enable assisted selling, empowering retail sales staff with the knowledgeable sales assistance necessary to meet customer needs. |
Case studies
Virgin Entertainment Group
Virgin Entertainment Group had poor system integration and limited business rule flexibility that made data analysis difficult. Implementing Microsoft solutions resulted in real-time reporting capabilities that allowed 50 percent more fraud detection.
El Corte Inglés
El Corte Inglés (ECI), a leading retailer in Spain, needed a secure, robust, and flexible platform to support all of their POS devices. Microsoft technology-based solutions resulted in cost savings due to improved sales tools, easy integration with mobile devices, smooth integration between disparate systems, and electronic audit trails.
HEMA
Netherlands retailing giant HEMA wanted a mobile stock-control solution so its staff could order stock the moment items were needed and still remain on the store floor to help customers. Microsoft technology-based solutions enabled an automated reordering process that was connected to the POS system and consistently met the company’s on-shelf target and goals for better customer service.
The METRO Group
The METRO Group, a German food and drug retailer, wanted to drive profitability and create innovative ways to operate its stores. Implementing Microsoft technologies resulted in the ability to rapidly analyze real-time data. Customers gained a more personalized shopping experience and greater in-store convenience.
Barnes and Noble, Inc.
Barnes and Noble, the world’s largest bookseller, needed new business intelligence tools that could help its people access information faster and provide more detailed reports to managers. Implementing a new data warehouse based on Microsoft technology helped improve its business operations and its ability to respond better to customer needs.
Business benefits
By implementing Microsoft Store Systems solutions, you can realize the following benefits:
Growth and innovation
Flexible software and systems that continually evolve to meet your needs enable your people to drive innovation and to deliver new services, capabilities, value-added solutions, and store enhancements in a timely and profitable way.
Strengthened customer relationships
Solutions for store systems from Microsoft and its partners enhance customer satisfaction and retention. Profitable relationships with customers are built on delivering improved personalization, responsiveness, and speed of service, increasing access to customer data and providing a variety of check-out options.
Efficient store operations
Microsoft technology-based capabilities for deployment, recovery, manageability, and real-time monitoring help lower the life-cycle costs of store systems. By connecting systems within the store and to headquarters, you provide your people with a holistic view of store performance and inventory, as well as a single view of the customer across all channels.
Improved inventory management
Data availability and standards-based systems result in better store inventory management through reduced stockouts and enhanced inventory utilization. Superior inventory management increases customer satisfaction by allowing access to order status and out-of-stock data.
Enhanced mobility
Mobile-based solutions improve productivity while offering customers enhanced services and experience. New sales and services capabilities also give your people the flexibility to respond to changing business needs.
Overview
Technologies
