An intelligent mobile app, designed to manage store activities, on the operator’s hands and directly in the field: this is the core of the project started by Aspiag Service, dealer of the brands Despar, Eurospar and Interspar in the North-East and Emilia-Romagna, in collaboration with Aton, software solution and service company for multichannel sales and retail management.
The new solution, constituted by a software application on mobile device, integrated with Head Office managing systems, guides the operator in the management of activities such as orders to suppliers or warehouse, inventories, return management, goods handling, etc. by making available to him, in front of the shelves, all the statistics regarding items sold, ordered, incoming or in promotion.
“The introduction of the new app has completely changed and improved store processes, making communication towards and from Head Office more immediate and effective”, confirms Maurizio Usan, Aspiag Service Sales Organization Manager. “Compared to the previous system, our 4,000 collaborators now have a clearer and more complete vision of the processes regarding orders in the device, without needing to consult further printed data or go back to back-office workstations.”
The project, started in 2018 in 238 direct points of sale and 327 affiliate ones, has contemplated active involvement not only of information systems and sales, but also of a hundred collaborators in the stores.
“We have listened to the exigencies of those working daily in the field to co-create an app which is not only innovative, but also effectively useful and functional”, adds Nicola Trescato, Aspiag Service IT Retail Project Manager.
To accompany collaborators towards change, making it immediate and less striking, an Android solution has been chosen, being an operating system people already know and can use. Moreover, training to store managers has been planned, in the classroom and online, in order to present the new app not only as a new tool, but as a new work organization typology and way to manage store activities.
“The figures in this project have given us the opportunity to further develop our .onRetail app, guaranteeing increasingly high performance in terms of devices managed and amount of available data, even in the absence of connectivity”, states Giovanni Bonamigo, Aton Marketing&Innovation Director. “In this way, the operator has a continually updated information trove in his hands, to perform his daily activities in a more accurate and faster way.”
The result has been a real revolution in order management process: the new app has indeed eliminated data collection errors by operators who send more than 390,000 orders every week, for over 33 million products, therefore generating a significant reduction of stockpile in warehouse and of goods wasted due to expirying dates.
Information consultation from the device in front of the shelves, has allowed 20% reduction of hard-copy price lists, compared to the amount necessary for the previous system: during 2019 first six months, the total of documents printed has been over a million fewer than those printed during the same period of 2018, implying an important impact on the environment, in line with Aspiag and Aton’s values and mission.
The innovation process continues in Aspiag, always giving priority to their coworkers’ exigencies: the target is guaranteeing complete activity digitalization in every point of sale.
