SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2016CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM6he introduction of consumer grade mobile devices into the enterprise can transform store operations. Retailers like us have stores all over the country. In our case, we have district managers responsible for 18-23 stores. This person is the definition of road warrior. He or she might be in Cedar Rapids, Orlando, or the Bronx. While these road warriors have had laptops for 15 years, we recently decided to issue them iPhones and iPads and to reclaim their laptops. These mobile devices are designed to be easier to use, to power-up quickly, and to be more portable. Unlike the laptop, these characteristics enable them to be part of every routine activity conducted by this management team. Moreover, since the consumer marketplace has clearly chosen these devices as the preeminent mobile devices, we are giving them the same devices at work that they enjoy in their personal life. This makes them more likely to adopt these devices to perform their work. The real transformational opportunity, however, comes from the applications themselves. In order to eliminate their laptops, we have had to shift the functions they used to perform on the laptops to their iPhones and iPads. The beauty of this is that rewriting the applications gives you an opportunity to re-engineer them. If you do it right, you can make the work more efficient and streamlined. Moreover, you can't just shrink down what they used to do on laptop and put it on the iPhone or iPad. You have to think more like an ATM machine vs. a PC. To be efficient, there can't be more than 2-3 choices. You also need to leverage organic tools and controls native to iOS. You need to navigate with swipe, pinch or spread to zoom. If you embrace all the aspects of the new development environment when you convert functions to these new devices, you can really transform the experience and improve the quality of their work. This can be revolutionary if done right.Big Data and Analytics: Transforming In-Store Experience for RetailersAcross our 8,000+ stores, we have a number of different formats. We are always experimenting with changing the layout of fixtures and merchandise in our stores. In addition to interviewing customers on their experience, leveraging analytics Today's CIOs Should Find Change as NormalIN MYOPINIONTJosh JewettMost cell phones try to access available Wi-Fi or blue tooth devices constantly. This can be used to map customer patterns within storesJosh Jewett, SVP-IT/CIO, Family Dollar Stores
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