Office products retailer Officeworks sought an online mobile inventory system to increase visibility, accuracy and productivity.
Background
Officeworks is Australia’s largest retailer of office products and solutions catering to the commercial, home use and education markets. Opening its first store in 1994, Officeworks has grown to over 120 stores nationwide and is continually opening new stores to keep up with demand.
While Officeworks had an existing (offline) mobile inventory solution in place, it did not integrate with the SAP inventory system and could not be updated remotely. This presented the organisation with several challenges, including:
- Team members not having visibility of ‘real-time’ inventory levels;
- Orders, stock checks, and inventory enquiries all requiring manual intervention; and
- Stock levels which were often inaccurate.
Business requirements
Officeworks required an inventory management solution for deployment in all their stores nationally. It needed to cater for real-time stock location and back order quantities for individual stores, as well as the four closest geographically located stores. Officeworks also required synchronous transaction processing to ensure real-time feedback to end users when updating transactions. This mobility project utilised Motorola handheld devices that were already in use and formed part of Officeworks’ larger ePOS Project.
The solution needed to be capable of running in both online and offline mode; support dynamic and remote access to update and check stock levels; be fully compatible with existing SAP software and future upgrades; reduce the time and complexity of existing tasks performed by team members; leverage the wireless infrastructure and hand-held technology already implemented in all stores; and be compatible with any future hardware and wireless upgrades.
The mobile solution also needed functionality such as price check, goods receipting, stock inquiry, transfer stock movement (for example, QI to unrestricted), stocktake, bin locations, and price label printing. Officeworks decided to roll out the complete solution in three separate phases.
The solution
Sky Technologies was engaged to provide a solution, which was a ‘second generation’ SAP mobile deployment that required new functionality not available through the existing legacy system. According to Sky, the SkyMobile solution reduced the time and complexity of existing tasks performed by team members, but also presented them with additional functionality, such as the ability to give feedback about the application directly to the IT department. This feedback provided the IT Department with information and suggestions on ways to improve the system, as well as confirmation that the application was of benefit and working successfully.
The SkyMobile application also allowed team members to perform label comparisons to ensure the product label and shelf label were compatible. This was done by simply scanning both labels with the handheld device. Similarly, a batch price check could be performed by scanning 10 products in a single pass, with any pricing errors displayed on the device screen. The application not only shortened existing manual steps in the business, but also automated some existing processes.
Business benefits
Some of the business benefits for Officeworks included an increase in the number of team members able to perform stock enquiries simultaneously and without leaving the sales floor. The Sky solution utilised existing hardware without the need for an upgrade, and with more than 700 devices deployed across more than 120 stores, the cost saving of this measure was substantial. The internal IT team at Officeworks worked very closely with Sky engineers on the implementation. This helped the organisation realise the value of implementing a mobile framework that would manage all mobile transactions inside SAP. Having just one data source which was not replicated or duplicated on other devices would ensure true and accurate information at all times.
Matt Gurrie, general manager, IT and supply chain, Officeworks, says, “Being able to perform stock on hand product enquiries on our mobile devices is just one example of the great benefits we are seeing in moving to an online mobile application.”
The framework also provided the team with the knowledge that their system could evolve over time as their business needs changed and would support any device they decide to utilise in the future. The Officeworks IT team is now capable of enhancing and updating their mobile solution, thereby reducing the cost of ownership and their reliance on a vendor to make continued changes.
This case study was prepared by Sky Technologies.
This article was first published in Inside SAP Autumn 2012
