Multi Channel Commerce & Mobile Apps - Wishlist 2010
Sterling Commerce recently announced mobile applications for their Order Management application. Sterling Mobile Store Channel and Sterling Store Associate Mobile app for iPhone allow customers as well as business employees to search for products, place orders and track shipments through their iPhones. While discussing these new developments with business users at my current client, i tried to scribble down a wish list from a Retail Store manager's perspective. The expectations are beginning to go beyond the traditional find inventory, find store and place order.
1. Integrate bar code scanners apps on iPhone that would allow a Sales Rep to immediately get prices from competitor websites and allow real time price match offers for customers
2. Real time heat map of Store sales activity for promotions allowing managers to react quickly
3. Workflow integration for escalations and approvals
4. Delivery and TMS integration for to get shipment status updates but also trigger Stop shipments or re-routing the deliveries on the fly
5. Turn customer iPhones into mini Kiosks to allow them to scan not only the in-store inventory but also do price comparisons with web channel and place orders for through their choice of channel
I also sensed a need for proactive real time business alert framework that not only fed the manager with information but also enable the manager with data to react quickly from his mobile console. What do you think are the unique asks from your business for mobile applications?
Have you had the Supply Chain Mobile Apps discussion yet?
Comments
Hi Amar:
Nice thought! Infact most of the line items mentioned your client’s wishlist are currently covered by the various enterprise mobility app vendors. EM vendors would typically offer these functionalities as modules which can be stitched together with the legacy systems (like integration with the system managing the foot fall/heat map pertaining to instore execution) to provide the required solution to the retailer.
But would like to leave you with one thought:
Background - the wishlist needs to be divided into Customer Facing apps and Biz Facing apps. Multiple versions (from different App Developers) of both the customer facing apps mentioned above are currently available on Apple's App Store. Similarly the Biz Facing Apps are also available in the market as part of various WMS/OMS/CRM Suites.
Thought - What and exactly how the retailers would want these biz facing apps top talk to the customer facing apps. This is just one of the questions which retailers are trying to find.
Posted by: ashu | March 9, 2010 11:11 AM