BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - September 9, 2009) - Between July and August 2009,
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
(
NYSE:
HHS), surveyed 129 retail organizations on best methods and
techniques to ensure configurability, integration, and the extensibility of
a mobility infrastructure in 21st century retail. The report entitled
Mobile Field Workforce in Retail: Strategies to Reduce
Total Cost of Ownership reveals that 73% of leading retailers have had
a mobility initiative in place for at least one year. The need for better
access to sales, service, and operations-related information in field
stores, warehouses, distribution centers, and the extended supply chain is
the top business pressure driving mobility initiatives in the retail
industry. This relates to the need for augmenting pervasive access to
business and customer data for the field workforce. This information access
gap in field operations ultimately impacts business workflow in the field
for agile decision-making, timely execution, and data intelligence-driven
retailing efforts.
"Having a mobile workforce that is more seamlessly tied to the business
workflow can further lower costs and improve efficiency, which is a key
differentiator in the present economic environment," notes Sahir Anand,
Chief Author and Research Director for Aberdeen's Retail, Hospitality, and
CPG Practice.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of leading retailers are able to ensure secure
data transfer during the upstream and downstream data flow between the
field and headquarters or vice-versa. "Due to the increased awareness and
compliance requirements for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards
(PCIDSS) and other Wi-Fi security protocol requirements such as Wi-Fi
Protected Access (WPA and WPA2), leading retailers are compelled to
re-visit and improve their secure data compliance on their Wi-Fi networks,"
says Anand.
Based on the current use of mobile applications in the retail industry, the
top three functional uses are inventory and warehouse management (79%),
transactions (79%), and point-of-sale line busting (74%). These results
denote that almost eight out of every 10 retailers that currently use
mobility in their stores focus on improving differentiation via
productivity and customer convenience.
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Agilysys, Cactus Commerce, and Honeywell Scanning
& Mobility. The retail association partner for this report is Retail
Industry Leaders Association (RILA). To obtain a complimentary copy of the
report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=6018.
For additional access to complimentary
Retail Research,
please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-retail
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers
demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the
past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving
market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering
meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the
global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that
drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to
learn more about
Harte-Hanks,
call (800) 456-9748.
© 2009 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617)854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Sahir Anand
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5271
sahir.anand@aberdeen.com