Guarantee Task Compliance

Retailers struggle with corporate oversight and compliance requirements in the day-to-day operational tasks at the store level. Many current systems are paper-based and heavily dependent on store and department managers for tactical execution, with little feedback to corporate management. Other current systems rely on email. But the emails are typically not prioritized by store, forcing store managers to sift through countless emails to determine what actually pertains to their store. This inefficiency can result in overworked managers and staff, low customer satisfaction, and confusion at the store level — all of which can increase operating costs. A task management solution provides a collaboration portal to the store level that allows the assignment and tracking of day-to-day operations in real time. I talked to industry luminaries in task management about how a task management application improves the on-shelf availability of stock, and communication and accountability between corporate offices and retail stores.

Use Task Management To Reduce Out-Of-Stocks
A recent study conducted by the IHL Group reports the average retailer is losing the equivalent of $3.19 for every customer that walks through the doors due to out-of-stocks. These are either lost sales of specific items or a substitute product in that category. Overall, the actual loss to competitors from out-of-stocks measures $93 billion annually. It's true that visibility and insight into marketing and merchandising leads to the improved on-shelf availability of stock. It's also true that visibility into operational tasks leads to the improved on-shelf availability of stock. Indeed, if you set and monitor tasks to create promotions more efficiently, your merchandise will sell. "A task management application allows head office task creators to build business processes around content and business management steps for all aspects of inventory management," says Janet Hawkins, president and founder at Opterus. "The application allows you to set steps for a given process, eliminating confusion on how to complete a task. Also, task management fosters accountability at the store level, as each task is strictly monitored."

Many task management applications tie all in-store service activities to a centrally administered, Web-based platform. As it applies to high priority retail initiatives, such as out-of-stock reduction, the application fulfills the retailer's goals of measured service levels, merchandising control and efficiency, and top-to-bottom accountability. "Retailers need an institutionalized best practice to reduce out-of-stocks, and a task management system provides these best practices," says Prashanth Palakurthi, founder and CEO at Reflexis. "To reduce out-of-stocks and increase revenue, a task management solution should be closely aligned to the retailer's business metrics. By integrating task management and business metrics, the retailer gains visibility into enterprisewide task compliance."

Bridge The Communication Gap With Task Compliance
Task management applications improve communication and accountability between corporate offices and retail stores by eliminating all nonpertinent information. "A store manager is greeted with countless emails each morning," says Tom Simon, VP at Task Advantage. "Of all the emails he receives, perhaps eight are from head office, and seven of those eight emails are tagged 'high priority.' The store manager must then determine which emails are priorities for his store. A task management system will eliminate everything that is not store business right off the bat. It organizes and prioritizes all communications before they leave the home office, giving store managers only the information they need to know." Palakurthi agrees, as he claims your best salesperson is your store manager. "If your store manager is in your back office reading a binder or reading and responding to hundreds of emails, he isn't on the sales floor providing leadership to sales force and helping customers," he says. "A task management application allows the store manager to log in every morning to determine his priorities for that day, allowing him to quickly get out of the back office and onto the sales floor."

Just as task management applications reduce the amount of unnecessary communications, they also make store-level employees accountable for task completion. "The head office task creator may create a single-step task or a multistep task for store level associates," says Hawkins. "On the other hand, the task management portal gives store managers visibility into how the head office is supporting the store. Each task is measured throughout the cycle until it is complete by both head office and store-level employees. Every member of the organization can access task status because the data is in one centralized place." Many task management applications include a reporting package, which allows a retailer's management team to quantify store operations and task compliance at each store location. "Incoming and outgoing communications are clear and prioritized, making it easy to hold the parties throughout the retail hierarchy accountable for task completion," says Simon.

On The Web: Burlington Coat Factory tackles task compliance at ismretail.com/jp/7343.

Staff Accordingly For Optimal Task Completion Time
A task management application allows for proper staff scheduling, so the utilization of employee resources is optimized. For example, consider the task of converting a Halloween display to a Christmas display. A number of tasks are related to this process, and the tasks may be similar from year to year. Much of the data is probably reusable. Therefore, the home office planner reuses the tasks he created the previous year. He does not have to recreate them, which puts employee resources to good use. He can determine how many staff members are needed to complete the task and how long it will take. Without a streamlined system, the corporate office receives countless phone calls and emails from multiple stores because they have little or incorrect data.

By adopting a retail task management application, retailers will reap many benefits resulting in increased business insight, improved governance, and better focus on high-value tasks. Roles-based dashboards and portals provide summarized views of the business. The application replaces paper-based systems with Web-based applications that turn data into business intelligence. Effective tools for high-confidence decision making and real-time task tracking provide an instant snapshot of individual and overall task progress. In addition, managers can receive alerts and notifications on their mobile devices.