In this case study

Turning an upgrade into an opportunity

Staying competitive in today's fast-paced world means evolving rapidly to meet customer demands. It is a challenge that requires companies to not only invest in new technology but also to leverage that investment across multiple areas within the organization.

When a Home Improvement Retailer needed to update the wireless network in each of their 1,800+ locations, they realized an opportunity to solve an immediate IT need while also providing a larger and lasting benefit to the company as a whole. The solution would require complex endpoint integration between hardware and software assets to ultimately improve workforce efficiencies and the customer experience.

The Retailer turned to WWT for a solution that could help them turn an infrastructure refresh into a win for the entire organization.

WWT Retail Mobile App and Infrastructure Deployment

Connecting infrastructure with business initiatives

Working closely with a client to understand their needs is key to how WWT creates solutions. Strategic planning and technical exploration with the organization revealed that, in addition to needing a wireless network upgrade, the Retailer was seeking a way to improve customer convenience through a curbside pickup feature.

While curbside pickup was a consumer-facing priority, it was a business need that required strong alignment and execution with the infrastructure team to be successful. This insight allowed the customer's IT department to leverage a network upgrade — along with a proposed software solution — in a way that provided a benefit to the entire company, from store associates to customers to business leaders.

A two-fold software solution

With a focus on improving the curbside pickup experience, WWT and the Home Improvement Retailer worked together to create a new toolset that increases efficiency and insight for store associates, and offers a more seamless and intuitive experience for customers.

A new mobile application for the store associate

In addition to customer features, WWT developed a new store associate app to improve employee communication. With the app, location-positioning features of the network endpoints are leveraged to provide associates with indoor wayfinding, while allowing real-time visibility of in-store customer traffic and offering voice and video communication among team members.

An improved customer mobile experience

As a result, customers can now alert associates to when they are curbside through trigger notifications, and let associates know in which parking spot they are waiting. WWT worked with the Retailer's internal development team to seamlessly incorporate these new curbside features into the existing mobile application.

Driving business outcomes

Through thoughtful collaboration, WWT was able to help the customer create an infrastructure-friendly, network- agnostic digital solution. This solution capitalizes on the Retailer's well-established consumer mobile application and allows the IT department, and the company as a whole, to get more out of its network investment.

Infrastructure benefits:

  • Better leveraging of infrastructure investments across the organization
  • Greater visibility of network health metrics
  • Integration with partners such as Phunware

Application development benefits:

  • Emerging technology expertise and resource bandwidth increase
  • An intuitively designed, new store associate application
  • Evolved and integrated services that extended the consumer mobile app with new digital and physical capabilities

Overall business outcome benefits:

  • A more efficient employee experience
  • A better customer experience in the store and at the curb
  • Brand lift and positive sentiment with customers

Technologies