Access to information from mobile devices, POS stations and back office computers is huge for a retail business. Our most recent implementation of Office 365 for a large retailer here in Colorado is making a huge difference in ease of access and efficiency. Along with a custom SharePoint application to manage deliveries Office 365 is key component to their hybrid IT solution.

Bob McCool

 

This article excerpt, by Sanjeevini Mittal, originally appeared here: http://bit.ly/1fCQ6hE
 
Every year at the National Retail Federation (NRF) convention, a lot of attention is focused on the retail store associate, who is the face of the retail experience for many of us. Retail store associates are the friendly people who welcome you as you enter the store, help you find what you need and answer your questions tirelessly all day long. For them, customer service comes first.
Because of their customer-facing positions, retail store associates play a critical role in the retail business. Highly effective retail store associates assume that every customer who walks into the store is there to buy something. They work hard to build relationships so they can understand customers’ specific needs and match them to the products they wish to purchase. Store associates put service first and constantly listen to customers’ suggestions to help with planning and to increase sales.
With a business that is highly seasonal and built upon customer relationships, retail organizations are constantly searching for ways to help store associates perform their jobs more effectively. They are looking for better ways to integrate store associates into the rest of the organization without compromising the productivity and efficiency of the operation. For such organizations, Microsoft Office 365 offers the choice and flexibility to help them seamlessly integrate people who perform a variety of different roles into their core business.
Headquarters and store employees can use the capabilities in Office 365 enterprise plans, including the Office applications, to build business strategies and plans, perform in-depth data analyses, and draw insights from the data. Office 365 kiosk plans and Yammer enterprise are very effective for store associates. They can use capabilities in Yammer Enterprise to quickly share expertise and best practices with associates in other stores or teams at corporate headquarters. With Office 365 kiosk plans, they can use mobile devices to quickly review Office documents with full fidelity of their files.
An infographic shows how a store associate is more effective using Office 365 and Yammer Enterprise versus Google Apps. Check it out for yourself!

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