Cisco Unified Communications for Retail: Streamlining Information for Better Customer Service

September 26, 2006

In the retail world the atmosphere is fast-paced, and employees need information quickly and efficiently. Smart retailers rely on advanced technology to drive the business and to gain competitive advantage.

Hannaford Bros. Co. has provided high-quality food and drug products to the public for more than 120 years. Based in Scarborough, Maine, the company operates 147 supermarkets and food and drug combination stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts, employing more than 24,000 associates.

With an end-to-end Cisco Intelligent Retail Network designed on the principles of Cisco's Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA), Hannaford has implemented the Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution to help manage its stores and improve efficiency.

Bill Homa, chief information officer of Hannaford, recently outlined for News@Cisco how the company relies on Unified Communications to maintain a competitive edge.

When did you begin to realize the benefits of Unified Communications for Retail?

Bill Homa: It's the cumulative result of how we've come to understand and appreciate the power of the network over the past several years. We merged voice and data communications at our retail outlets in the 1990s. That was pretty early for this industry, but we recognized the advantages. For example, we discontinued a thousand phone lines because we were able to route all that internal traffic over the Cisco network. So we've been long-time believers in the power of the network and the ability of Cisco to get the most out of it.

We've been deploying IP Telephony from Cisco for three or four years. We first put it in our distribution centers, and once we saw how successful that was, there was no question that we would continue the rollout throughout our retail locations.

There are certain technologies that really change the game. Wi-Fi, for example, really changed the way we do business. The introduction of Wi-Fi in wireless terminals gave our store employees access to information while they're doing their job in the aisles, which has been tremendously powerful for us. Moving to the next step, combining wireless with the Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution, we're now working on a time management project with Cisco.

Tell us about that application.

Bill Homa: Like most retailers, our employees need to punch in and out on a time clock. Most retailers have expensive, specialized time clocks to do that, but with our Cisco equipment, employees can punch in or out anywhere in the store using an Cisco IP phone. We've got that up and running in one store so far, and they love it.

The potential is enormous, because we're also starting to make employees' schedules available online, so they can log on not only from home, but from any terminal, any IP phone - to see their upcoming schedule or to review their work hours for past periods. We have a lot of part-time people who don't work regular hours; this is really helpful to them.

Then the next phase, which we plan to implement shortly, is to put a biometric reader on the phones, so it's easier to validate an employee's information. So instead of the employees having to enter their employee ID number before punching in or punch out, they can just use their thumbprint. This is helpful because employees sometimes forget their ID. Or, in a very small number of cases, somebody punches in for somebody else.

What other applications do you have now or envision implementing?

Bill Homa: We've also installed a task management system. Again, it doesn't have to be in a computer terminal or a wireless device; it works on any Cisco IP phone, anywhere in the store.

The task management system helps prioritize our work. Every department in a store has a long list of daily tasks - from cleaning cases to ordering product. And often, while employees are doing their regular jobs, they're also receiving additional tasks from the corporate office - tasks that don't necessarily come in any organized or prioritized fashion.

So task management provides some discipline. If a request doesn't come through task management, employees don't do it. And when it does come through task management, it's prioritized, and it's a manageable workload; they're not being asked to accomplish what's impossible within their shift. Finally, it also provides feedback. For example, if our merchandising department needs to know that a display was put up in preparation for Halloween, the system reports exactly when it went up.

Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solutions extend the trend we have begun of putting information into the hands of employees so that they can make decisions and act, no matter where they are.

What kind of IP communications deployment do you have now?

Bill Homa: So far we're using Cisco IP Telephony in 13 stores with up to 32 IP phones in each store. All new stores get it automatically now - as well as stores that are being remodeled or getting new phone systems. I suspect, however, that we're going to cross a point where we'll just replace all the phone systems, so that we get all the benefits of IP telephony throughout the company as soon as possible.

Cisco CallManager is centralized in our data centers, and we've also installed Cisco Unity, so our voicemail and email are integrated. Everybody loves that. And since our existing network is already driven by Cisco, deployment and integration have been very easy.

What do you imagine your stores looking like in three to five years?

Bill Homa: I think we're going to take advantage of IP Telephony much more. It's somewhat analogous to what happened with wireless. Five years ago, we started with one wireless application, and it paid for the entire wireless network; now we have 14 wireless applications in a store. I think the same thing is happening with IP Telephony. We'll build these first applications, and then people will see the power of what we can accomplish - and it will grow quickly from there.

What do you think the benefits of Unified Communications for Retail are to your customers?

Bill Homa: We're lowering our cost of doing business, and we're running a better store. So customers will see it both in the cost of our products and in how well the store is organized - how few products are ever out of stock, for example. It's subtle, but it's very powerful.

Compared to your competitors, how do you think this positions Hannaford?

Bill Homa: It is definitely a competitive advantage. It puts actionable information in the hands of our employees in the aisles, and it frees up their time to be more helpful to our customers. It just helps us be better prepared.