When 200,000 Orange mobile customers migrated to 3, the company faced a potential crisis. How do you accommodate such a large number of customers when your average 3 store is 50 sq m? Lanworks, a company specialising in business systems integration, quickly developed software for the tablet PCs 3 would use to overcome space limitations and improve customer service. Stephanie Sword asked Lanworks managing director Aaron Dormer about the challenges his company faced in helping 3 create its new paperless environment.
3's business needs were in fact a tall order for potential suppliers. How did Lanworks prioritise its proposal to match the needs of 3? How did you ultimately address 3's current and long-term needs?
In the first instance, Lanworks was able to respond quickly because we run a relatively small company of 25 people, so we are highly agile and have flexible processes. Secondly, Lanworks is a full-service technology house, offering both applications delivery and network services. This means our Networks Operations team sit with and mix in on projects with applications developers. Our structure means we are able to rapidly innovate and test new ways of using technology and it's proved a considerable advantage for our customers when it comes to devising, planning and rolling out projects quickly.
Short term, the project for 3 was earmarked by tight deadlines, which existed in part due to the proposed closure of the Orange network and the upgrade of 500,000 existing customers to the 3 network. From the time the cut over was announced and 3 launched campaigns to educate the market about it, foot traffic into dealers and 3 retail stores increased significantly.
We prioritised our proposal by first of all focusing on the business issues at hand, assessing numerous variables affecting customer service levels, such as transaction volumes, peak trading periods and staffing, and then developing a solution around readily available technology.
From this we determined the most important requirements for the project in the lead-up to the cut over from Orange to 3 were:
- Alleviating demand driven 'counter crush'
- Relieving peak sales bottlenecks
- Integrating the solution with provisioning systems
In any retail environment the faster the service the higher the level of satisfaction, so we focused on an approach that would deal with a paucity of access points, invigorate the sales method, support the retail provisioning process, efficiently handle demand spikes, streamline sign-up and reduce business overheads.
We knew a mobile solution using a tablet device and digital signature technologies would create the much needed access points, make it easy for stores to bust queues, offer a personal level of service delivery and eliminate counter crush during the busiest times of day.
Tablet and digital signature technology has been commercially available for a number of years. However, it's still in an early adopter stage in the technology life cycle so we had to be very clear about how it would integrate with the provisioning systems immediately and how a mobile solution would deliver long-term value.
In effect the provisioning system is a thin client, and can be centrally managed and upgraded. On a software level, our development process is object orientated, making what we build very easy to upgrade. This futureproofs all of our solutions. From an infrastructure level, digital signatures rely on a stylus and Microsoft technology so a range of different hardware devices and vendors can be leveraged.
In the mid to long term, we had to consider the bigger picture. This meant thinking laterally and strategically about the future of retail, where the current pain points exist, the changing nature of consumer demand and how a retailer might look to maximise their opportunities and minimise their costs over the next 5-10 years.
You used technology (wireless and tablet PCs) to overcome 3's lack of store space, which resulted after Orange's migration. How can this solution assist other companies who face similar logistical problems?
First and foremost, Lanworks has a living proof point for a mobile solution in retail, which means companies choosing to work with us know we have a Mobility Method that actually works and handles all the logistics complexities. Secondly, our ability to devise, plan and implement quickly is the major boon to companies that may be experiencing similar challenges. Finally, it's about how we work with retailers to help them adopt innovative ways to secure and service customers.
In the 3 example, the Tablets are used as queue busters today; in the future they may empower a totally mobile sales force.
From a marketing perspective, 3's approach is quite effective: customers will think the tablet PC is novel because many haven't seen them in action. They are actually using and experiencing the service while signing up, all while using an interesting piece of hardware to do it. Was this a factor in selecting the tablet PC? What other factors were considered?
The Tablet PCs were selected for a plethora of reasons and are part of a second-generation makeover of the company's shops. The makeover will emphasise product demonstration, with more areas set aside for customers to try 3's services.
From Lanworks' perspective, the tablet PCs facilitated a fully wireless, fully paperless, digital retail solution that met all the considerations outlined earlier.
Please explain why the tablet PC was selected and not a laptop or PDA.
The solution needed a stylus-enabled device for digital signatures. The touch screen also reduced the turnaround of the provisioning workflow. A tablet provides staff with the flexibility to revert to laptop mode for the data entry components requiring text, such as a name and address, which is an aspect unique to the tablets and not available using PDAs. We were also able to deploy the tablets without having to re-engineer the user interface, which would have blown out timeframes and added cost to the project.
Tablet PCs appear more functional for things like digital signatures. What other functional benefits are there?
Tablets are ideal for all form-based systems where free text data entry is a minimum, ie, lots of drop-down fields, buttons, tick boxes and links. Web browsing and user demonstrations are also better on tablets because of the screen size.
Security is always an issue with web-based designs. How was security incorporated into the initial design?
To combat security constraints, Lanworks customised the SOE Build using licensed technology that literally 'freezes' the standard windows operating environment, and changes that are made to the notebooks are lost on reboot. This provides protective capabilities to individual PCs by remembering and restoring their configurations to a known, clean state each time the machine is restarted.
As the system is web based there are no application components stored on the systems. If a tablet is stolen then all the thief has is the hardware, and a very restricted version of a Microsoft Operating system.
By default the provisioning system is running over SSL, which ensures all data between the web server and tablets are encrypted. We added a number of other security measures, which we choose not to table for open discussion as this protects 3's interests.
This was first implemented in February in some locations. What has the response from customers or staff been so far? Have any changes or improvements been implemented since then?
David Bickett - Hutchison Consumer Sales general manager - recently commented to media: "The Acer Tablet PC solution deployed by Lanworks exemplifies 3's commitment to using progressive technology to enhance the customer experience. It helped create an efficient transition to 3 for customers so they experienced as little inconvenience as possible in their upgrade. This has undoubtedly assisted in keeping customer turnover to a minimum."
More than 200,000 Orange 2G customers upgraded to the 3G network in the three months after Hutchison merged its mobile services and Mr Bickett has also gone on the record as saying there could be 300 PCs by Christmas, depending on changes in store. All in all this suggests a high level of satisfaction with the outcomes for the customer.
What other future developments can we expect from wireless technology?
- Voice over Wi-Fi
- Bandwidth increases over 3G
- WiMax
Primarily performance improvements and increased competition, which is great for the customer. Voice over Wi-Fi will give users one handset for when they are in and out of the store or the office and this is going to be incredibly dynamic for retail.
We anticipate further changes to legislation surrounding paperless contracts and digital signatures that will mean changes in governance, compliance and best practice for retailers.
