Client story Multinational Convenience Store Chain Updates Devices Across 15,000 Locations
A multinational convenience store chain turned to Insight and Google to find a solution to update their outdated devices across more than 15,000 locations.
By Insight Editor / 14 Mar 2024 / Topics: Deployment Device lifecycle Google ChromeOS Software
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Retail, a multinational chain of convenience stores.
Challenge:
Outdated back-office computers were too expensive to continue supporting and would be too costly to replace the entire fleet. Employee retention suffered from inefficient technology, and store management was unable to handle inventory and other necessary tasks.
Solution:
Device refresh program rolled out new back-office devices to over 15,000 stores across North America. The Acer Chromebox CXI5 devices were provisioned to support multiple profiles per device, depending on use case and employee type. This program improved employee retention and streamlined store management workloads.
Insight provided:
Insight created a program to provision and roll out the Acer Chromebook devices to the company’s 15,000 stores.
Outcomes:
- Updated devices across multiple locations
- Enhanced the employee experience with modern technology
- Improved device performance and security
- Enhanced scalability and instituted a device lifecycle program
The vision: Future-proofing devices for the modern workforce
A multinational chain of convenience stores founded in 1927 was started to simplify their customer’s day by offering a fast, personalized experience. The company now has over 1,000 stores across the United States and approximately 78,000 employees.
This well-known convenience store chain found a challenge with their old back-office computers. These computers handled inventory and scheduling but had become too archaic to run these programs efficiently. However, it was too costly to replace their outdated computers across the 1,000 stores.
The challenge was finding a solution that didn’t require a large amount of work and was cost effective to implement across all their stores. That’s where Insight and Google ChromeOS came in.
The solution: Putting convenience back into convenience store
Insight and ChromeOS worked together to create a solution to tackle the client’s challenges. First, we started with the objectives the client was looking to achieve. We needed to find a solution that updated their devices, offered a simple deployment process and helped the client easily manage their devices across all locations.
After knowing the client’s objectives, Insight and ChromeOS worked together to create a custom extension to support the custom application that was in place for the client. Insight created a process for kitting, provisioning, deploying, returning and redeploying devices for the client. Additionally, Insight worked with ChromeOS and Acer to ensure that their devices matched the desired solution.
Google Admin console provided the client with a solution to manage their devices while also strengthening security with automatic updates.
The result: Taking devices from prehistoric to present-day
Once we developed a solution for our client, we piloted the rollout with five stores in Texas to see what needed to be refined. We then created a program to roll out 1000 devices to stores across the United States.
Store employees are now able to use the back-office device to find schedules, check inventory, perform trainingand access specific apps aligned to their role. Store managers can now see up-to-date sales data, manage inventory and access human resources tools. The multinational convenience store chain recently expanded the fooprint to cover 2,100 other stores in addition to the 1,000 already provisioned.
Additionally, these devices reduced the necessary physical footprint and created a secure way for multiple profiles of employees to log in to the same device.
