A lot of ease and improvement resulted in the business transactions and communication as CSK Auto, a leading specialty retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and equipment, issued smartphones to its 300 sales professionals and implemented a mobile, custom-developed application. This provides real-time sales, inventory, and customer service data which are useful in managing a business. There is an unlimited access to the network. The hottest sales for any CSK store can be monitored, inventories can be checked and a constant connection with the sales team is possible.

“If I see that there’s a problem with a particular store–say, if the day’s sales aren’t on the ball–I can get hold of the sales guy and find out what’s going on. I make a couple phone calls, maybe run a sale on some tools, and within two hours make up and even exceed that deficit,” says Kevin Jones, a regional sales manager in Sacramento, California. Likewise, he can intercede immediately if a large sale is on hold because of accounts receivable, pricing, or credit issues. With anytime, anywhere network access, “I can resolve these issues on the spot,” Kevin Jones said. Jones can check on sales for a store or region at 11 a.m., and if sales are behind targeted levels, drill down to the individual customer or SKU level and find out where the problem is.

Based in Phoenix, CSK Auto operates more than 1,300 stores in 22 states under the brand names Checker Auto Parts, Schuck’s Auto Supply, Kragen Auto Parts and Murray’s Discount Auto Stores. The stores cater to people who repair and maintain their own vehicles as well as to auto repair shops, fleet owners, government agencies, and municipalities. CSK is the largest specialty retailer of auto parts and accessories in the Western United States and one of the largest such retailers in the United States, based on store count. It CSK reported $1.9 billion in sales in fiscal 2006, an increase of more than 15% over the preceding year. The company is growing through expansion of its store network and by increasing per-store sales. With margins on auto parts under constant pressure, however, CSK must keep costs contained while it searches for ways to boost sales.

Additionally, CIO Larry Buresh along with senior director of IT David Waxberg drove the initiative to give mobile workers ubiquitous access to critical data in legacy and transactional databases. “We saw an opportunity to do both by using technology to increase the productivity of our field sales force,” says Buresh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Aftermarket parts news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.