BRINGING CONVENIENCE TO MILLIONS IN INDONESIA WITH ALFAMART’S AIRWATCH® POWERED BYOD STRATEGY
VMware AirWatch® has enabled Alfamart’s BYOD mobility strategy by streamlining the sharing of information and data to over 100,000 employees across the organization’s vast geographical footprint. Management-employee communications have improved significantly, from the sharing of critical information like management decisions and performance assessments, to new corporate and business policies, marketing collaterals on new promotions, product knowledge, and more. In turn, this has accelerated decision-making for Alfamart and its overall customer satisfaction.
Customer Profile
PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk (Alfamart) is one of the Indonesia’s leading retailers, serving over three million customers daily with about 10,300 stores managed by over 30 branch offices. Its chain of convenience stores offers affordable, high-quality, daily necessities through friendly service and a clean and comfortable shopping experience. The company has achieved several accolades to date, including Indonesia’s Most Admired Company in the minimarket category from 2009 to 2014, and Economic Challenge Award 2014 in the Best Trade and Retail Industry category.
The Challenge
Managing a vast portfolio of businesses and customers across an expansive country like Indonesia is no easy feat. Alfamart’s biggest challenge was in sharing and disseminating vital information from the head office to stores across a sprawling archipelago. With information ranging from management decisions, performance assessments, new corporate and business policies, marketing strategies, collaterals, and more, it is critical that Alfamart’s workforce gets timely and accurate access to information to help them make smart decisions to ensure smooth operations.
Alfamart’s branch offices and regional stores traditionally relied on virtual private networks to communicate with the head office. However, Indonesia’s basic Internet infrastructure resulted in slow delivery of information, especially in remote areas with poor landline connectivity. The slow flow of critical information – including customer and product feedback, or even the need for facility maintenance – impeded the business’ ability to make critical decisions in a timely manner. The cost and data loss impacts from stolen or lost mobile devices were also highly detrimental to the business.
In its attempt to overcome these challenges, Alfamart organized regular meetings for employees across Indonesia to facilitate the exchange of information. However, this was not an efficient solution. Employees had to travel to the company’s head office in Jakarta for meetings where they would receive
information on new products and promotions. Meetings could not be conducted in a timely manner, resulting in store managers and on-ground staff potentially taking weeks or months to receive information from Alfamart’s head office. It was also difficult to deliver feedback due to the large number of employees, stores and branch offices. This delay meant that important management decisions were not executed quickly enough, undermining the company’s overall competitiveness. In addition, meetings were costly to organize as it involved arranging accommodation and transport for employees.
The Solution
To enhance its BYOD strategy, Alfamart turned to VMware AirWatch®, a scalable enterprise mobility management platform that integrates with existing enterprise systems. AirWatch® allows organizations to manage all devices, regardless of type, platform or ownership, from one central console. With AirWatch®, Alfamart can be confident that its business-critical data will be disseminated in a timely and efficient manner, while being protected by industry-best standards.
As part of its push for mobility, the company had initially allowed employees to use personal devices for work with the aim of speeding up decision-making processes and enhancing information exchange between stores or branch offices and the head office. AirWatch®’s capability of separating corporate and personal data on personal devices enhanced this initiative and maintained the fine balance of corporate data security and employee privacy preferences. It also provided Alfamart with the ability to standardize enterprise security and data loss prevention strategies across different mobile devices.
In addition, AirWatch®’s communication and collaboration capabilities allowed Alfamart’s employees to work securely across the country via mobile and e-mail, allowing them to also edit, annotate, and comment on shared® documents. VMware AirWatch® also gave its employees access to Alfamart’s applications, including finance and accounting, human resource, customer relationship management, merchandising, and logistics. This empowered Alfamart’s employees to better anticipate and manage customer demands and enquiries, allowing smart operational and business decisions. Finally, AirWatch®’s mobile device management capabilities gave Alfamart’s IT staff visibility into the devices – including smartphones, tablets, and laptops – connected to the company’s enterprise network, content, and applications.
“The comprehensive range of products offered by VMware – from software- defined IT solutions to front-end enterprise mobility management platforms like AirWatch® – was a key consideration in our decision to work with VMware. Specifically, with AirWatch® we have been able to realize our BYOD strategy and be more responsive to customer needs,” said Himawan Setiadi, IT Director, Alfamart.
Business Results and Benefits
The dissemination of information in a secure and timely manner is of utmost importance to Alfamart in ensuring it remains a leader in a highly competitive retail landscape. Bottlenecks in information flow can affect how fast Alfamart is able to manage peaks in demands for the fast moving goods they provide
across their 10,300 stores. With its expansive business footprint and large but scattered workforce, Alfamart enhanced its BYOD mobility strategy with VMware AirWatch®. By enabling employees to access information anytime, anywhere, Alfamart’s branch and store employees can now share information and collaborate in a more efficient and effective manner. This means that Alfamart’s employees are now equipped with up-to-date product information, enabling them to better respond to customer queries and deliver quality service.
By making business applications available to employees through mobile devices, Alfamart streamlined its business processes and improved operational efficiency. Requests on item purchases and expense claims can now be submitted easily. Customer-related feedback and field reports can also be flagged quickly so that Alfamart’s management can make timely decisions and resolve issues more rapidly.
The confidentiality of critical data is assured, without fear of the data being copied or printed by others, thanks to the strict security controls enabled by VMware AirWatch®. To ensure data privacy and security, modification and dissemination of information can only be done by specific IT staff authorized by management, while other staff can only access but not duplicate, copy or alter information.
Alfamart’s AirWatch®-powered BYOD strategy has equipped staff with the most up-to-date knowledge about products and promotions, reduced training costs by 20 per cent, enhanced mobility across device and platforms, and improved internal communications between management and employees. The result: faster service delivery and improved customer satisfaction.
Looking Ahead
Alfamart will continue to enhance its mobility strategy through the development of additional applications and other means. It will also focus on improving its network quality and further optimizing the use of VMware AirWatch®. Moving forward, it is looking to deploy single sign-on for various applications, as well as equip each store with tablets for stocktaking. It plans to manage the new tablets with AirWatch® as well.
