Below are extracts from a 2011 RSR Report titled The 21st Century Store Manager.  The report affirms RPM Retails beliefs about empowering front line retail personnel and the competitive advantages which can be achieved.

"Retailers are concerned about too much time being spent off the floor in the backroom, and see process metrics and actionable information delivered via new technologies as a way to enable store managers to continue manage their store’s people, merchandise, and profitability while also acting as Brand Ambassadors to enhance the customer shopping experience."

"First and foremost, managers need to be able to see information about the goods and services that they are offering. They also need good operational metrics that tell them what’s happening “in the box” when it is actionable and not after-the-fact. Third, all of that information needs to be presented wherever the store manager is. Fourth and finally, the store manager is potentially the retailer’s best Brand Ambassador to the customer, and so needs to be out on the sales floor and interacting with customers."

"Winners understand that the store manager’s role must evolve much more so than do their average and underperforming competitors, they have invested more effort to facilitate that change, but are consequently challenged to provide the necessary arsenal of tools and information with the speed required to be effective. For these forward-thinkers, the issue is not whether the store manager needs more firepower, it’s simply an issue of how to get it to him/her faster. When that speed-todelivery challenge invariably dissipates, Retail Winners will be in a significant position of competitive advantage, pulling away from the pack with a more informed, involved store manager, and the differentiated in-store shopping experience such capabilities afford."

"...retailers have the understanding in place that the store manager must be freed from the back room tasks that have dictated the role for too long. However, while mobile solutions certainly serve as a catalyst for the store manager’s one day emancipation, there is still a tremendous amount of technology infrastructure – and forethought – required to truly transform decades of practices pushing the store manager out of sight."

The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.retailsystemsresearch.com/_document/summary/1365