First Free Field Merchandising SaaS App developed using ComponentOne's Studio extensions for Microsoft Visual Studio

Using ComponentOne's Studio extensions for Microsoft Visual Studio, they have developed a system that is optimized for modern mobile devices.

Business Needs

Skemaz identified the market potential for building a modern Field Merchandising SaaS that would challenge the more tenured merchandising software being used in the industry. "We made the decision to build our retail merchandising SaaS from the ground up to minimize costs and to design it to be as easy as paint-by-numbers to use," said Mark Runge, CEO at Skemaz.

To create this new immersive system, Skemaz evaluated the latest development platforms and tools that would allow users to easily and quickly design, manage and report in-store field merchandising audit projects as well as a system that would generate actionable reports for analyzing field merchandising data as it is created in the field by the mobile app users. “Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch and ComponentOne's Studio for LightSwitch extensions were the optimal solutions that would support our vision of a fresh new Retail Merchandising Solution” said Runge

Manufacturers of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) rely on field merchandising reports to identify and rectify merchandising issues. They need the ability to drill into a problem and have real-time field reporting data so they are able to take action.

With Skemaz, these manufacturers receive real-time data from mobile field merchandising reps who simply log in from their mobile browser on any modern smart phone. Administrators can design merchandising projects, assign merchandising project work to field workers and make real time reporting available to their clients," said Runge.

The introduction of Skemaz to the marketplace has given visibility to companies that may not have before been able to afford merchandising software or didn't have the workforce to support this detailed level of management.

Field merchandising data are then available via online reports that manufacturers can analyze in terms of the performance of their products at the point of retail. Skemaz provides a responsive design HTML5 client for mobile users and a Silverlight client for setting up project data and for serving up reports.

"By developing in Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch and incorporating ComponentOne Studio for LightSwitch extensions into Skemaz, we were able to expand the available merchandising workforce and enable organizations to immediately take advantage of their local knowledge to expand the reach of their service offerings," said Runge."

Skemaz P/L
www.skemaz.net

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