Stratix Improves Service for Major Tire Retailer

One of the world’s largest tire retailers uses Zebra mobile devices and a laser-based tread depth reader to quickly and accurately perform tire inspections for customers. Instead of manually checking tires in multiple places with an analog gauge and taking notes with pen and paper, the digital solution does it all in seconds with much higher accuracy. The customer doesn’t even have to get out of their car. It means the retailer can improve safety, assist more customers, reduce wait times, and give customers the best-possible experience.

The Challenge

After years of successfully using the Zebra TC75 in its stores, the tire retailer was ready to upgrade to the newer Zebra TC78. However, there had been past issues with their managed services provider. It didn’t provide adequate asset visibility and endpoint management support. The provider also didn’t have the resources to deploy such a large-scale project quicky. Ordering processes were paper-based and there was no line of sight into what was being ordered. With thousands of devices to replace, the retailer wanted to be 100 percent confident the project would be done right. Zebra introduced the retailer to Stratix based on our strategic partnership and extensive experience in retail with Zebra products.

The Solution

Onboarding their entire fleet of mobile devices across 1,200 locations only took Stratix’ project management team 90 days. The first thing we did was onboard all of the company’s existing mobile devices into our unified endpoint management (UEM) environment and Stratix itrac360. The proprietary itrac360 platform pulls data in real time for a comprehensive view that includes spare pool levels, order tracking, asset location, help desk incidents, repair history, and more—going far beyond simple reporting. Stratix UEM team also delivers the kind of 24/7 support that the retailer needed.

Next, Stratix built a custom ordering portal for the retailer. It’s an eCommerce-like experience where store managers can go in and order the devices and accessories they need. Stratix ordering portals did away with the retailer’s old manual procurement workflows that involved paper order forms, dozens of emails, approvals, and logistics discussions. The manager simply logged in, selected what they needed, chose the date for delivery and could see the progression of the order and past history.

The replacement Zebra TC78s were kitted and configured in Stratix’s state-of-the-art Mobile Integration Center and delivered to stores out-of-the-box ready. Stratix was also able to work with Zebra to improve supply chain challenges to speed up the whole refresh project.

The Result

Since partnering with Stratix, the tire retailer now has full visibility of its entire mobile technology environment thanks to itrac360. It’s also no longer struggling with endpoint management support issues because Stratix’s dedicated UEM team is always there when needed. With our expertise and scale, the TC78 refresh project went much faster than the retailer expected, and it’s so pleased it’s already committed to future refresh projects with Stratix. When asked on a customer satisfaction survey how likely she was to recommend Stratix services to a colleague or other organization, the company leader in charge of the project gave us a 10 out of 10 “extremely likely” score.