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Kevin Jones used to be a Starbucks regular, and not just because he enjoys a strong cup of joe. As a regional sales manager in Sacramento, Calif., for CSK Auto, Jones spends 50% of his workweek driving the highways of Northern California and Oregon, and he was forced to seek out publicly available Wi-Fi connections at places like Starbucks to get on the Web or check e-mail. He also planned his itinerary to be in the vicinity of a CSK store whenever possible to connect directly to the company's network, though sometimes that just wasn't possible.
"Even when I found a hotspot, it wasn't ideal because there was a lot of data we couldn't access unless we were physically connected to the corporate network at one of our stores," says Jones. Consequently, his primary means of communication with the 17 sales reps he manages was voice mail. "We did a lot of calling back and forth. It wasn't a very productive use of our time." That changed earlier this year when 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 that provides real-time sales, inventory, and customer service data. Sales reps have unlimited access to Sprint's high-speed EV-DO network. Jones can now monitor up-to-the-minute sales for any CSK store, check on inventory by stock-keeping units (SKUs), and be in constant touch with the home office and his sales team.
Illustration by Curtis Parker
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