Foodstuffs South Island – A paperless and frictionless QR code experience for visitors during sign-in

Foodstuffs South Island selects OnLocation for simplified visitor management and robust reporting capabilities.

About

Foodstuffs South Island (FSSI) is a 100% New Zealand owned Cooperative with its support centre located in Papanui, Christchurch and approximately 12,000 employees across the support centre and store network. With more than 150 stores owned and operated in the South Island, it is one of New Zealand’s largest retail groups. Their retail banners include On The Spot (72 stores), Four Square (60 stores), New World (43 stores), PAK’nSAVE (12 stores), and Raeward Fresh (5 stores). FSSI also owns Trents Wholesale (6 branches), and a transport division called Transport South Island Logistics (TSI). TSI operates from distribution centres in Hornby and Dunedin, and covers over 11 million kilometres annually, delivering more than 1.1 million pallets to stores.

Business Challenge

Foodstuff South Island’s incumbent visitor management provider was up for review, and one of the key drivers was the preference for a paperless and frictionless experience for visitor sign-in. An internally formed working group identified pain points for staff and contractors who come into the various locations across the South Island in New Zealand.

After the results of the survey and other information was analysed, it was identified that Foodstuffs South Island sought a visitor management solution with a paperless QR code sign-in option for sites that did not want to retain printers and computers. Additionally, it required a single source of truth for reporting purposes across its extensive portfolio.

The previous visitor management solution was disparate, which made it difficult to collate data across different businesses within the enterprise. Administrators needed to access and pull reports at any given time, as it was important for the software to report visitors/suppliers/contractors who had arrived on-site at any of the locations.

Solution

After identifying the pain points for visitors and employees with their incumbent solution, Foodstuffs South Island looked to demo various solutions from multiple vendors to find the best fit for their enterprise. The solution would need to work across many diverse types of businesses and provide a paperless and frictionless experience for visitors and merchandisers/contractors.

After extensive demos and pilots, MRI OnLocation was identified as a perfect fit to meet business requirements. Because of the high standard of support and documentation that was available for the implementation team to leverage, the rollout was efficient and seamless.

Business Impact

MRI OnLocation was deployed across 62 sites in the South Island of New Zealand, including PAK’nSAVE and New World supermarkets, distribution centres, the support centre, and Trents Wholesale. With the efficient QR poster option, FSSI was able to quickly set up each location with visitor management software.

When visitors or contractors arrive on-site, they simply scan the QR code with their device to sign in and report their presence. The organisation now has a single, sole source of truth that helps track merchandisers and visitors. By using the QR code option, which does not require hardware, the company is able to save money by reducing printing and hardware leasing costs.

Foodstuffs South Island now also utilise powerful visitor pre-registration via MRI OnLocation, which saves the front-of-house team a significant amount of time, especially in their support centre, which
often involves meetings with many visitors. Using this feature allows visitors to spend less time at the reception desk and get to their meeting faster.

The implementation was deemed a success in the project closure report performed by the organisation. They are now looking to implement additional functionality from the broad set of more than 300 features that MRI OnLocation offers, which are included in the subscription.

From the first demo of the solution, we were convinced we had a vendor that could meet our business requirements.

– Jonathon Reuben, Retail Technology Service Lead, Foodstuffs South Island