Unlocking value at the frontline with smart data capture
Sponsored by ScanditSmart data capture is the missing link between the digital side of enterprises and their physical assets
How many times have you gone to a store only to discover the item you were looking for wasn’t available?
It doesn’t matter how good the product listing on the app is, how effective the digital marketing campaign, or how sharp the pricing strategy. If the product isn’t on the shelf when you want to buy it, you can’t buy it.
Problems with on-shelf availability still plague the global retail industry, costing over $634 billion annually. We’re so immersed in digital information, it’s easy to forget that the world still mainly revolves around physical goods and processes. Physical industries, such as retail, logistics, manufacturing or healthcare, make up 75 per cent of the world’s $100 trillion GDP.
Yet data capture at organisational frontlines has long been an overlooked area in IT and operations. Benefiting from granular, dynamic, actionable data from their physical assets still eludes most businesses. Full inventory accuracy remains a pipe dream for most – it’s often below 80 per cent. Everywhere, data capture still relies on tedious, cumbersome manual processes where even pens and paper still play a large role.
There’s often an understandable reluctance to modernise data capture. Ingrained legacy processes and technology make change daunting and disruption a real risk. Yet at the same time, transparent, flexible supply chains are essential to boosting legal compliance and consumer trust, creating better customer experiences, building long-term agility and generating large-scale efficiency gains. And with 45 per cent of global CEOs believing their organisation would not be economically viable in 10 years without adjustments, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
In this piece, I’ll explore how technological advances mean smart data capture software can now solve this long-standing blind spot and realise untapped value hidden in plain sight – with low-risk investments that can involve little more than the smartphone in your pocket.
Making data capture smart
Smart data capture combines barcode scanning, text recognition, object recognition and ID scanning with advances in camera technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). It generates rich data about the status and whereabouts of physical assets and automates or semi-automates manual processes.
By combining text recognition and advanced barcode scanning to automate data capture from complex labels, one US company saved $1.3 million. The savings came from eliminating data entry errors causing them to undercharge customers.
And it’s an appealingly simple, low-risk investment. Smart data capture software runs on any smart device with a camera – smartphones, tablets, handheld computers, fixed cameras, drones, robots, wearables and more.
This allows businesses to start small, using existing infrastructure – but with an inherent capacity to scale and with far-reaching results.
Generate real-time, actionable insights
By effectively capturing data at source, smart data capture solutions tell businesses what is really happening at their frontlines. This can shortcut the complex data issues faced by many businesses, where inconsistent processes and different backend systems result in contradictory and incomplete data.
Rich, near-real-time data can then be analysed and used to make better, faster decisions.
Retail pioneers have already started using smartphones, fixed cameras, and robots to capture shelf data. AI-powered retail shelf analytics algorithms then analyse this data and compare it to system data stored in enterprise resource planning, inventory management or point-of-sale systems.
This enables retailers to answer key questions. Are products still available? Are products in the right location and positioned well? Do price labels show the right prices and promotions?
Store associates receive automated, prioritised notifications at the right time and for the right products or categories. These actionable, real-time insights can be surfaced on whatever device is suitable, from a smartphone to AR glasses.
Retailers adopting smart data capture to improve shelf intelligence routinely attain on-shelf availability of more than 95 per cent. They’ve also witnessed sales improvements of up to 2.5 per cent.
Smart data capture builds agility and resilience
With accurate, real-time data on physical operations at their fingertips and fast, effective ways to feed prioritised actions back to the frontline, physical industries can turn on a sixpence.
One major US same-day delivery company uses smart data capture software to help it scale capacity up and down at speed. New or temporary contractors get up and running in no time, using personal smartphones to pick customer orders in stores and obtain proof of delivery when dropping off goods. With this strategy, it was able to support a threefold increase in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Transparency builds consumer trust
A transparent supply chain combined with the ability to surface information such as provenance, ingredients or sustainability also shores up declining levels of consumer trust.
One leading consumer app with 55 million users is already using smart data capture to increase transparency. It allows consumers to scan products and get instant evaluations of nutritional value or cosmetics ingredients. In 2024, consumers scanned 1.2 billion products using the app.
Smart data capture embeds compliance
With data captured accurately at all points of the supply chain, compliance can be embedded at every turn. For instance, identity verification is a challenging issue for last-mile delivery companies. It costs them time and puts them at risk of legal penalties, such as having an alcohol licence revoked. 45 per cent of US adults aged 18-25 report knowing someone who has successfully used a fake ID to gain access to age-restricted products or venues.
Using smart data capture, a driver can scan and confirm the authenticity of an ID in just one second, with 99.9 per cent authentication accuracy. The business can also automate the process by embedding ID scanning into the workflow in the courier’s app.
This process not only ensures that identity verification happens, but creates a robust audit trail. It gives companies confidence to sell age-restricted goods through new channels, to maximise revenue and business growth.
Smart data capture harvests value
Ultimately, smart data capture turns everyday smart devices into platforms that integrate advanced analytics and business imperatives seamlessly with day-to-day operations.
It’s the missing link between the digital side of enterprises and their physical assets, with the potential to star in corporate ambitions of value creation and reinvention.
Scandit is the leader in smart data capture giving superpowers to workers, customers, and businesses by providing actionable insights and automating end-to-end processes. For more information, visit scandit.com
Samuel Mueller, CEO, Scandit
Business Reporter Team
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