“Federated Search is much more intuitive—all without having to configure it. It is really good for our sales people—right out of the box. I don’t have PC experts; I have digital camera experts.”
-John Tworsky, General Manager, Bergen County Camera
Customer service is the top priority of Bergen Country Camera, and the majority of that action takes place on the sales floor. “For us, improving the quality of customer service is all about efficiency and having the right information at our fingertips. The better we do, the more sales we generate and the more loyal our customers are,” said John Tworsky, GM – CTO, Bergen County Camera.
Bergen had multiple registers at each store that are used by the sales team. These dumb terminals only handled basic point-of-sale transactions such as barcode scanning and cash register activities. “What we were missing was access to a host of other useful data, such as the Internet and email—information that would help find accessories and assist us in communicating more effectively with our customers,” said Tworsky. “In addition, there was no way to test camera download capability or solve interface problems except to leave the check-out area and experiment with a local computer to troubleshoot issues. If there was any way technology could give us more ability to service our customers at the cash register area, we were all for it.”
The primary goal of Bergen Country Camera is to provide customers with comprehensive access to the equipment, resources and services for all their imaging needs. With the expertise of eMazzanti Technologies, Bergen Country Camera has been able to utilize Windows 7 to provide that same level of access to all its employees, even on the sales floor. Several new features in Windows 7, such as Device Stage, Libraries, and Web Slices, are a significant improvement to employee productivity and the customer experience.
Device Stage will identify and install device drivers almost instantly; and if Windows 7 can’t find drivers, it will automatically search on Windows Update, enabling Bergen Country Camera employees to quickly manage and interact with their wide variety of camera equipment.
Libraries allow a collection of documents, images, videos and other types of files to be viewed within a single folder regardless of their actual location on a computer or network. This capability increases productivity of individuals, sales teams and management at Bergen Cameras by giving them quick access to images and files, regardless of the drive or server on which it is located.
The Power Management feature in Windows 7 provides increased energy savings and longer battery life for laptops.
Windows 7 delivers faster boot and resume times from sleep mode, decreasing user wait time.
Action Center keeps a user informed about PC status without interrupting the workflow. It also provides direct links to a large variety of security and maintenance solutions.
This functionality enables users on the network to find information, including pictures and videos on local computers, as well as the local network and Internet.
Problem Steps Recorder allows Bergen Country Camera employees to precisely capture and communicate a computer problem. It also enables staff to document fixes, create tutorials or knowledge-based reference materials for customers.
Web slices effortlessly keep Bergen Country Camera up to date on competitor Web sites by identifying and displaying the changes automatically. When the content of Web sites that Bergen Country Camera follows is changed, IE8 delivers updated information directly to a Web Slice located in their Favorites Bar.
This capability allows legacy applications to run virtually under Windows 7.
Better Device Management
As a camera store, Bergen Country Camera has continued to put Windows 7 device management through its paces, according to Carl Mazzanti, CEO, BBC’s IT consultant. “Customers bring in all makes and models of cameras, and so far BCC hasn’t found one that Device Stage hasn’t recognized.” Employees are able to connect the cameras to their computers and Windows 7 brings up not just the name and picture of the camera, but provides a menu of camera related items.
Recently, Tworsky convinced two of his internal Mac users to convert to a PC with the new OS features. Said Tworsky, “I am a passionate pro-PC user that finally convinced two of my Mac guys to switch to Windows Vista last year and continue the conversion process with powerful new Windows 7 features like Device Stage, Snipping Tool, and XP Mode.” “Being able to run legacy camera software and drivers is an added customer service bonus,” noted Tworsky.
One issue that Bergen Country Camera has struggled with is the organization of documents. There are documents on individual machines, work related documents on the server, and another set for the company Web page. Valuable time was spent hunting around for specific documents. Tworsky has found the Library feature in Windows 7 to be the solution that ties all of his files and folders together. “I just drop all my documents into the library—from what could be ten different spots or more—and they all show up seamlessly in a single location.”
From a business standpoint, Power Management has had a huge impact on the ability of Bergen Country Camera to service its customers. In the past, BCC would leave 25-30 computers on all the time because of the two to four minutes that it took to boot up or come out of hibernate mode—time that left the customer waiting. With Windows 7, BCC computers start up, resume from sleep mode, and just respond faster. There is also a ‘green’ aspect to this smarter power management feature that Tworsky appreciates. He has seen the “substantial financial impact of cutting back on our power consumption.”
The real-time monitoring of BCC computers enabled by Action Center has helped keep Bergen Country Camera’s hardware secure and tuned-up. This new feature is appreciated by Tworsky. “You can’t try as many things and push your computer as hard as I do without causing problems. I’m a tinkerer.” At Bergen, users have found that Action Center is able to suggest options that actually fix problems and get things working. After an employee installed a 3rd party toolbar, Action Center recognized that there were issues with the toolbar causing crashes and application inconsistencies. Action Center then assisted with its clean removal. “Solving problems before they even become apparent? Windows 7 Action Center has already proven itself a valuable feature for our company.”
The Federated Search in Windows 7 gets Bergen Country Camera employees to their results quicker. In a business where they need to find images, documents, and consumer data quickly, the 5-10 seconds that they save with each search is huge. According to Tworsky, when multiplied by several hundred times a month, these seconds represent, “a serious amount of time saving.” Bergen employees have found the Windows 7 search feature, which digs much deeper into local and networked data, libraries, and even external sites, to be indispensable in getting information to their customers. “Federated Search is much more intuitive—all without having to configure it. It is really good for our sales people–right out of the box. I don’t have PC experts; I have digital camera experts.”
Problem Steps Recorder has been a time-saver for Tworsky. He had a problem with the functionality of their Web page, but the site provider kept insisting there was no way the issue could be occurring. In the past, he would have had to use specialty software to record all of the steps leading to the error, convert the movie to a lower resolution file, and then upload it to the web provider. This could take over an hour to convey one small point. “But with Problem Steps Recorder, you’re talking click, record and ‘bing’; you’re done. Pop it in an email and it’s off to the web designer having crisply communicated the problem.”
Bergen Country Camera takes camera equipment trade-ins and lists them on their website. This equipment list is updated regularly, and the Web Slices feature in IE8 allows the sales team to quickly see what has changed in availability. Bergen also sells a lot of different cameras, and often sources equipment from other vendors to meet customers’ needs. Tworsky remarked, “The Web Slices feature? I call it competitive intelligence. With it, we can quickly see what has changed on other vendors’ Web sites and manage our business in response.”
Faster and more reliable: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anyway. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management. For more information about Windows 7, go to: www.microsoft.com/windows/business/
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