50 WAYSTO LEAVE YOUR LOVERHow Spring Mobile grew to 1,400 locations...and counting!

Legacy System

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2 35o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile 5o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile

Around this time, Spring Mobile heard about

iQmetrix at CES (Consumer Electronics

Show). According to Shawn, his frustration

with Spring’s existing system was met with

iQmetrix’s RQ Retail Management software

getting better and better (a new inventory

module Spring had been waiting for had just

been added), which encouraged the company

to make the jump to try a new solution and

ditch its legacy system.

The SolutionThe ProblemFlash back 12 years ago and the picture wasn’t

as rosy. Spring’s retail management system

was frustrating at best and at worst, holding

the company back. As Shawn Peery, Spring

Mobile’s Sr. Director of Operations, explained,

“The system we were using became really

unstable. We were constantly forced to verify

stuff, reports didn’t add up and it just got too

overwhelming to deal with.” Spring needed

a single, reliable system that managed sales,

customer data and inventory really well.

We’re free to run the business like we should have been doing all along.-Shawn Peery, Sr. Director of Operations, Spring Mobile

Setting Up for GrowthFor Shawn, the switch to RQ was like “a breath of fresh air! All we were doing with our old system

was fixing issues or researching ways to fix issues. Now we don’t have that and we’re free to run the

business like we should have been doing all along.” Shawn believes Spring Mobile wouldn’t have

been able to handle the growth it’s achieved without RQ, which has seen the company expand

from five doors to over 1,400.

Spring has expanded from 5 doors to over 1400.

Since its founding in 2001 in Salt Lake City, Spring Mobile, an AT&T wireless solutions retailer,

has achieved phenomenal growth. Previously known as Spring Communications, the company

was purchased by GameStop in 2013 and includes Spring Mobile, Simply Mac, Cricket and AT&T

divisions. Currently, Spring Mobile operates 1,400 retail locations across 34 states but at the

company’s incredible growth rate, this number changes almost weekly. With numbers like these,

you may be asking yourself, “How does Spring manage all this growth?”

4 55o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile 5o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile

At a Glance2001: Spring Communications is founded.

2006: Spring switches Retail Management Systems to iQmetrix’s RQ. Total doors reaches 70.

2012: Spring Mobile enters Nevada, Arizona, Minnesota and Montana markets.

2013: Spring Mobile acquires Clearchoice Mobility and A-Link Wireless.

2013: GameStop acquires Spring Mobile.

2015: Spring Mobile purchases 163 RadioShack locations to become Spring stores.

2015: Through new stores and acquisitions, Spring reaches 610 locations.

2017: Spring’s total locations, including Aio and SimplyMac, reach 1,428.

Sylvia Redmond, Spring Mobile’s RQ Systems Manager, appreciates RQ’s reporting and inventory

functionality. “Having worked in Operations for years, the way iQmetrix has inventory management

built in has been perfect for Spring. Auto transfers, auto ordering, and all the other management

pieces of inventory have been wonderful,” she says.

We’re extremely pleased with how easy it is to use.-Shawn Peery

For other retailers thinking of switching their

legacy management software, Spring Mobile

simply says to be prepared. Spring has its

own training department that it credits as

being exceptionally proactive. When possible,

trainers (for a small store, it might just be one

person) will go into a new location to set up

RQ ahead of time and work with new staff so

they’re ready to go on the go-live date. When

it’s not possible to go in ahead of time, Shawn

notes, “the system is pretty intuitive so even

when we can’t get to the store, it hasn’t been

an obstacle.”

Sylvia delved into the setup process a little

further: “Thirty days before we open a new

store, I create all the locations in RQ and reach

out to all integrated computers to get those

loaded, so that when we do go live everything

is working from Day One.” Sylvia notes that

in most of Spring Mobile’s larger acquisitions,

the acquired stores are already using RQ. This

allows iQmetrix to do the import for Spring,

which saves the company a lot of time. Jared

Ellis, Director of Strategic Growth, agrees with

Shawn and Sylvia over the ease of transition and

setup. “I’ve worked in a lot of other industries

and there are definitely a lot of other tools that

take a lot more configurations to get up and

running. I’m a big fan of RQ being cloud-based.

With no data being stored locally, it makes us

PCI compliant. Centralized management has

been great, as well,” says Jared.

Roll Out

6 75o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile 5o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile

Looking Ahead to the Next Jump in DoorsAs Spring Mobile continues to grow it’s confident

it has the right system and partner in place to

meet those growth requirements head on. “We

frequently get calls from iQmetrix competitors,

but we are 100% sold on iQmetrix’s RQ solution.

It is the right solution for us and will be for the

long haul,” says Shawn.

Shawn credits RQ’s reliability (or to use Shawn’s

term – “the rock solidness of the platform”) and

scalability for helping the company improve

monitoring, management and performance

but ultimately he says it’s iQmetrix’s people

that are the biggest asset. “I can call up Kelly

(Spring’s iQmetrix Account Manager) and tell

him anything and he’ll do everything he can to

make that happen. The whole iQmetrix team is

there for us whenever we need them.”

Reflecting on the past 12+ years iQmetrix and Spring have been working together, Spring’s iQmetrix

Account Manager, Kelly, had this to say: “Working together, Spring started to see the potential for

other revenue streams and ways to make their operation more efficient. They started to use concepts

like Epins very early on, when not many people in the industry used virtual pin-based cards and then

they expanded to make use of trade-in partners and handset protection.”

“Spring has always been a great operator but I think they really made significant strides in their

market not only because of the solutions they were offering to their customers, but because they

were actually looking at the data they had after making the sales. This allowed them to grow and

be noticed by the carrier and even potential buyers. After being acquired by another major brand

(GameStop), they have taken advantage of their ability to consume other smaller AT&T dealers with

relative ease through the use of RQ. I truly believe Spring knew they had the right platform to

be able to make these types of business decisions and grow from 90 doors to 1400+,” Kelly

continued.

Spring Mobile is now confident in their growth strategy. Spring’s team knows it has the capacity

to grow its business with iQmetrix’s software supporting it 110%.

“In addition to Spring Mobile, we use RQ in Simply Mac locations as well, just because we stand behind the product. I’ve personally recommended RQ to probably 10 peers that I know in my business. We highly recommend

it and always have.”

-Shawn Peery

Looking to break up with your legacy system?

Learn more about RQ Retail Management

We are 100% sold on iQmetrix’s RQ solution. It is the right solution for us and will be for the long haul.– Shawn Peery

8 5o Ways to Leave Your Legacy System: Lessons from Spring Mobile

As the leading wireless solutions retailer

operating over 1,400 stores across the

United States, Spring Mobile is dedicated

to bringing you the best in mobile

devices, plans, and accessories. We

constantly look for ways to push the

retail experience in a positive and consumer

friendly way. When working with Spring

Mobile, you

won’t find us giving anything less than 100% of

our time and effort to best serve you! Established

in 2001, Spring Mobile is headquartered in Salt

Lake City, Utah and operates in 34 states with

over 1,500 employees. Spring Mobile is an

exclusive AT&T Mobility products and services

retailer. www.springmobile.com

With our POS and retail management

solutions found in over 19,000 stores,

iQmetrix is the largest retail software provider

for the North American wireless industry.

Beyond our POS, we offer powerful business

intelligence, endless aisle, drop ship, e-

commerce, and payment solutions, as well as

an integrated network of over 35 partners –

enabling us to be the single solution to

multiple retail challenges.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve proven our ability to

be the #1 company for supporting wireless retail

growth; helping carriers, dealers, and repair

providers invest in software that reduces costly

inefficiencies, increases profitability, and speeds

up transaction times to create great customer

experiences.

Learn more at www.iQmetrix.com.

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