Harley Davidson Rides to Success with Traf-Sys People Counting Solutions
Introduction
The iconic Harley-Davidson Motor Company is the only major
US based motorcycle manufacturer that produces heavyweight
motorcycles and offers a complete line of motorcycle parts,
accessories, apparel, and general merchandise. Each of its
more than 1,500 worldwide networks of dealerships is individually
owned and operated under the support of the parent company of Harley-Davidson, Inc.
Harley-Davidson and its extensive network of
dealerships rely on people counting technology as a business tool
to measure customer footfall, and monitor key business metrics to
establish the overall health of sales and performance. For
example, the output from people counting is used to calculate
conversion rates on number of buyers, seasonal traffic patterns,
impact of events, and differences between regions and dealer
groups, in order to better understand how the dealership network is
performing and how best to support them to positively impact
sales.
The Challenge
Harley-Davidson contacted expert people
counting system and solution provider Traf-Sys Inc., suppliers of thermal imaging cameras and
technology.
As Harley-Davidson dealers are independently
owned, this presented unique challenges. Each dealership's
retail outlet specs, i.e. the size of the building and required
configurations varied greatly, which resulted in each dealership
deployment requiring a custom installation.
To complicate matters, dealerships used separate computer
networks which made sharing and collecting data complicated and
difficult to analyze. Harley-Davidson needed a solution that would
accommodate each dealer's individual network and IT structure.
The Method
Harley-Davidson realized it was difficult to
make accurate decisions, therefore it required a solution that
would have the capabilities to provide a more accurate big-picture
view of how its dealership network was really performing.
After an extensive evaluation process, Harley-Davidson chose the Traf-Sys technology partnership.
As a partnership, Traf-Sys provided its years of expertise in
people counting installation and leading
Traf-Sys Reporting System, VisiCount™, while UK-based Infrared Integrated
Systems market-leading thermal
image people counting cameras were chosen as a more accurate
solution to detect the heat and infrared radiation emitted by
shoppers in-store. The units contain imaging optics, sensors,
signal processing and interfacing electronics all within a small
molded housing.
When the installation was complete self-check system diagnostics
were carried out to make certain everything was in working
order. The information gathered by the thermal imaging
cameras is then fed into the Traf-Sys wireless equipment-the
combination of the two makes installation possible in any kind of
facility.
Traf-Sys then assesses the
dealership parameters to place a data controller in the dealer
facility and the information from the dealer network is received
over the Internet to the Traf-Sys
encrypted site in real-time in to aid decision making and trend
monitoring. At the conclusion of the installation, customer
traffic is watched carefully by human eyes and compared to how and
what the system is counting for accuracy to ensure an accurate
picture of customer footfall.
The Benefits
Harley-Davidson is now able to employ people
counting technology in most of its major dealerships, and this is
due to the Traf-Sys offering being
highly customizable, but more importantly accurate.
With the analysis received from Traf-Sys people counting dealership
outputs, Harley-Davidson is able to make much more
informed decisions based on timely data. Individual
dealerships can implement better staff management by better
understanding customer traffic patterns, event attendance and
seasonal impact, and correlating that with staffing levels to
ensure the best overall customer service possible. Management can
place high performing staff members on the floor during times of
heavy customer traffic while scheduling trainees during low traffic
times.
Individual dealers are also learning and tracking conversion
rates from in-store events to see if they produced additional
sales.
Due to the thermal imaging
technology, the cameras only detect body heat, and therefore
shoppers have no sensation of having their lives intruded upon by
"Big Brother." The cameras simply sense body heat or more
specifically the changes in a background that occur or how the body
heat is different from the background - keeping shoppers'
identities protected.
The Future
As Harley-Davidson expands into the future, Traf-Sys is there to install a people
counting system to fit the individual needs of each of its
dealerships. A new array of data will be analyzed-the daily
weather against customer traffic, a given manager on the floor
against traffic, etc.-if Harley-Davidson can imagine it, the data can be
created and analyzed.
Retailers or business units will always ask themselves what they
need to do to reduce costs and enhance revenue, make things
more efficient, streamlining and making processes more scalable.
People counting technology is an extension of this kind of thinking
and part of its solution.
Conclusion
The partnership between Harley-Davidson and Traf-Sys has been hugely
successful. Harley-Davidson has pioneered a system that
makes people counting easier, more adaptable and accurate than ever
before.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009, Trafsys
