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Success Story
SFR ensures a seamless mobile in-store experience with Zebra’s enterprise-grade tablets
As a major telecommunications provider in France, SFR competes in a crowded market where the priority is client service quality.
Zebra Success Story: SFR Distribution
Overview: Retail Challenge
SFR is committed to delivering an enhanced customer and user experience across its in-store operations. Replacing its existing fleet of consumer-grade tablets became a priority to ensure it has hardware that is robust, lightweight enough to provide comfortable use for its teams, and centrally manageable across hundreds of locations.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Maintenance handled remotely
- 290+ stores equipped
- 20+ client apps per device
- Enabled a lean spares model instead of large stock
About SFR Distribution
As a major telecommunications provider in France, SFR competes in a crowded market where the priority is client service quality. That's especially true in its stores, where customers come to compare offers, get advice on devices and plans, and work through issues face-to-face with an expert. Across hundreds of stores, SFR's advisors handle that entire experience—onboarding, payments, identity checks—on a single device in hand. Improving both customer and user experience storewide is what brought SFR Distribution to Zebra.
The Challenge
Since 2011, SFR’s in‑store sales staff relied on consumer‑grade tablets to serve customers. The camera, which was also used as a barcode scanner, struggled to keep up, and devices received unsolicited OS updates. “In addition, consumer-grade products have their limits in terms of lifespan, and no after-sales support,” shares SFR Distribution’s Systems Engineer. “We knew we had to move to a professional range to have longer device lifecycles and more control over how we manage and update them.”
SFR evaluated potential replacements against functionality, ergonomics, weight, and cost. The devices needed enough processing power to keep pace with application updates, and tablet management mattered just as much. “Having a great tablet is pointless if it's sitting in a store hundreds of kilometres away and we can't manage it remotely,” SFR Distribution’s Systems Engineer adds. “We found that 80% of the devices on the market offered the same basic features—i.e. remote wipe, automatic system updates— which isn't enough for us. Since most of our applications are proprietary, they’re not in a public app store, so it’s necessary for us to be able to manage them ourselves, and remotely.”
Zebra provides high-quality solutions, good value for money, a personal approach, and real competence. What more could you ask for?
The Solution
The Zebra ET4 Series tablets checked every box. “We noticed major advantages right away: an integrated, highly resistant casing, and a compact, premium-feeling product that’s comfortable to carry around all day. The processor was also significantly faster,” recalls a Store Manager at SFR.
To manage the fleet at scale, SFR rolled out SureMDM, a mobile device management platform from Zebra partner 42Gears, giving the team full remote control over configuration and updates—right down to a single device's screen brightness or battery behaviour. “With Zebra, we can target the entire fleet at once or configure devices at a very granular level,” the Systems Engineer at SFR Distribution shares.
SFR deployed the ET4 tablet across its 290 company-owned stores, which is roughly half its national network. 42Gears configured devices in bulk, so each tablet arrived at its store ready to use. Zebra's own team stayed closely involved throughout, resolving technical roadblocks quickly to keep the rollout on schedule. “The Zebra team was extremely responsive whenever we needed them,” the IT Manager at SFR Distribution shares. Finally, RAM Mounts supplied rugged mounting accessories, letting staff carry tablets by strap or set them on a counter stand without an additional protective case, shaving roughly 100 grams off each device compared to the previous setup. This also lets staff prop the tablet up like an easel, freeing up both hands for typing.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Today, the ET4 tablets integrate more than 20 apps, carrying nearly the entire customer interaction on a single device. Advisors manage end-to-end customer sign-ups and registration, including capturing passport and ID details, control cash transactions, and scan items for Web-to-Shop and other fulfilment tasks with the ET4 tablet’s integrated enterprise scanner. NFC is also built in for future contactless payments, so SFR can eventually complete sales wherever the conversation happens on the floor rather than at a fixed till.
The key change is a smoother, faster in-store experience for staff and customers alike. “Working with a reliable tool is genuinely reassuring for our staff—advisors trust the solution more, and they're not stressed about losing information they've already entered with a customer,” a SFR Store Manager says.
The teams have also seen very good responsiveness with the Zebra tablets. “Sometimes we need two, three, even four applications open at once to check things mid-sale, and everything just opens faster. That means we're not adding to the wait advisors sometimes face, like when validating an interest-free four-instalment payment with our partners,” he says. Mobility helps too, keeping advisors close to the customer throughout, rather than stepping away to a fixed workstation. “We've significantly reduced our reliance on desktop computers over time,” he adds.
Keeping the fleet running smoothly is now easier than ever. “With Zebra and 42Gears’ SureMDM, our engineering team can take remote control and handle remotely tablet-related IT tickets coming from stores.” That's a marked shift from before, when even a minor issue meant shipping the tablet out by courier for repair or remastering.
Before, a broken tablet meant a full replacement, which incited SFR to secure a large spare pool. Now, with Zebra OneCare™, the maintenance contract is bundled into the deployment, and with Zebra’s VisibilityIQ™ Foresight, SFR has clear visibility into how its tablets are distributed and performing and can catch and resolve many issues early. As a result, SFR now keeps just a small rotation of spares instead. “That's also where part of the return on investment comes in,” the IT Manager at SFR Distribution shares.
“We push these tablets hard,” shares the Store Manager. “Now that we can manage devices in bulk, we can also optimise things like backlight settings, so the display isn’t too power-hungry.” After making several of such adjustments, the tablets now finish a full working day with 30–40% battery still in reserve. He sees the removable battery as another advantage: if ever needed, batteries can be swapped out without sending back or replacing the whole tablet.
For next steps, enabling NFC-based payment is one avenue under consideration, performing transactions entirely on the device rather than a separate terminal. The team is also exploring a docking option that would let tablets double as full workstations without losing their mobility.
For the IT Manager, a smooth in-store experience isn't just about the hardware—it's about the partners behind it. “Zebra provides high-quality solutions, good value for money, a personal approach, and real competence. What more could you ask for?”
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