We are delighted to announce the 2024 winners of the annual Smart Data Capture Awards, which celebrate organizations and individuals who have achieved incredible outcomes through the transformational use of smart data capture technology.

This year, winners were handpicked by independent research analysts from The Futurum Group alongside Scandit in-house experts, who together carefully analyzed how businesses worldwide have used smart data capture to deliver a tangible impact on their operations, customers, and/or workers.

“A commonality among the finalists and winners was the presence of real-world, impactful results from deploying smart data capture technology. Nearly all of the winners — from large retailers to government organizations to logistics providers — could point to greater efficiency and productivity, and, most importantly, a reduction in the amount of friction experienced by employees and workers to conduct basic and more complex tasks.”

Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director at The Futurum Group and Judge of the Smart Data Capture Awards

Regional awards for the Americas and EMEA, respectively, were announced at the Empower events recently held in New York City and Zurich. Prizes were up for grabs in the following categories:

• Customer Experience of the Year
• Operational Excellence of the Year
• SMB Transformation of the Year
• Innovation of the Year
• Everyday Superhero(es)
• Partner of the Year

And the winners of the 2024 Smart Data Capture Awards are…

Customer Experience of the Year

Americas Winner: Tapestry

Congratulations to Tapestry, a New York-based multinational fashion retailer and the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman, for significantly enhancing its customer experience using smart data capture.

Realizing that promotional prices were unclear to customers in outlet stores, often requiring sales associates to calculate the final figures manually and leading to walk-outs if they were not available to offer clarity, Tapestry introduced a Digital Shopping Assistant app. This app runs on the Scandit Web SDK, enabling shoppers to obtain key product information such as pricing, ratings, and reviews via mobile self-scanning. This streamlined the shopping journey, freed up associates’ time, and increased revenue.

Congratulations also to Publix (2nd place)!

EMEA Winner: Coop Alleanza 3.0

Congratulations to Coop Alleanza 3.0, the largest Italian consumer cooperative with over 350 stores, for implementing mobile self-scanning in its customer app in just two weeks.

The ‘Salvatempo’ app, the name of which translates to “time saver”, enables customers to scan, pay, and go seamlessly, as well as to manage anything from digital coupons to digital wallets and receipts. Customers save time thanks to a smooth and consistent shopping experience, regardless of device.

Congratulations also to Bulgari (2nd place) and Jonas Event Technologies (3rd place)!

Operational Excellence of the Year

Americas Winner: Premium Retail

Congratulations to Premium Retail, an industry-shaping collective of retail, marketing, and food service agencies, for successfully introducing and scaling up its web-based employee app.

Since 2022, Premium Retail has gradually cut its dependence on costly and unreliable Bluetooth handheld scanners by integrating the Scandit Web SDK into its employee app, offering 17,000 associates superior barcode scanning capabilities straight to their smartphones. The switch has led to a significant increase in productivity, more than $1M in hardware savings, and a drop in onboarding time from over 20 hours to mere minutes.

Congratulations also to one of the largest beauty retailers in the US (2nd place) and REI (3rd place)!

EMEA Winner: Rohlik Group

Congratulations to Rohlik Group, a leading European e-grocery retailer, for streamlining its order delivery process on driver smartphones.

Upholding its “Awesome Food and Awesome Service” tagline, Rohlik aims to deliver quick commerce orders within 60 minutes. By integrating Scandit’s advanced barcode scanning capabilities, Rohlik improved inventory management, reduced errors, and expedited the delivery process, contributing to a seamless customer experience.

Innovation of the Year

With so many innovative digital transformation projects submitted for consideration, the judges couldn’t separate the strongest entries and awarded a tie in both regions. So why not give praise where praise is due?

Americas Winners: American Eagle Outfitters and Staples Canada

Firstly, congratulations to American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), a portfolio of renowned and beloved apparel brands, for aiming to become a “mobile-first” organization by reducing reliance on peripheral scanning hardware and adopting smart data capture on smart devices instead.

This strategic move simplified the employee experience by consolidating all their task management into a single device, whilst also enabling a better connectivity of previously siloed technological systems. The results include significant financial savings, increased operational efficiencies, richer data for decision-making, and superior omnichannel shopping experiences for customers.

Secondly, congratulations to Staples Canada, the office supply retail giant with a network of close to 300 stores in Canada, for upgrading its inventory management processes by adopting smart data capture on smart devices.

Tasks such as product lookup, price checks, and inventory management are now streamlined, leading to improved accuracy and speed in inventory processes, reduced maintenance costs, enhanced customer service through faster transactions and accurate pricing, and increased employee satisfaction due to better tools.

Congratulations also to HuBOX (2nd place)!

EMEA Winners: CTT Correios de Portugal and Lufthansa Innovation Hub

Congratulations to CTT Correios de Portugal, Portugal’s national postal service, for meeting the EU’s toughest SLAs by employing smart data capture to scan fluorescent mail barcodes.

For the first time outside of specialized machines in sorting centers, CTT postal workers can now use smart devices equipped with Scandit software to read these barcodes on the go, empowering them to access automated routing system information in real-time, correct it if needed, create an audit trail, and gather operational insights — all without specialized equipment. CTT’s sorting and delivery processes are now faster, leading to improved operational efficiency, SLA compliance, plus happy customers and employees.

Next up, congratulations are also in order to the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, the digital innovation unit of the global aviation conglomerate Lufthansa Group, for developing a blockchain-based gamification app that rewards travelers every time they fly.

With the Scandit-powered Uptrip app, passengers can scan their used boarding passes and transform them into unique digital trading cards, which can then be used to complete specific collections and receive exclusive travel rewards. Within three months of its launch, Uptrip reached 20,000 sign-ups and over 70,000 successfully scanned tickets, attracting a much younger audience than usual airline loyalty programs — with a significantly higher retention rate thanks to its gamification strategy.

SMB Transformation of the Year

Americas Winner: The Texas Division of Emergency Management

Congratulations to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), for introducing a joint ID scanning and barcode scanning solution in its disaster relief program. The ability to scan IDs was of paramount importance for TDEM’s relief workers to confirm people’s identities, and also to provide the right medical care to the right patients.

TDEM coordinates preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities in Texas. The agency carries out a comprehensive all-hazards emergency management program for the State of Texas and assists local jurisdictions and state agencies in planning and implementing their emergency management programs. TDEM also implements programs to increase public awareness about threats and hazards, coordinates emergency planning, and provides an extensive array of specialized training.

Congratulations also to S&K (2nd place)!

EMEA Winner: Bumerang

Congratulations to Bumerang, a Spain-based management software that aims to eliminate single-use packaging in food service by enabling easier access to reusable containers, for upgrading its partner- and customer-facing applications with smart data capture.

Scanning is a key component in Bumerang’s operational model, underpinning the traceability of the food containers. Previously running on Google ML Kit, the B-Corp encountered scanning performance issues, especially in bad lighting, tight angles, or when dealing with damaged QR codes. After switching to Scandit, its users and business partners now benefit from a seamless scanning experience.

Congratulations also to Jonas Event Technologies (2nd place)!

Superhero(es) of the Year

Americas Winner: Derek Burritt, Wegmans Food Markets

Congratulations to Derek Burritt, IT Hardware Manager at Wegmans Food Markets, for being instrumental in empowering Wegmans store workers with the right tools to drive efficiency and an outstanding employee experience.

Always pursuing the best technology, Derek has championed smart data capture and integrated Scandit across more than 10 associate-facing applications. He has also provided invaluable insights and guidance that have helped advance our solutions, positively impacting enterprises and workers everywhere.

Congratulations also to Michael Rector, Director of Product Management at AEO (2nd place) and Giancarlo Fiorarancio, VP of Store & Omnichannel Technology at Dollar Tree (3rd place)!

EMEA Winner: Swiss Post

Congratulations to Sascha Zingg, IT Business Leader, Ronald Werro, Product Manager, and Marc Scheidegger, Head of Mobile Devices, for going above and beyond to make a positive impact and being the driving force behind Swiss Post’s digital transformation projects.

Their visionary leadership and laser-focused approach have driven improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Their most recent initiative successfully offered the power of Scandit MatrixScan AR to their drivers, enhancing package sorting and searching during deliveries and ultimately improving driver and customer experience.

Congratulations also to Julie Chapon, Co-founder and CEO of Yuka (2nd place) and Fabio Calafato and his PAC2000A IT team (3rd place)!

Partner of the Year

Americas Winner: New Black

Congratulations to New Black, a unified commerce provider, for spearheading the creation of a partner ecosystem that includes Adyen, Microsoft, Deloitte, and Scandit, and for embedding Scandit Smart Data Capture into its core offering.

For years now, New Black has recognized that smart data capture is a great competitive differentiator for businesses. Its unified retail solution integrates our leading capabilities, offering customers much-needed adaptability, scalability, and agility — and enabling engagement, growth, and success for mutual customers.

EMEA Winner: SAP

Congratulations to SAP, the world’s largest enterprise resource planning software vendor, for integrating smart data capture within its Field Services app as a standard component and seeing phenomenal YoY growth.

A Scandit partner exhibiting outstanding collaboration for more than five years, SAP’s app currently helps thousands of users to seamlessly scan in some of the most challenging conditions and delivers innovative and efficient solutions across different fields.

Innovation begets innovation

Once again, we’d like to extend huge congratulations to all winners and runner-ups, as well as a big thank you to all nominees!

We hope this year’s edition of the Smart Data Capture Awards has highlighted inspiring ideas and possibilities for all digital transformation enthusiasts (and if you’re looking for more, check out the 2023 winners). One thing’s for sure: these pioneers have big plans for the future, and you’ll hear about their innovations again. After all, innovation begets innovation.

“Nearly all of the winners appeared to be considering their smart data capture award entry not as a final destination but as a step along a larger digital transformation initiative to leverage new technology to improve physical data capture and management processes. It is likely that these organizations, along with many others, will continue to seek out and implement new technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and other human-machine interfaces in the future.”

Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director at The Futurum Group and Judge of the Smart Data Capture Awards

P.S. Entries for the APAC region are still open until the end of November 2024, and you can apply here.