Leading Retailers Enhance Store Audit Programs, Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management, and Operational Performance with MetricStream Solutions

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- An increasing number of leading retail companies have come to rely on MetricStream, a market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions, to enhance operational performance and provide superior customer experiences across their stores, as well as to strengthen brand integrity globally. MetricStream's retail audit management solutions empower retailers to monitor and enhance their loss prevention initiatives, ensure compliance with store safety standards, improve hazardous waste management, and streamline reporting processes, thus helping to safeguard their assets and brand value.

There have been recent examples of multi-million dollar fines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory bodies against leading global retail brands who have mismanaged hazardous waste. This underscores how non-compliance at the individual store-level -whether deliberate or accidental - can significantly impact a retailer's brand image. Today, retailers and brand manufacturers have an increased responsibility for maintaining oversight over the entirety of their store activities and operations.

"Built on the sophisticated, flexible, and extensible MetricStream GRC Platform, the retail audit management solutions are equipped with end-to-end functionalities and advanced capabilities to help retailers assess and boost the performance of their stores, as well as facilitate store compliance with regulatory and operational objectives," says Keri Dawson, Vice President of Industry Solutions and Advisory Services at MetricStream. She continued, "MetricStream solutions also help aggregate, synthesize, and extract valuable data that can be used to improve the stores' efficiencies and controls," she added.

MetricStream solutions provide retailers with the following key capabilities:

• Manage the complete store audit lifecycle, which includes planning and scheduling audits, collating store data, creating audit reports, and implementing audit recommendations through a closed loop approach which is facilitated by embedded audit templates and checklists.
• Evaluate and manage key control areas including safety and security, pricing, inventory control, human resources, cash control, customer service, shipping, and managing non-conforming merchandise.
• Gain a complete 360-degree view into loss prevention controls and predictive loss indicators to tackle shrinkage at stores.
• Review and manage store safety and security measures; manage employee accidents and injuries; as well as handle employee claims in a continuous and consistent manner.
• Establish sustainable environmental compliance management programs at retail facilities in order to systematically manage returned or unusable consumer products, as well as manage hazardous wastes in accordance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
• Utilize advanced analytics to gain actionable insights into a store's operations and performance.
• Implement a well-integrated training program across stores to address safety standards, corporate compliance policies, and hazardous waste management.

Store auditors utilize MetricStream GRC Platform's offline and mobile functionalities to capture audit data and record their findings while in the field, to deliver real-time capabilities in the store audit process. Retailers can also gain top-level visibility into store audit processes through cutting edge tools such as graphical dashboards, flexible reports, and a centralized data repository. 

"MetricStream solutions can transform store audits into a highly specialized and results-oriented initiative, thus enabling retailers to boost the performance of stores, and strengthen store compliance with critical regulatory and operational objectives," says Ms. Dawson.

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as UBS, Barclaycard US, P&G, Constellation Energy, Pfizer, Philips, United Technologies Corporation, SanDisk, Cummins, and Autogrill in diverse industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities, Food, Retail, CPG, Government, Hi-tech and Manufacturing to manage their risk management programs, quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as several million compliance professionals worldwide via the www.ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com.

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