Acosta Teams With AT&T for Wireless Service

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Acosta Sales & Marketing is accelerating its ability to get the brands consumers desire most onto store shelves in major food and grocery retailers across the U.S.

Under a $2 million, two-year contract with AT&T*, more than 3,000 Acosta retail merchandisers will have the power of HTC Tilt™ 2 smart mobile devices to analyze, execute and report in near real-time product placement, space allocation and display compliance to their consumer packaged goods clients. With such business intelligence, retail merchandisers will help clients make informed decisions about their retail and merchandising strategies, and also help facilitate the availability of the goods shoppers frequently enjoy in food, drug and convenience stores.  

With the mobile devices, each merchandising specialist has access to a personalized daily task list to download store specific SKU-based assignments for the day – all before they arrive at their first store. With merchandising instructions readily available, retail merchandisers can easily access product display images and authorization information unique to each store on their route with their wireless device. Once tasks are completed, they then report their activity and transmit the information along with images taken from the device's built-in camera back to Acosta headquarters for reporting and fast analysis of field conditions including what brands are performing well or which products need additional support to improve performance.

"AT&T is helping Acosta mobilize our associates across the nation's fastest 3G network with connectivity anytime, anywhere," said Erick Kritsky, director of application development for Acosta. "From communicating information quickly to leveraging our robust retail reporting system built for our field force, we're able to make fact-based decisions faster and establish greater connectivity across all operations."

Additionally, Acosta retail merchandisers will have the power of built-in GPS for efficient routing and field activities as they visit retailers throughout the day. They will also have the ability to connect to e-mail on the fly – whether on site or in the field – with the Microsoft® Office suite for Windows Phone. Retail merchandisers can also perform administrative tasks including time entry and expense reports with more flexibility and ease.

Acosta also plans to stream corporate training videos to the device.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About Acosta Sales & Marketing

Acosta Sales & Marketing is a leading full-service sales and marketing agency providing outsourced headquarter sales, retail merchandising, marketing, and customer support services to manufacturers in the consumer packaged goods industry. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Acosta has more than 15,000 associates and operates throughout the U.S. and Canada.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest 3G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse(SM) and AT&T |DIRECTV(SM) brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising. In 2010, AT&T again ranked among the 50 Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE® magazine.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATTNews. Find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ATT to discover more about our consumer and wireless services or at www.Facebook.com/ATTSmallBiz to discover more about our small business services.

© 2010 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. 3G service not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.