EnsitefulAI’s on-demand workforce boosts product sales and profitability

Challenge

A brand-new idea for boosting retail sales

Whether they make soft drinks or snack foods, supplements or cosmetics, consumer product brands have a common goal: get more products moving from store shelves to the cash register. This depends on what the industry calls retail execution: making sure products, prices, and promotions are displayed in a way that shoppers can’t miss and can’t resist.

However many consumer goods companies have little to no visibility into shelf conditions. Research suggests that this lack of insight and control costs brands 25% of potential revenue every year.

The founders of startup EnsitefulAI envisioned a solution: What if brands could enlist local workers, as needed, to provide on-site data from retail locations via an app? For brands, it would be a cost-effective path to critical insight for optimizing retail execution. For workers, it would be convenient gig-based pay.

EnsitefulAI wanted to move quickly on the opportunity. “One of the biggest killers of a new venture is taking too long to build,” says Bert Lasley, EnsitefulAI’s Chief Technology Officer.

"So we sought a partner capable of building and launching a robust app and client dashboard in a matter of months.”

They chose T4S Partners. And T4S decided to use OutSystems for development. “We’ve used OutSystems on other projects,” explains Carol Murphy, the Solution Architect from T4S. “We felt it was the perfect platform for a greenfield project demanding rapid innovation.”

Solution

From raw concept to robust platform. Fast.

“We went from prototype to production in three months with a team of six relatively junior developers,” recounts Carol. “Using OutSystems really enabled them to become full-stack developers and deliver a lot of complex capabilities in a short period of time.”

T4S and EnsitefulAI designed the MyBrandForce platform around three core components.

• Command center: The heart of the platform, the command center is where EnsitefulAI staff define programs that help brands optimize retail execution. It includes a function that allows business users to easily create custom “missions” for brand agents–sending the agents into targeted retail locations to gather the exact information required by a brand. It also supports real-time mission monitoring and validation, brand agent recruitment and training, and payments–via an integration with Plaid.
• Brand agent portal: The mobile app that enables brand agents to deliver timely, actionable retail insight to brands. The portal allows agents to claim and complete missions on or offline, take training, get help, and track payments. For each mission, agents can view a map and directions, required training, detailed instructions, and deadlines. Built-in geofencing ensures that agents are in correct locations. Because OutSystems supports a single code base that’s compatible across Apple and Android platforms, EnsitefulAI can ensure consistent app performance across hundreds of device types.
• Customer dashboard: A secure web portal that allows brands to access real-time observational data and analytics on retail execution from stores across the U.S. The dashboard applies analytics and visualization to data gathered by brand agents, including high-quality images of product placement, shelf conditions, and competitor activity. Integration with Microsoft Power BI provides nine customizable metrics options to help users make data-driven decisions for maximizing sales. The dashboard offers limitless data collection and allows data exports for offline analysis.

Carol says that by using OutSystems to develop flexible solutions that can easily be customized by business users, “we can tailor solutions to every customer cost-effectively. Within a week or two of signing a deal, they can source the workforce, get them background checked, trained, and ready to go. That’s a real differentiator from the competition in this space.”

The OutSystems platform’s built-in DevOps and security capabilities also proved valuable. “Typical things like troubleshooting and security checks can take a lot of time and rework in traditional development,” says Carol. “You can automate a lot of this in OutSystems and turn it around very quickly.”

Now, EnsitefulAI and T4S continue adding capabilities and integrations with other products and partners, including incorporating AI to supercharge efficiency.

For example, the companies used OutSystems to integrate the MyBrandForce mobile app with technology from DeliciousAI that quickly analyzes beverage shelves. Brand agents can simply scan a beverage aisle with a phone camera and instantly generate business insight for brands. The app uses on-device AI chips to automatically recognize products and perform 3D scans for enhanced analytics, including share-of-shelf and competitor product analysis.

They also built a data analytics architecture based on the Microsoft Azure Data Fabric.

Results

The mission continues: Rapid growth and ongoing innovation

More than 70 consumer goods producers now use Ensiteful AI’s MyBrandForce platform in many of the most recognizable retailers across the U.S. Customers have reported improving sales by optimizing retail execution in several ways:

• Ensuring the right products and assortment at every store
• Quickly replenishing inventory and regaining lost sales
• Fixing promotional execution issues in real time
• Using analytics to optimize inventory, placement, pricing, and share of shelf

There are currently 16,000 brand agents who have completed 27,000 MyBrandForce missions, and that’s about to grow fast. The platform is onboarding about 200 new brand agents every day and will deliver roughly 5,000 missions per month in 2025 for one customer alone.

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As MyBrandForce grows, EnsitefulAI knows it can efficiently build and integrate even more capability. Carol estimates that the DevOps cycle, from new requirement to publication, is 3-5 times faster than in traditional development. “It’s truly speed to market,” concludes Bert.