Introduction
In retail, every store is an operational hub that depends on technology to run smoothly. Point-of-sale terminals, stock management devices and customer service tools all need to be properly configured, updated and controlled. When that management is not centralized, IT teams spend more time solving incidents than scaling the infrastructure that supports the business.
That was Brownie’s situation before Applivery. The Barcelona-based women’s fashion brand was managing its in-store Zebra terminals in a decentralized way. Every incident was handled case by case. Every new device was set up manually. Every store opening required direct coordination between IT and store staff.
About Brownie
Brownie is a women’s fashion brand founded in Barcelona in 2006 by Mercedes Ortega and Juan Morera. Born from a quality product inspired by the Mediterranean and created for women with a young spirit, the brand has grown into a leading name in fashion retail in Spain and several international markets.
Today, Brownie has more than 600 employees and over 100 stores across 9 countries: Spain, Portugal, Andorra, France, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Israel. The company also operates a multilingual online sales channel.
Brownie operates from its headquarters in Barcelona, where strategic decisions, design and the technology infrastructure that supports its entire retail network are centralized. The company’s culture is built around humility, transparency and honesty. In practice, those values also shape the way Brownie works with its technology partners.
The challenge
Across its stores, Brownie uses Zebra rugged devices to keep critical retail operations running reliably, from stock management to customer service. They support point-of-sale operations, stock control and customer service in a context where availability is critical. However, before Applivery, the management of these devices was entirely manual.
When a terminal had an issue, the IT team had to solve it over the phone, guiding store staff step by step. If the problem was more complex, someone had to travel to the store. New device enrollments followed the same pattern, with manual processes and no centralized visibility.
This approach created four specific challenges:
- No centralized visibility: the IT team had no real-time view of the status of devices distributed across nine countries.
- Reactive incident resolution: every issue required manual intervention, with the time and resource cost that this involved.
- Limited security control: there was no way to apply access restrictions, manage device locations or respond remotely to an incident.
- Limited scalability: the manual model could not support business growth without increasing the operational workload for the IT team.
“Before using Applivery, we did not have any device management software. Every incident and every new device setup had to be handled over the phone with store managers. It was quite inconvenient and took us a lot of time. Now, with Applivery, everything is much more agile.”
Joan Garcia Camba
CIO
The Applivery solution
Brownie needed a device management platform that could adapt to its operational reality: a distributed retail network across multiple countries, an IT team without time for extensive training, and an expansion pace that could not wait. The solution had to be intuitive, fast to implement and robust enough to scale with the company.
Applivery met those requirements from the very first contact. What made the difference was not only the platform itself, but also the support model behind it: recurrent meetings during the configuration phase, immediate responses to every question and a team that understood that Brownie’s time was a limited resource.
The policy applied to all in-store Zebra terminals was ready in less than three weeks. From that point on, deployment became part of Brownie’s expansion process. As new stores opened and new terminals were installed, devices were enrolled into the platform with the policies already defined. No additional friction. No steep learning curve for the team.
Applivery brought four key capabilities that transformed the IT team’s daily operations:
- Unified incident management
Device issues that previously required physical travel or long support calls can now be solved remotely from a central dashboard, in real time.
- Control and security over store terminals
Brownie can locate devices, restrict access to apps and websites, and apply security policies centrally, without requiring IT presence in-store.
- Daily operations without additional workload
Applivery does not create routine work for the IT team. It becomes relevant when there is a specific issue, and in those moments, the response is direct and fast.
- Built-in scalability
Every new store opening is integrated into the existing device fleet by applying the policies that have already been configured, without redefining processes.
“The biggest improvement was how we handle incidents. Before, we did not have a device management platform, and every issue meant rushing to the stores to solve it. With Applivery, we can manage everything in a unified way, and that is very convenient.”
Marc Giné Mallada
IT Systems Administrator
Key business outcomes
The success of the implementation is not measured only by the number of devices managed, but by what the IT team no longer has to do: unnecessary trips to stores, long support calls and manual processes with no visibility. By removing that operational friction, Brownie has regained time and control over its in-store technology infrastructure.
This transformation has delivered tangible results that directly impact day-to-day efficiency:
- Centralized and simplified management: full control over store devices from a single dashboard, eliminating fragmented tools and manual processes.
- Remote incident resolution: issues that previously required physical presence in-store can now be solved remotely, without travel or dependence on on-site staff availability.
- Visibility and security control: Brownie can monitor the status of each terminal, restrict applications and websites, and control device location regardless of the country where the device is deployed.
- Frictionless scalability: every new store opening can add its terminals to the managed fleet in minutes, applying the policies already configured for the entire network.
- Operations that do not add workload: the platform remains transparent in daily operations and only requires active intervention when a real issue appears, freeing the IT team to focus on higher-value tasks.
Scaling the infrastructure
For Brownie, Applivery is not only the solution that solved a specific operational challenge. It is the platform on which the company is building its device management infrastructure for the years ahead.
The relationship began with Brownie’s in-store Android Zebra terminals. After the confidence gained during implementation and through the platform’s daily performance, the company is now considering expanding Applivery to corporate Windows devices and iOS phones used by the team.
The goal is to bring the company’s entire technology infrastructure, including stores, offices and mobile teams, under unified management with Applivery. With 15 to 20 new store openings planned over the next twelve months and a retail network that continues to grow in new markets, Brownie knows that its IT infrastructure is not a limitation to its expansion. It is precisely what makes that expansion possible.
