Natural Insight, a leading provider of cloud based workforce management solutions for the retail industry, unveiled at the 103rd National Retail Federation Conference a major upgrade to its workforce management cloud.  The newest version of Natural Insight includes an out-of-the-box API for integrating planned labor into a simple scheduling interface so store managers can easily create schedules that are aligned with the defined labor plan.  Specifically, as store managers schedule shifts in Natural Insight, they are presented with real-time compliance alerts enabled through the API.

“In an effort to accurately forecast in store labor needs, retailers have invested significant time and money on planning software with vendors such as Kronos, Workplace and Workbrain,” said Stefan Midford, CEO of Natural Insight.  “The newest version of Natural Insight compliments and extends the value of these labor forecasting solutions by giving store managers not just a simple way to schedule workers, but also a built-in way to monitor compliance with plan, and simultaneously assign and track store level tasks.”

“The primary benefit of this new API is that retailers will get more value from their labor forecast because store managers will be more aligned with the plan,” said Scott Knaul, CEO of SMK Workforce Solutions.   “The secondary, but still significant benefit of this API is that store managers can easily layer tasks on top of the schedule so little things are sure to get done, which ultimately makes a big difference in terms of store profitability and helps to inform future labor forecasts.”

The importance of retail task management is well documented in research published in the Harvard Business Review stating that completion of non-selling tasks improves store profitability by as much as 7%.  The finding emphasizes why Natural Insight 2.0 is a perfect fit for innovative retailers seeking workforce management solutions that incorporate labor forecasting, shift scheduling and task management as part of single integrated process.

For specialty retailers with constrained IT budgets, Natural Insight is the world's best cloud for workforce management and in-store execution. To learn more, visit www.naturalinsight.com.