The Three Key Pillars to Retail Tech Spending…for now
“We have never seen an economy like this…”. This has become the most repeated sentiment among retailers since the results from the most recent holiday season came in. The culture of low expectations is officially pervasive. In spite of the uncertainty and resultant tentative nature of technology planning many retailers have begun, there exists a set of core principles that are now guiding the leading retailers. These retailers have looked upon the latest deceleration in consumer spending as an opportunity to grow market share and begin to position their infrastructure footprints for the inevitable return of consumer demand.
In my view, real leaders in the retail industry are focused on the following:
1. Connecting Consumer and Enterprise Technology Strategies
A clear convergence is occurring between consumer and enterprise technology. At a bare minimum, retailers are finally beginning to think about systems investments with the customer at the center. Part of this focus relates to point #3 below, but the key concept here is that alignment with consumer technology is top-line focused (i.e. more closely aligned with revenue), more intuitive for associates to learn, and can commonly take advantage of off-premise deployment options.
2. Take Advantage of Easy Infrastructure Reduction Opportunities
Cloud-based software offerings, virtualization, thin-client deployments, etc, all represent quick-win, cost-reducing decisions.
3. Selling Systems Take Center Stage
When it comes down to making investment decisions, if the spend does not directly impact selling systems it will be a tough sell to leadership. POS, eCommerce, cross-channel experience, and digital advertising, are all areas that are hot as they impact top-line directly and tend to have quicker ROI. Supply chain investments still matter but may be taken piecemeal more than they have been historically.
I am responsible for eCommerce and cross-channel retailing for Microsoft’s Retail Industry Team. In this capacity, I have worked with many global retailers to assess eCommerce and cross-channel retailing strategies and how technology and business processes can be used to accomplish strategic initiatives.
I leverage my background in retail supply chain and consumer experience technology to align retailers’ customer facing application portfolios with the realities of retail enterprise applications and enterprise data paradigms.
Prior to joining Microsoft, I held positions at Oracle Retail, Retek, and Accenture. At Oracle Retail, I was a product manager responsible for supply chain execution systems. While at Retek I held functional architecture responsibilities for Retek’s supply chain execution systems, including integration with other ERP functional areas such as merchandising, financials, order management and point-of-sale. In my role at Accenture, I was responsible for leading custom development and implementation teams for large retail ERP projects, including direct-to-consumer operations. I have been quoted in industry publications and have lectured at a variety of venues.
My retail solutions experience includes verticals such as hypermarket, grocery, specialty, soft lines, C-store and hard lines. This experience included traditional brick-and-mortar as well as multi-channel fulfillment models.
