Newsletter Articles
Who Pushes Who: Vendors vs. Retailers
We were talking internally at RSR about some of the changes (or lack thereof) that we’re seeing in the industry – just trying to keep our surfboard in the right place on the wave, so to speak – and one topic that came up was who pushes whom more. Do retailers push vendors more, or [...]
The New Disciplines of Market Leaders
n the early 2000’s, as the retail world reeled from the impact of Walmart, I found myself quoting one book with some frequency. That book was “The Discipline of Market Leaders” by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. Most of you are aware of the model by now. In a nutshell, there are three potential areas [...]
The Initial Salvos in the Great (Cross-channel) Platform Debate
Last week I attended two very different conferences. The first was AIM Global, where I moderated a panel on the retail track, talking about developments in mobile marketing and the role that auto-ID technologies might play bringing more of the digital experience into the store. The second was RIS News’s Cross-Channel Executive Summit, where I [...]
Software Acquisition: Transaction or Relationship?
In RSR’s August 16th Retail Paradox Weekly, partner Paula Rosenblum asked our retail readers a rhetorical question: “We have heard anecdotal stories of ‘procurement types’ as gatekeepers (to the software acquisition process). It was bad enough when retailers started using ‘procurement types’ to source merchandise (I have a story about ‘the un-installable towel rack’ that [...]
Software Selection: The Last IT Frontier?
It has been a decade since my last CIO assignment, but when RSR partner Brian Kilcourse shared an email thread with me, it brought back a lot of memories. The exchange was with one of our vendor clients frustrated with the software sales processes he tries to navigate. As a CIO, I was frequently involved [...]
IT for Retail’s Sake
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote a piece called IT for IT’s Sake talking about a retailer who had invested in technology to support the IT department. Even though I know that retailers make these kinds of investments all the time, it still felt rare — here was an IT leader who had enough [...]
SAS Marches Onward: Notes from the Field
Every year SAS invites people like us, analysts and influencers, to join company executives in Steamboat Springs, CO for intensive briefings and, if you’re so inclined, a couple of sweet powder skiing days. If you know me at all, you know I barely stepped outdoors. If you want a report on ski conditions, ask Nikki! [...]
RedPrairie Marches On: Acquires Escalate Retail for Next Gen Retailing
Last week, we talked about the need to acknowledge and react to a tsunami of change in the world of retailing. Consumer technology is changing and improving far faster than retailers’. It’s time to catch up. In this context, RedPrairie’s acquisition of Escalate Retail promises to provide one way to get a leg up on [...]