Digitizing the Depot
Inside Home Depot’s Ambitious Four-Stage Plan to Crack the $100-Billion Barrier and Beyond
“When a retailer becomes massive, achieving Wall Street’s growth expectations requires adding new business the size of a small country — every year. For The Home Depot, the second largest retailer in the United States, achieving such growth encompasses creating new business plus transforming the company’s existing processes and systems in a multi-year makeover.

Access the issue by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/articles/art_june06_01.shtml

IT at the Speed of Fashion
Saks Incorporated Realigns Technology with Business Performance
“Creating a competitive advantage in today’s world of high service and high fashion requires people who apply artistic and customer-focused talent based on a foundation of scientific fact. When that factual foundation grows — and becomes easily used by employees in merchandising, customer relations and supply chain — the entire organization grows more effective.

Saks Incorporated is transforming its people, processes and IT systems across numerous brands and formats so that growth of fact-based management in a fashion-paced and customer-based retailing environment leverages growth and business performance.”

Access the article by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/toc_apr_2004.shtml

I created Business Objects’ Solution Portfolio for Retail and another targeting Consumer Goods Marketers/Manufacturers. Each has six mini-white papers. Each mini-white paper focuses on one of the major pain points or ROI opportunities that senior management faces today. Each relate how business intelligence delivers solutions never before achieveable.

Below find a lead to one of the retail items, and two links to the mini-white papers.

Customer-Centric Marketing
Maximizing Your Return on Marketing
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
— John Wanamaker, the founder of modern department stores

“For a long time, it was difficult to accurately measure and manage marketing effectiveness. Luckily, this is no longer the case. With advanced marketing analytics, retailers like you can make precise measurements to maximize return on marketing (ROM).”

“World-renowned for their marketing campaigns, retailers like Neiman Marcus, Lands' End, and Wal-Mart.com use advanced analytics to gain a competitive advantage in customer intelligence....”

Retail Solution Portfolio White Paper:
http://www.businessobjects.com/solutions/industry_solutions/retail/default.asp

Consumer Goods Solution Portfolio White Paper:
http://www.businessobjects.com/solutions/industry_solutions/retail/default.asp

Additional Sample:
http://www.businessobjects.com/solutions/industry/cpg/trade_promotions_mgt.asp

The cover story for the July, 2006 issue of RIS News, details Wegmans’ IT leadership in grocery retailing. It also covers Wegmans’ special approach to balancing respect for people with pioneering technology and superior execution, and the company’s pioneering leadership in data synchronization.

Retail Visionary
Wegmans Sets Industry Bar for Customer Experience and Technology Advances
“As a technology thought leader in the retail industry, Wegmans remains one of the most honored retailers in America. The $3.8-billion grocery chain has received awards ranging from Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, to Excellence in Community Service from President George Bush, to Grocery Leadership Outstanding Achievement from RIS News. Moreover, competitors, consultants, technology vendors and even CPG suppliers frequently say good things about Wegmans.

Access the article by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/articles/art_july06_1.shtml

Fusion Awards for Retail Management Excellence
I have just finished the Fusion Awards for Excellence in Retail Management for 2006.The Awards turn successful executives into industry luminaries while highlighting the enabling technology behind their achievements. This year’s awards were presented at the Retail Executive Summit, September 2006 the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, CA.

The awards can be accessed by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/articles/Sept06-FusionAwards.pdf

VICS Newsletter and Public Website
The Board of Directors and CEO of VICS consider the VICS Newsletters to be an exclusive value-add and only allows distribution of them to dues-paying members. Copies are available by request, or click here to download and read a sample. Visit the website at www.vics.org.

Coverage in recent VICS Newsletters and website materials that I wrote involve industry pain points and ROI opportunities of interest to Infosys, including:

Global Synergy
GROUPE CASINO Aligns Software and Business Processes in a Supply-Chain Makeover
“By rethinking business processes and centralizing systems in a Web-based, near-real-time approach, Groupe Casino has improved sales, assortments, turns, fulfillment performance and labor productivity — all while maintaining a tight IT budget.”

Access the article by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/toc_aug_2005.shtml

Architecture & Attitude
Office Depot Uses a Six-Step Approach to Achieve Multi-Dimensional Business Transformation
“About two years ago, Office Depot, the $13-billion seller of office products, recruited CIO Patty Morrison from Quaker Oats. The company was seeking an IT leader who could bring IT to the core of a major business transformation process. Morrison, who is responsible for directing, overseeing and managing Office Depot’s global information systems, including its highly successful global e-commerce platform, was up to the task. Today, Office Depot has succeeded in transforming itself in multiple directions at once, and Morrison has made IT the core of the solution. Over the past three years, Office Depot has gained $100 million in efficiency gains in the supply chain, while bringing substantial organic growth to the European side of its business.”

“Transforming the architecture at a growing company like Office Depot is challenging,” says Morrison. “It’s like changing the wheels on a bus while it’s accelerating.”

Access this article by clicking on:
http://www.risnews.com/CSS/pages/archives/articles/art_nov03_1.shtml