Home
Follow Us
Blog Updates
Retailers are constantly analyzing the shopping experience to help consumers, generating extensive amounts of data in the process, but many have not translated this data into actionable intelligence. The key to big data is taking action from the information. Retailers need to make the transition from data repository to business solution. The focus should be on how the data can help improve their business and better serve their customers. The difference is how they leverage the information.
Read More
Beginning A New Conversation About Data
The Emerging Next Generation AP Professional
At this year’s RILA Asset Protection conference I witnessed how the loss prevention / asset protection department has begun to recognize the need to expand beyond the traditional role of alarms, locks, and metal detectors. More importantly, the role of the next generation asset protection professional is emerging as a hybrid that can bring together various departments, including operations and merchandising. With a recognized understanding of adding value beyond traditional LP services, next generation AP professionals are leveraging existing and emerging technologies to bring added value to the company, and increase the return on existing investments.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Profitability As A By-Product
As we approach the RILA Asset Protection conference, I often think about some of the conversations I have with people in retail. In particular, was a response I received back from a retailer when I asked “what are you doing to protect your profit margins”. Their response was not unexpected, but it did prompt me to give some serious thought to the answer, “all of our projects are to improve profit margin.”
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tell me something I don’t know! – PART III: Unknown Unknown
The final edition in our “Tell me something I don’t know!” series examines the last of the three main categories of discoveries that retailers are looking for in a solution. Unknown, unknowns are the things impacting the retailers business and they don’t know, what they don’t know. When the retailer is unaware that there is an opportunity, nor where to look for it and what questions to ask, is what creates the most uncertainty in the business. But it also presents a category with the greatest opportunity for interesting insight into the business.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tell me something I don’t know! – PART II: Known Unknown
Continuing our series on the three main categories of discoveries that a solution should provide retailers to help minimize the effort necessary to identify controllable factors that can be translated into action, this edition will break down what is known as a “known/unknown”. Recalling from the previous blog, these categories are determined based on whether or not retailers know there is an opportunity, as well as if they know how this opportunity is used to generate value. The value is generated by finding and acting on opportunities correctly within their systems, processes, or personnel.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tell me something I don’t know! – PART I: Known Known
As a retailer, you have many choices about which software vendor to choose. For users, one of the biggest demands we see in the market is having the software inform you of something you don’t already know about your business. You don’t need another reporting tool giving you another report with the same numbers. You want something different. Something that fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Preparing for Analytics 3.0
Analytics are not a new idea. The tools have been used in business since the mid-1950s. To be sure, there has been an explosion of interest in the topic, but for the first half-century of activity, the way analytics were pursued in most organizations didn’t change that much. Let’s call the initial era Analytics 1.0. This period, which stretched 55 years from 1954 (when UPS initiated the first corporate analytics group) to about 2009, was characterized by the following attributes: Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Fine Line Between BI and BS – Part 3: Actionable Intelligence
The first and second editions of this blog mini-series discussed common concerns about today’s business intelligence solutions for retailers. In this final edition, we will focus on the area of the profit amplification solution where the most value is derived from: taking action.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Fine Line Between BI and BS – Part 2: Intelligent Business Intelligence
In our previous blog, Editor In Chief at Integrated Solutions For Retailers, Matt Pillar discusses The Fine Line Between BI and BS. We will delve deeper into the discussion, and take a look at what you believe is the “best business intelligence system” and why it still fails to deliver the business with the value, in terms of actual dollars, you expected.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Fine Line Between BI And BS
I’ve been talking about retail BI (business intelligence) a lot lately, and I’ve been writing about it even more. Much of the conversation is with BI solutions providers. What a diverse cottage industry this big data conundrum has born.
Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download