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Q & A
Q&A with Mike Green
With consumers streaming into stores across the country, Sun's Vice
President for Retail, Mike Green reflects on technology priorities for
2004 and looks ahead to an exciting and challenging year in the highly
competitive retail sector.
Monday, November 29, 12:00 PM PT
Q: Looking back on 2004, what do you believe were the most
important technologies that helped to shape the retail industry?
A: I would say there were four key areas of focus. The first is
lead time optimization to ensure the right product is at the right store
at the right time. In other words, the product you need to send to East
LA is different than the product you need to send to Madison, Wisconsin.
Next is mark down optimization. That is getting rid of unwanted
inventory as quickly as possible.
The third priority is supply chain management to ensure that
everything works from sourcing in Asia to having the right product on
the shelf at the right time.
And fourth is labor force management processes to enable things like
scheduling employees across traditional boundaries of a store into
zip codes and locales.
If I was going to add a fifth area of focus, it would be Sarbanes-Oxley
and compliance which has become a major priority for companies across
the board including retailers.
Q: With marketers, retail outlets, and customers kicking off holiday
shopping, what are the biggest challenges facing CIOs so that they are
ready to reap the profits of the season?
A: Aside from the test that the season places on new processes and
systems that have been upgraded or changed in the past year, the biggest
challenge they face is the seasonal demand as it relates to capacity.
Increasingly, we are seeing CIOs expressing an interest in options
like utility computing to accommodate spikes in demand without having to
have a permanent requirement for that capacity year-round.
Q: Soon after the retail industry evaluates the last quarter of
2004, the National Retail Federation (NRF) will host its big show in
mid-January. What do you believe the key innovations, trends, and topics
will be at this convention?
A: In my view, the two hot topics will be RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification) and point of sale as it relates to enhancing the
customer experience. I think there will be a very targeted RFID play
next year focusing on high value, slow moving consumer goods with luxury
brand names like a $2,000 necklace or a $1,000 designer purse.
As far as the customer experience goes, consumers in general are
dissatisfied with the retail experience and being able to improve and
control that is vital. In-store kiosks along the lines of the easy, fast
self-service check-in kiosks at airports are an option that will need to
be considered.
Q: What kind of solutions is Sun offering to lead the retail
industry into the next year?
A: Sun is at its heart an innovator with a bent towards technology that
provides business value to our customers. A number of key solutions for
retailers reflect that passion. For example, were working with
engineering to develop a thin client point of sale device, which will
save hundreds of dollars per lane per year. We are also a pioneer and
leader in RFID--all the way from port-to-package creating exponential
visibility for not a lot of additional cost. In our RFID Dallas Test
Center we have demonstrated an "agent based solution" utilizing multiple
vendors and tags.
In the field of identity management, Sun has the only single-tier
retail solution where the back office, the store and the point of sale
are all run through the Internet using thin clients. This means that there is
only one version of the truth in terms of data and it's all online in
real-time. Employee turnover of approximately 300 percent a year,
thousands of seasonal workers and compliance requirements make it
essential for retailers to implement systems that allow for easy
on-boarding and off-boarding of employees.
Also, I would add to our technological offerings the services and
support we are providing in the Business Compliance Practice. In 2005,
CIOs and CTOs will continue to worry about business
compliance regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Sun's solutions to help its
retail customers stay ahead of the regulations and legations are
critical to a profitable 2005.
Q: How much does Sun emphasize to its customers the need for
business continuity solutions to ensure a successful business model?
A: Keeping systems up and running and secure is critical in retail.
Consumers are looking for instant gratification and view it as integral
to their shopping experience. Sun focuses on providing retailers with a
sound technical infrastructure with built-in safeguards like a safe
failover and defenses against things like viruses. With a safe failover,
if one system fails, another is already in place to pick up the workload
seamlessly.
Q: What do you think that the retail store of the future looks like?
A: Less people, more kiosks and happier customers. Think about
your experience when you go to a McDonalds, in the future we will be
ordering from a kiosk instead of someone who really isn't of any real
help. If you look at the survey Sun fielded with Harris Interactive, 91
percent of shoppers this holiday season will walk out of a store and
shop elsewhere if they cannot find what they were looking for.
The fact that a majority of Americans will chose to shop at a potential
competitor because an item is not in stock, really illustrates how
important inventory, accessibility and ease in purchasing a product have
become. In-store kiosks give stores a second opportunity to help a
shopper find what they are looking for before they spend their money
somewhere else. The technology exists; it just needs to be implemented.
Innovation is key to retail survival.
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