Chief Executive Officer
Nowadays, a retail chain cannot operate without a computer system. Without a good computer system senior management cannot get the necessary reports to control the business and its remote branches.
Without a good computer system, your business will not have the right stock in the right place at the right time, and at the right price.
Without a good computer system, your business will consistently under-perform.
But what makes a computer system good?
A good system must be like an everyday appliance - like an electric kettle; simple to use by flicking the switch on and working every time you need it. You must be able to take for granted that your computer system will always work too.
A good computer system must be:
- Reliable
- Easy to installation
- Easy to use
- Generating benefits that far exceed its price.
If your retail organization wants to deploy a new computer system, as the CEO, how can you make sure that it will be right for you? That it will free you to focus on your business rather than on handling technology issues? That it will be used as freely and simply as an everyday appliance?
Drawing on our extensive experience, we offer you the key characteristics of not just a good computer system, but an excellent computer system:
- It must not be fragmented. You need a solid-state device, not a complex web of inter-connected parts. In particular, beware of the so called 'Best of Breed' system. A complex mess stays a mess, even if all the parts work well.
- It must be reliable. A piece of equipment may be good looking and functional but if it continually breaks, you will soon start to hate it. To be reliable your system must be designed exclusively for retail - from the ground up.
- It must be proven to work well in a similar organization. As an absolute minimum, it must be retail-specific. If you need a family car then buy a car, not a foreign tank or a push bike. A tank will cost millions and will paralyze your movements. A bike may be cheap but it will only get you through the first 30 miles. Buy a tool that fits the purpose.
- It must be flexible. The implementation of some systems can be compared to pouring concrete into your organization. You definitely don’t want that. Your business will change in the future and you should be able to mould your systems as well.
- It must be affordable. When you hear reports that a medium-size retailer spent $90,000,000 on a computer system, you should shiver. No retail system in the world can be worth this kind of money – even $9,000,000 would have been too much.
- Your system must be provided and supported by the right organization. If the vendor's size significantly exceeds your organisation, you will never get good service; the vendor will over-charge you and you will be treated with contempt. If your organization significantly exceeds your system vendor's size, they will not be able to respond to your needs.
Numerous retail chains use Retail Directions software, some of them publicly listed. The systems from Retail Directions were built exclusively for retail. They work well. They come fully integrated, highly reliable and very cost effective.
From the CEO's perspective, if you want the right IT backbone to support your corporate objectives, if you want to optimise your IT and if you want to minimise risk, then the Retail Directions solution will be perfect for you.