Today’s retail marketplace is driven by consumers who want everything on-demand. From browsing and researching the products they’re interested in, to purchasing and shipping; in order to meet their expectations and generate repeat business, your business needs to provide instant results at every stage of their purchasing process.
From a cost-perspective, many retailers are feeling the pressure. Where do you store your goods to ensure you can deliver on time and to the right customers? With warehouse and storage costs on the increase the challenge is on to save money elsewhere - but still be able to provide that exceptional, instantaneous customer experience.
This need for instant accessibility along with the rising cost of real estate is resulting in a shift away from storing stock, towards providing a faster turnaround to improve process efficiencies. For retailers who haven’t adapted to this market change, the outlook is costly. You may have legacy systems in place and outdated applications that haven’t been developed to deal with this evolution. And, with GDPR on the horizon, any old databases in place will need a complete overhaul.
These changes mean you must re-evaluate how your business stores customer data, and how you communicate with your customers. With workplace demands for flexi-working and BYOD to accommodate a better work-life balance, the risk of many multiple devices attempting to access data and systems from unprotected networks is another threat your business faces.
To be able to cope with market changes and make data-driven decisions, you need to consider your current systems and how they can be upgraded to give you the access you need. Consumer trends are moving quickly and you need to have a good understanding of what your customers want and expect, as well as your employees. Social media for example, has a huge part to play when it comes to the way consumers want to communicate and interact with businesses. To keep them engaged, build your brand, and generate more awareness social media must be integrated into your purchasing cycle.
The Big Data explosion along with a wave of new business application development have all impacted on the database estate. As a result, your business may be facing any number of issues from old and unsupported versions of Microsoft SQL Server and Windows, to failure to meet Recovery Time and Point Objectives. Support and management of your systems will become costly, with a lack of governance, control, and ownership to rectify.
Whilst there are some classic legacy retail software solutions such as bespoke systems that exist for stock management, they tend to be old-fashioned. Because they don’t fit with modern day architecture, there is a need to move towards end-to-end, integrated systems able to cope with advancing market and technology trends as well as the associated security threats. By improving efficiency through IT, you could potentially reduce costs, stay competitive, and better serve the needs of your customer demands.
Microsoft and DSP-Explorer together offer proven approaches to modernisation projects for retailers. We ensure rapid delivery at minimum risk while maximising the value returned to your business, in terms of enhanced capability at low cost. Our free half-day workshop offers the opportunity to learn from experienced and renowned experts in the retail industry. We’ll provide real examples of how retail customers have achieved significant cost savings, and enhanced business outcomes.
The session will start by looking at the roadmap for SQL Server in Azure, before moving onto the business case for data platform modernisation into Azure.
As a follow-up, we’ll take you through a survey to learn more about the retailer’s environment. From this, a business case for Data Platform Modernisation will be created specific to your needs. We’ll take the time to understand your environment and your roadmap, review your IT estate, and help define where you need to be headed.
Register here.