Last weekend on Saturday, my mother asked me to accompany her for the monthly grocery purchase to the closest retail store from our home-'D-Mart'. We went to the store in mid-morning around 11am thinking it would be relatively less crowded. But I guess, everyone's thought process was exactly like us and the retail store was buzzing with people. Yet, due to effective and now well placed self-service practice in organized retail stores in India, we did not take too much time to finish purchasing our grocery (Just 30 mins!!). But then it was the time for the herculean task of standing in serpentine queue of billing. It took us approximately 50-55 minutes to finally reach the counter and pay the bill. Though there were 5 different counters with cashiers working as fast as they could, the waiting time was still very high.

Suddenly my mother asked a very innocuous question- "Why do we need to stand in queue? Why can't we have a system where we can swipe the product as and when we purchase, pay the bill on our own and then go? We are spending (or wasting) more time standing in queue than it took us for purchasing items".

Posted by Priyanka Soni at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

"Do you wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins?

Nothing."--this iconic line by a certain teenager named Brooke Shields catapulted her into instant fame and, in a way underlined the influence of brands in defining our social fabric.

A gentle breeze swept across my face as I entered the DLF Emporio Mall in New Delhi. For one moment it felt like I was in another world- someplace like Milan's Via Monte Napoleone, London's Bond Street, or the venerable Fifth Avenue in New York... a smorgasbord of everything fashionable and haute! Emporio is India's answer to other International fashion capitals-- concierge service, 5-star ambience, presence of revered brands like Dior, Gucci, Armani and Louis Vuitton and a shopping experience that is purely world class. Having said that, Emporio Mall is targeting only the creamy layer of people in the Wealth pyramid, but it serves as a shining example of the good things happening with Indian Luxury retailing at present.

Every brand has a story to tell... and the aura of exclusivity coupled with high income elasticity of demand takes care of the economics for premium goods. Gone are the days when the typical well-heeled Indian had to travel overseas to buy their favorite designer labels or ask their non-resident friends to grab the stuffs from Duty-Free stores. Almost all major Indian metros are now warming up to premium and ultra premium retail experience although retail space still remains a prime concern. Due to prohibitive real estate prices, many of the premium labels are increasingly looking at operating from luxury malls than from 5-star hotels.

Key Challenges:

1.       Lack of dedicated retail Space; fashion high street

2.       Expensive real estate; which significantly hits the bottom-line

3.       Increasing the client base; target the high income population

4.       Improve service offering

5.       Establishing 'Luxury' as a need among Indian customers

6.       Focus on affordable luxury for Indian customers

The Great Indian Retail story has been told, retold and foretold... and still we have a divided house full of enthused supporters and voracious detractors.  Are we ready for the big jump or is India not yet ready for the bigger stakes of premium luxury retailing? As Bob Dylan once famously crooned--- The Times They Are A-changin' and if we look around closely we can see certain subtle changes which auger well for the luxury goods retailing in India.

By 2009/10 India became home to around 126,700 millionaires, these high-income households present a huge customer base for the luxury labels. The Indian luxury retail market is growing currently at a CAGR of 25% meaning that consumers of luxury goods are warming up to luxury brands in a big way. According to BusinessWorld magazine's The Marketing Whitebook 2010-11, five neighborhoods in Mumbai and Delhi and one in Punjab account for 65 percent of potential luxury customers in India. Higher disposable income, propensity to buy, and a demand driven market are all pointing towards a huge potential for luxury goods and services in the days to come. The Indian economic growth story is complementing the Great Indian Retail story and together we are in for an exciting time.

As I gathered my thoughts, the aroma from the café in the central atrium of Emporio mall wafted towards me. I saw a lady nibbling on what looked like a Low Carb Catalina Salad; well known faces that I have seen only on television and magazine covers walked past effortlessly. The pace was unhurried, languid, as if shopping was always meant to be a sensory experience. This is the new India... yet so unlike India!

Posted by Jagat J. Saikia at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jim was munching on a cold sandwich at 37000 feet above Colorado fiddling with his phone and trying to pass time. The clock didn't seem to tick as he eagerly waited to see his girlfriend who was to receive him at the airport. Suddenly, his Google calendar blinked his girlfriend's birthday and all hell broke loose. He had forgotten about it entirely and didn't buy anything for her as his business trip was very hectic. It were still three hours for the landing. He logged on to the website of her favorite flower shop, customized multi-colored bouquet comprising of the loveliest of flowers and shipped it to her place. Being a platinum customer, they arranged for an instant delivery within 30 minutes. Relaxed, he promptly loosened his tie and ordered for a nice drink.

Jim contemplated, what would have happened if it was 2005! He imagined dealing with an irate girlfriend after a failed deal. It combined packed a punch strong enough to shatter a relationship which was about to blossom. He closed his eyes and thought of the mobile phone which made it possible. He wondered is the POS with all its peripherals worth its weight? Isn't its end inevitable? OR Will it undergo a metamorphosis and culminate into a website which can be used at a store or opened at home or while flying on a mobile phone? So, was the conventional POS dying OR just transforming itself to be omnipresent?

 POS- the Point of Sale as it is called has had quite an eventful journey since its inception. In its earliest avatar, it was an electronic cash register which replaced the cash drawer and the accounts book. It was a terminal which was accessed by the sales person and managed the sales process and receipt generation.

Slowly the POS terminals evolved to become more functional with in-built processing capability, data storage, networking, and graphical user interface. The peripherals like bar code reader, printers, touch screen monitors; magnetic readers, etc. made it more and more user friendly.

The POS systems became more advanced with web based POS hosted on secure servers with ability of synchronized back-up. Slowly the POS engulfed the customer centric functions such as loyalty systems, promotions, store assortment, etc. The back office of the POS enveloped the inventory system, sales information, basic reporting functions and many more functionalities.

With the advent of ecommerce, the journey of the POS took forked at this juncture. The basic premise of a POS, which was to sell, was questioned as a customer could buy at a store, buys while at standing in a queue, at their homes on websites or could buy at 17,000 feet on their mobile phones. A website could do what was done by all those cumbersome systems at the store. Few smart retailers have started combining their POS and e-commerce both in IT and business. Ecommerce functionalities have been extended to the POS at the store

So, what does it mean for a POS?

The traditional or the conventional POS, as we all know it, is almost in the verge of death now. Nothing is constant in life but change. POS is no exception to this golden rule of life. Everything is changing - the customer profile, the customer buying behavior, the selling strategy, the marketing strategy and the market place as a whole. Technological advancement is another key component that has pushed the conventional POS system into the grave. POS, which was traditionally seen as a simple operational tool has undergone a complete makeover. The perception is changing. It is now becoming a selling tool to drive the sale. POS nowadays is used not only to sell but suggest the customer, help the customer search, service the loyal customer and many more functions. Handheld POS is becoming more and more prevalent these days which helps the salesperson to walk along with the customer and help them complete the sale. Cross-selling and up-selling naturally follow.

This post which is a first in the series to discuss the current state of play and the future of POS will be explored in the forthcoming blogs.

Co-authors: Harshad Deshpande (harshadhanumant_d@infosys.com)

& Bharath Raghunathan (Bharath_R05@infosys.com)

Posted by Harshad Deshpande at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first set of things we learn about warehouse management, when we start to read about it, is that there are a set of defined processes - Receiving, Putaway, Picking and Shipping. Simple and well defined. In the most typical scenarios, we have the receiving dock at one end of the warehouse and the shipping dock at the other. Goods arrive, stocked inside and then leave.

More often than not, a lot of time of the warehouse folks is spent in transferring of the goods from the receiving to putaway locations and then from putaway to picking. In order to have a quicker and responsive supply chain, it is always expected out of the warehouse to devise a strategy such that the lead time of delivering the goods is as less as possible and also reduces the operational cost of the warehouse. Especially in case of grocery or fast food industry,  products arrive in the warehouse just in time and the turnaround time to the stores is just about a couple of hours.

So the poor doughnut which arrives in the warehouse first steps down at the receiving dock, walks and sits in the storage area for a while and when the store calls, walks down all the way to the picking slot waiting to be picked and loaded in the truck to be finally sent away to the store where it can now display itself proudly.

It could be a good solution if the warehouse structure is such that receiving and shipping locations are in vicinity of each other such that there is more opportunity for immediate loading of goods in the shipping carriers as soon as they arrive in the receiving dock. This is more like an alibi for cross dock and can be very handy in the case of food items where the size and volume of the goods are also not very big and direct transfer from receiving to shipping is easy. Immediate benefits could be:

·         Reduced cost of transfers within warehouse

·         Reduced lead time of shipping and delivery

·         Works better for food items as more freshness is maintained

There can be a few difficulties in terms of charting out the infrastructure for correct routing of receiving and shipping trucks or better coordination required for loading the right items in the right trailer.

Receiving and Shipping can work as pillars of support to each other and result in a more effective supply chain. Not to forget, a responsive supply chain would result in happier customers - both internal as well as external. After all, Customer is KING!

Posted by Sneha Tarang Randev at 5:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So far we have seen the first two critical steps in any business transformation program (http://www.infosysblogs.com/retail-cpg/2011/04/6_critical_steps_of_business_t_1.html). Let us continue the discussion on what the other steps are.

Step 3 - Right technology choice

The next step is the most interesting and complicated step in the whole process. What should be the technology choice to enable the transformation?

-       Should it be an ERP solution like SAP or Oracle?

-       Should it be a conglomerate of best-of-breed packages?

-       Should it be a custom built solution?

-       Should it be a combination of all of the above

It is not a simple decision to make. There has to be a thorough analysis on what the needs are and which option will give the highest bank for the buck. While choosing a COTS solution, the intent has to be to leverage out of box functionality as much as possible.

Step 4 - Is the new process old wine in new bottle?

As I mentioned before, the going in strategy will be to leverage the functionalities that are available out of box. Though this ideology is retained during blueprinting, there will lots of push and pull to customize the package during realization, due to the following main reasons

-       The chosen technology solution might not satisfy all the needs out of box

-       To retain competitive advantage, customization is a must

-       The business will resist to change a business process from the current model and change it to what is available in the product out of box

While the first two reasons have some justification for customization, the last one will be the killer. If stringent change control processes are not there and the business users are let to influence the decision making, lot of the existing processes will be retained in the future design too. The repercussions of this are multiple, but mainly the following

-       By retaining the existing process, the organization might not be leveraging the value the product can offer

-       Customization would mean that  future technology upgrades will be expensive

-       TCO of maintaining the new solution will be higher due to customization

Stringent change control processes needs to be in place to ensure that any customization request is backed up by solid ROI

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Having discussed the critical steps of a transformation program at a high level (http://www.infosysblogs.com/retail-cpg/2011/04/6_critical_steps_of_business_t.html) , let us start dwelling little deeper into those steps

Step 1 - How realistic is your business case?

Lot of time, the initial exuberance to bring up a transformation, induces an organization to come up with an aggressive business case. At the end of the day, this may or may not be realistic to achieve. It is a paradox that we have to come up with a business case before the onset of the transformation program when there are more unknowns. At the time of incubation, you will have more questions than answers. And still, you need to derive and define a business case so that the board can make an informed decision. One thing for sure that the business case will have to be constantly tweaked as the program progresses when more information is available and the deviation from the initial case has to be within the tolerable limit.

In my opinion, there are key dimensions which should be baked into the design of arriving at a business case:

-       Comparable benchmark from the industry - has any other company from the same industry or other comparable industries have done a similar scale transformation program? If yes, and if that data is available, that should be used as a key input for benchmarking general expectations

-       Nuances of the company - Nobody knows your organization more than you do. You can hire the best consulting organization to design a business case, but they can only provide insights based on their experience. But moderating that information to what will actually suit the organization should be the organization's responsibility

-       Fact-based and not gut-based - any parameter that goes into the making of the business case should be based on facts, either from outside or inside the organization, but cannot be based on an individual's gut. Emotions also should be kept out while arriving at the business case

In essence, the business case should neither be too aggressive nor conservative. It has to find a happy medium which is realistic to achieve

Step 2 - Program Governance

When should you start worrying about putting a program governance in place? The answer is that it should be in place when the idea for such a program is conceived. It starts with identifying a clear cut owner. We all know that there will be multiple stakeholders both from within and outside the organization whose future will be tied to the success. If there is no one clear cut owner for the program, then it will be like multiple horses pulling a chariot in different directions.

Once the owner is identified and a core program management team is in place, the following things have to be addressed:

-       Identify all the leads and owners for business processes and technology areas

-       Prepare policies and procedures for areas like BPM, change control, application development, infrastructure

-       Publish a high level timeline with key milestones

-       Have a robust communication plan that involves all the stakeholders

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 2:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every organization will have defined strategies to take care of the interests of multiple stakeholders - customers, investors, employees and suppliers. With the ever-changing economy, organizations have to think fast in reinventing their strategies to cope up with the competition. There has to be periodic checkpoints to analyze themselves and answer the following questions

o    Am I selling the right products and services?

o    Am I sourcing it correctly?

o    Am I taking advantage of all available opportunities to increase my market share in the industry?

o    Is my customer relationship management efficient enough?

o    How am I faring compared to my competition?

o    Am I doing my business in the most efficient that increases the productivity of my workforce thereby reducing cost?

There are so many other strategy related questions that time and again, companies to have answer themselves. When the answer to any of the above questions is negative, then there is a need to relook at the way they operate. That is when a business transformation program will be born.

It is always exciting for any company to launch such an initiative, but seldom, is aware of all the challenges and perils that come along with such a program. Going by the statistics, almost 40% of Enterprise Business Transformation programs fail while a good portion of the remaining have significant cost and time over runs.

Having been associated with two transformation programs over the last decade, I have noticed several areas of opportunities which should improve the above numbers. This sequel is to highlight some of the major areas where corporations can do better. Most of them are stating the obvious, but nevertheless is an attempt to reiterate some of the basics. What are they?

o    First and foremost, how realistic is your business case?

o    Is there proper program governance in place?

o    Do you have the right technology to enable the new business processes?

o    How robust are your new business processes? Is it old wine in new bottle?

o    How flawless is your test strategy?

o    The biggest of them all - change management? What is the organization's preparedness?

The above list is not exhaustive, but definitely some of the critical elements of any business transformation program. I want to share my observations around these line items in my subsequent blogs. Stay tuned!

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 2:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)