Escape the Legacy Trap, Embrace Experience Operating Model

By David Wilkinson

Executive Vice President, NCR Retail

David Wilkinson, EVP & President & GM, Global Retail

As President and General Manager for Retail, David is responsible for creating and executing NCR’s overall vision and strategy for the Retail industry. He is focused on helping Retailers thrive and deliver on their brand promise in a digital first world by leveraging NCR’s unique software, hardware and services capabilities that run the entire operation from back office to front end. NCR’s solutions accelerate the transformation of Retailers around the world helping them to leverage technology to better serve their customers.

Paramount in this is evangelizing NCR’s next-generation retail store architecture that NCR is uniquely equipped to offer to the market. David’s energy and passion coupled with a strong customer focus has created a foundation for success. David has spent his past nine years at NCR in roles in the Retail organization or working closely with the NCR Retail teams. During this tenure, he has held various positions, from leading the Global Retail Sales organization, running the cloud POS start-up within NCR, leading the Emerging Industries team or focusing on NCR’s channel business.

With 25-years of experience, David has helped many IT and Telecom companies expand beyond their traditional business models. He has a proven track record of growing existing business models as well as innovating new ones to fill strategic gaps and accelerate profitability. Prior to joining NCR, David held various leadership positions at leading IT and Telecom firms including Avaya, Nortel and Verizon.

In addition to his current duties, David is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the NCR Foundation and is a board member for Junior Achievement of Georgia. The goal of the NCR Foundation is to advance technology through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) education in the communities in which NCR employees and customers live and work around the globe.

David has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in Finance from Stephen F. Austin and an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. David currently resides in Milton, GA with his wife and daughter.

We believe the industry is looking at the future of retail success upside down. From our viewpoint, retail success is not about islands of tech innovation, connected commerce, or AI at the core. It’s bigger than that.

It’s really about embracing the tough realities of today’s post-pandemic retail world. Everybody’s gone digital, labor shortage is here to stay, there is ecommerce disruption, an explosion of payment and delivery choices, margins are shrinking, every shopper is unique, there is a consolidation of brands and stores, a tough macro economy, wallet size is shrinking, loyalty is fleeting and customer expectations are escalating.

In this environment, experience rises to the top. In 2023 and for the next decade, the retail industry winners will own the experience to gain unfair advantage through superior experiences for consumers and associates.

Winning requires a strategic shift to a new experience operating model that:

Captures hearts and wallets with a distinctive journey that starts before entering the store, loyalty is re-earned with every experience
Outpaces the market by operating at the speed of the consumer, with faster delivery and fulfillment
Supercharges your people to engage, inspire, end burdensome tasks, boost service levels and associate happiness
Realizes new economics that reshapes the innovation cost structure, shifts from CAPEX to OPEX
Is built for change and is highly resistant to iterate, experiment, and recalibrate without breakage

The barrier to success is legacy technology. Escaping the legacy trap requires a new operating model based on a modern IT infrastructure that is built for change.

An experience operating model offers new answers to the challenging questions that retail leaders face:

CEOs and CFOs want to know how to create more shareholder value, shave costs and deliver margin points, drive more traffic into stores and deliver experiences that wow customers
CIOs want to know how to take advantage of innovative technologies faster, power new experiences quickly and guard operational integrity and non-stop availability
COOs want to know how to compete on speed and operational excellence, lift the performance of the company’s people and update thousands of stores weekly with minimal disruption
CMOs want to know how to own the customer experience for brand differentiation and preference, deliver a seamless commerce experience anchored in a shared view of the consumer and personalize based on each market’s demand profile/service promise

The barrier to success is legacy technology. It can’t power this new experience operating model. It is static, inflexible and expensive. It is built for a bygone era.

Retailers face a growing legacy trap. Supporting legacy technology consumes up to 75% of IT budgets, robbing innovation.

Tell-tale symptoms that retailers are stuck in a legacy trap include:

Every change costs you 12 months and $1M
Loyalty programs take six months to roll out
Minor UI changes are arduous and risky
You’re not sure POS will be up and running today
IT says “no” to marketing . . . again
Scores of vendors, tech silos, architectural islands to manage
The CIO becomes a systems integrator
IT team skill sets are aging out
You find yourself caught upside-down on the cost curve

Retailers need a new way forward to transform, connect and run their technology platforms. Existing modernization options force retailers to choose between innovation impact and uninterrupted operations. Escaping the legacy trap requires a new operating model based on a modern IT infrastructure that is built for change, has OPEX cost model, freedom to experiment and innovate, unified data, composable vs. custom code, actionable insights, extends from in-store edge to cloud software, and powers modern business processes.

The State of the Retail Industry 2023

JAN 2023

07/05/2024 15:52:32

The Frontline Worker Disconnect

By Cris Grossmann, CEO & co-founder, Beekeeper

Cristian Grossmann, CEO, Beekeeper

Prior to founding Beekeeper, Cris worked for Accenture on high profile international projects in the field of IT Strategy for the financial and public sectors. Cris studied Chemical Engineering and got his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, both at ETH Zurich. Before moving to beautiful Zurich, Cris was born and raised in an entrepreneurial Swiss-Mexican family in Mexico City.

When the retail frontline succeeds, their organizations thrive, driving sales, customer loyalty and profitability. That’s the bottom line for any retail organization looking to boost sales and fuel organizational success. However, establishing a productive and content workforce requires retailers to address the growing disconnect between the retail frontline and their managers. In 2023 retail employers must focus on the increasing gap between how their frontline staff are currently being managed and how they should be managed in order to create a connected workforce.

As retailers prioritize frontline success, they will need to address how the frontline disconnect drives high turnover and low engagement — and rectify it immediately. As a result, in 2023 we will see a greater emphasis on retail employee experience, the use of frontline success system technologies to solve the growing disconnect, and new policies and procedures to effectively manage frontline staff. Here are some of the ways these new developments in retail staff management will occur:

Frontline managers are not being properly equipped with the tools and skill sets they need to manage their retail staff well. This will change in 2023. Retail organizations will increasingly commit to more robust manager training which is customized to their specific roles, needs and challenges. Rather than one size fits all training, companies will deliver training that is customized to the specific training needs of frontline management — whether that is fostering a better communication style for high-stress environments or developing the listening skills needed specifically for managing an hourly workforce or more. Upper retail management will recognize that they need to provide more support to their frontline managers for them to be truly effective in their roles.

Prediction #1: Retailers will Invest in Frontline Managers

In 2023, it’s time retailers embrace various workplace innovations and invest investing in a frontline success system to solve the frontline disconnect and create a productive, happy and loyal workforce.

Prediction #2: Retailers will provide more Support to their Frontline Teams

Prediction #3: Retailers will Flatten Internal Communications

Invest in Frontline Success Systems

Retail leaders and executives are accepting the fact that for their managers and frontliners to truly gel they need more support on all fronts. Whether it’s providing competitive benefits, improving workplace safety, shift flexibility, better training and necessary tools and technologies, retailers are recognizing that investing in frontline workers’ experience is the key to improving engagement and retention. By giving their workers and frontline managers easier access to these resources, retail organizations will set them up for success by closing the disconnect, which leads to a more productive workforce and ultimately a more profitable organization.

The root of disconnect often lies in poor communication and no feedback. A top-down, hierarchical approach to communication creates information silos. It kills collaboration and creates a disconnect between executive leadership and their teams on the frontline. The solution is to flatten internal communications, and give workers and their managers tech-driven ways to communicate quickly and securely. It’s time to facilitate instantaneous feedback between managers and staff, and. Employees — whether frontline or desk-bound — thrive with positive feedback and recognition from their peers and supervisors. Siloed or hierarchical communication processes stymie these types of spontaneous communications and genuine connective moments. The most competitive organizations are making that possible with mobile tech solutions designed to help workers and their managers succeed.

As we emerge from the pandemic to a different world, we are seeing the development of various workplace innovations contributing to the future of work. In 2023, it’s time retailers caught up with these innovations. By investing in a frontline success system, retailers can solve the frontline disconnect and create a productive, happy and loyal workforce.

The State of the Retail Industry 2023

JAN 2023

07/05/2024 15:52:32

Essentials for Retail in 2023: The Employee and Customer Experience

By Kevin Shank

CEO, Compucom

With the pandemic subsiding, Americans embraced in-person shopping during the 2022 holiday season, returning to stores and malls in big numbers. Early results for the weekend showed that consumers’ love affair with online shopping remained as strong as it was during the pandemic. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-store and online retail sales, said in-store sales were up 12% year-over-year on Black Friday, while ecommerce sales rose 14%.

According to Shopify, consumers are craving opportunities to shop in person, but they expect the buying experience to be consistent both online and off.

Retail winners are those which balance growth strategies with tactics to prioritize a unique, seamless and tech-enabled customer experience – whether it be purchasing in-store or from the couch.

Kevin Shank is CEO of Compucom. Providing global leadership to advance Compucom’s mission and strategy, Kevin is enabling Compucom to deliver best-in-breed IT services to our customers, harnessing our company’s capabilities and team members to pursue market opportunities that drive profitable growth.

Throughout his career, Kevin has combined his passion for technology with his strategic vision to lead successful business transformations among leading managed services providers. Known as an inspiring and motivational leader with extensive expertise in identifying and driving growth, he returned to Compucom in December 2022, where he served as a senior executive from 2005-2014.

Shank previously worked in senior-level executive positions at the company from 2005 to 2014, then left to pursue other opportunities which included serving as CEO of Pivot Technology Solutions and President of Computacenter North America, which acquired Pivot in 2020. Previously, Kevin held key leadership roles across many industry leaders including General Electric and GE Capital IT Solutions. Kevin is a graduate of Indiana University-Fort Wayne with dual degrees in Finance and Marketing where he played basketball and was an NCAA Academic All-American.

The surge of online brands into offline channels means retailers need to create a smooth and engaging customer experience across all channels. The retail winners are those which balance growth strategies with tactics to prioritize a unique, seamless and tech-enabled customer experience – whether it be purchasing in-store or from the couch.

. Here are three trends that will differentiate retailers in 2023:

Hands-off tech: Shoppers are becoming less hands on, and more tech-enabled, says Shopify. As a result, more stores are turning to mobile or automated solutions. Technologies such as contactless checkout, in-store mobile robotics, handheld POS devices, and even smart shopping carts are gaining traction with major retailers.
Pricing automation: E-commerce companies should consider automating their pricing process if they have not already. Retail automation can quickly generate live competitor pricing data points, and negate the risk of costly pricing errors.
Better employee experiences: To retain the best retail employees, a Compucom survey found, employers should focus on improving the overall employee experience, especially their interactions with technology. In fact, almost 90% of respondents suggested that satisfaction and retention would increase if companies invested more in their tech and support. So, it’s important to set workers up for success with better training in tech advancements like virtual shopping, live chat, and curbside pickup. But it also is important to measure and improve that experience where you can. That means working with a partner to define and measure eXperience Level Indicators (XLIs). After all, a better employee experience translates to a better customer experience.

IT services and vendors are critical to the success of any retail business. In the post-pandemic economy, technology and services are at the heart of the customer experience. Instead of working with multiple vendors, each with its own success metrics, contracts, technicians, and areas of expertise, a retailer should consider working with an end-to-end IT solutions and services provider. More than a vendor, an end-to-end IT service provider can become a strategic partner, aligning XLIs to business outcomes, providing industry expertise and thought leadership to help a retailer build the best experience for its customers.

The State of the Retail Industry 2023

JAN 2023

07/05/2024 15:52:32