Inside Outdoor Spring 2015

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their natural end of lives. Amiddleware
layer solves the dilemma by connecting
the dots. Utilizing middleware or SOA,
retail IT departments, or their third-party
IT contractors, construct Web services that
enable these instantaneous transactions by
supporting the integration among several
different retail systems. In turn, every
customer or associate transaction traverses
the middleware layer, “which brings the
commerce platform to life,”
says Morris.
These Web services reduce
application development
time and costs, as they are
reusable and can be leveraged
across multiple applications
throughout the enterprise.
For example, a common
transaction is a customer
contact search by attributes
such as name, phone number
or loyalty ID, explain Boston
Retail Partners analysts.
“Developers leveraging
middleware or SOAwill build
a common set of Web services
that can be reused in any
application that requires a customer search
or lookup. Legacy integration approaches,
such as point-to-point integration, on the
other hand, often were not built to support
robust real-time requirements nor do they
offer the benefits of reusable Web services.”
While middleware enables a central-
ized platform and other retail systems
to effectively supply data across the
enterprise, a master data management
(MDM) solution ensures the data is
consistent, accurate and up-to-date.
By utilizing business rules and data
governance to harmonize and merge the
information from various retail systems,
MDM provides a central repository for
master files. Acting as a central reposi-
tory, MDM maintains a single version of
the truth for product, customer, vendor,
location and asset information.
“Inaccurate or inconsistent
data works against the goals
of unified commerce and a
holistic customer experience,”
BRP analysts warn. “MDM
significantly decreases data
errors within an organization,
driving operational efficien-
cies and enhanced reporting
and analysis.”
Business process man-
agement (BPM) software,
meanwhile, enables the defini-
tion, execution, monitoring
and optimization of business
processes across the retail
enterprise. At the same time,
a modern BPM system is able
Countless hours of run, hike, climb will rub your
skin painfully raw. Don’t let chafing sidetrack
your training. Or your performance.
YOU GOT THIS™
Adventurers.
You Got This.
PROTECTIVE
SKINCARE
55%
Source: Boston Retail Group, NRF
Percent of Retailers that Anticipate Significant Business
Benefits Derived from a Unified Commerce Platform
Source: Boston Partners Partners
0%
5%
10%
15% 14%
4%
Quickly
Respond to
Consumer
Demands
Margin Brand Value Revenue
% of respo
% anticipating
significant benefit
Increase
Associate
Productivity
Support
Omni-channel
trategy
Rationalize
Portfolio and
Reduce
Complexity
Transform
Store to be
Digital
Efficiently Open
New Store
Formats
(e.g. Pop-up
Stores)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
52%
46%
38%
• Inventory Turn
• Out-of-Stock
• Returns
• Operational Efficiency • Total Customer Value
• Net Promoter Score • Average Order Value
• Promotional Redemption
• Conversion Rate
Inside Outdoor | Spring 2015 37