Spring 2019 - Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | SPRING 2019 42 W e constantly hear about “digital trans- formation” in business, or the process of leveraging new tools to streamline inefficient or outdated processes. This is precisely what is happening across all areas of retail, particularly with inventory. Indeed, a growing number of com- panies are abandoning traditional, spreadsheet-based inventory manage- ment systems in favor of cutting-edge, centralized SaaS platforms. They are doing this to respond more effectively to customer demands and to reduce waste, stockouts and margin loss. For further insight on this trend, we spoke with John Andrews, who is CEO at Celect, providers of a cutting- edge cloud-based predictive analytics platform. Born out of MIT, and the brainchild of Devavrat Shah and Vi- vek Farias, Celect was lauded by the university’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as one of the 50 greatest innovations to come out of MIT. To put this in perspective, the list also included technologies like ARPA- NET (the precursor to the internet) and nuclear fission. Celect leverages the latest in ma- chine learning to help retailers make da- ta-driven decisions. Retailers are using the platform to predict demand based around specific times and locations. In short, Celect lets retailers peek into the future (as closely as possible). “Inventory is the largest number on a retailer’s balance sheet, and frankly one of the most critical decisions a re- tailer has to make,” said Andrews. Inventory Management 2.0 By Gerald Baldino Making the transition from disparate stores to single, unified distribution centers Tech Savvy