Be a Retail IT Super Hero, Without Bending Steel

[Bob_McGlynn]

We are all capable of displaying extraordinary powers and abilities; certainly our bosses expect us to deliver that kind of effort everyday! If your line of business is retail, here’s a way you can be an IT superhero without having to fit into a pair of tights. Give your boss and others in your company ‘super’ vision, the ability to have Shopper Insight.

You don’t have to subject them to gamma rays, this display of super abilities is being able, in around 7 weeks (for the rapid-deployment implementation), to hand an iPad to someone in the field so they can get immediate Shopper Insight from your point-of-sales data.

The SAP Shopper Insight rapid-deployment solution comes with pre-built Daily Flash Sales Scorecard and Exploration views providing near real time visibility for flash metrics like sales and returns. These are what your people in merchandising, marketing, and store operations use to react to what’s happening in the stores.

Here are 4 reasons why this is important to you in IT, 4 reasons why it’s going to become important to your bosses, and 1 ½ reasons that others will like it as well:

For you, the mild mannered IT superhero:

1.   Validate IT Investments – Always a good thing at budget time to prove your sound decisions. The Shopper Insight rapid-deployment solution leverages your company’s previous investments with SAP.

2.   Fast, Quick, Rapid! – An IT project that is going to deliver this much in a very short turnaround?  Yes, you do look like you have super powers by getting assistance from other heroes to accomplish this rapidly. SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions provide assets and services as part of the package. Preconfigured content shortened implementation and roll-out times.

3.   Not just a One-Off, a Foundation – This rapid deployment solution is designed to be a hub for additional SAP HANA based retail. (revisit Reason # 1)

4.   Data AND Speed Delivered to a Tablet! – Everyone at you company is clamoring for information delivered to their brand new iPads. Your previous investments in SAP provides the data, Point of Sales Data Management feeds sales data from stores back into SAP HANA throughout the day, which delivers near real-time updating of the tablets used at the local level for shopper insight.

Reasons for your Boss and the other Executive “Suits”:

1.   See More Green on Black Friday – Hour by hour look at sales to see how promotions are working and what items are moving. Get early answers to how a season is developing and track big shopping days hour by hour, whether for Halloween, Christmas, Boxing Day, or Mother’s Day. Better project sales and better react to the pulse and pace of the shopper. The rest of the world might not have Black Friday, (the day after Thanksgiving in the United States), but every retailer needs quick seasonal sales information.

2.   At The Store, On The Floor – Unchaining your data from traditional systems and offices using an iPad, this allows the people needing this information at the store, whether field managers or line managers out on the sales floor.

3.   Agile Response – The pace of retail spins at a very high velocity. Communication with the field is not enough; organizations have to rely on decisions being made in the field. Shopper Insight puts crucial information in the hands of the people the boss is counting on for good judgment and fast action.

4.   You CAN Drink From The Fire Hose – Data volume has been tamed and trained by SAP HANA to take the crashing waves of data and focus it into a usable stream to drink in shopper insight.

And here’s your secret weapon, OTHERS will like it too!

1.   Smiles in the Aisles –When your team uses Shopper Insight, your customers are more likely to find what they are looking for on the shelves.

1 ½Shoppers keep coming back – By providing what they want when they need it, your customers keep your business as a destination point for their needs; Your bosses might like that, too.

It’s time you started looking at yourself as a man of steel or a wonder woman. Nice thing is, you don’t have to bend steel, but it certainly might appear as if you are. Run like a Retail IT Super Hero with the SAP Shopper Insight rapid-deployment solution!

For more information about the SAP Shopper Insight rapid-deployment solution, attend our Webcast on November 7th, 1:00pm EST. Click here to register:

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