By Suzanne Vita Palazzo
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from Grocery Headquarters magazine, presented here for discussion.
The recent surge of product recalls highlights the importance of fast and efficient communication between headquarters and the stores. However, the swift execution of product recalls is not the only retail task that stands to benefit from streamlined communication. Plenty of day-to-day activities --from promotional planning to workforce management -- can benefit from more efficient communication.
"The use of uncoordinated, multiple communication channels require management in headquarters, field and stores to have to go to a variety of different places to find out what they are supposed to do," said David Andrews, director of marketing communication for Reflexis Systems. Traditional methods for disseminating data -- voicemail, e-mail, employee newsletters and three-ring binders -- don't provide a central source for the most current information and can get lost in a sea of other messages.
Mr. Andrews notes that a fragmented approach to communication can lead to frustration at many levels of the organization.
"Every department in HQ thinks their project is the most important," he said. "This leaves store managers to prioritize on their own, and store managers' priorities and particular skill sets may not be aligned with the goals of the retailer."
Portal solutions, such as those provided by Reflexis, effectively combine key performance indicators with task management applications to distribute messages that can be tracked to completion.
By using technology to open up the channels of communication, retailers can increase store compliance with time-sensitive weekly and seasonal promotions.
"Today, with the number of items that are in play, it's very difficult for retailers to give each item the right attention to make sure that it's effective and drives at the business objectives of the given promotion," said Kevin Sterneckert, senior director of strategy, merchandise planning, optimization and supply chain for retail at Oracle. "So what most retailers do is they follow the law of averages. They work on the very important items and then they do a copy from last year and expect similar behaviors that they realized a year ago for the same time period."
For retailers that remain skeptical that investing in bundled communicative solutions will result in a tangible benefit to their bottom lines, additional data from the Gartner report just may sway their stance. According to the research, one large supermarket chain reported a 3.47 percent improvement in same-store sales during the first 90 days of implementation of the task management solution. Moreover, the chain also reported a $30 million reduction in printing, copying and distribution of materials to stores.
"These solutions can actually deliver true value to the enterprise. Once you get the business involved, you can really identify the true requirements needed for those solutions," said Joanna Kennedy, senior marketing analyst for Tomax. "I feel like a lot of companies fall into that trap of thinking that it's not a business solution but that it's a necessary evil."
Discussion Question: What do you think of the potential of these emerging portal solutions for improving task management at the store level? What will be the challenges in their execution?