Retail Operations: A Calculated Asset

By  Rick Peters, chief product officer, Opterus
Like all other businesses, retailers face countless operational issues every day. These issues certainly have the potential to impact the bottom line, but they also give the operations team the opportunity to solve these everyday problems in a way that truly enhances their company's strategic growth, producing real value.

More than ever, the burden of improving revenue, reducing organizational costs, becoming more efficient - and therefore, more cost-effective - falls on retail operations. With very limited resources and money, operations need to find better ways of doing business to increase productivity, improve communications, and implement corporate directives across the entire retail environment.

Unfortunately, many retailers today rely on antiquated and inadequate manual processes that limit their ability to effect operational change. However, the good news is that Web 2.0 technologies and SaaS (software as a service) solutions now make it easier than ever for even midsize retailers to drive operational compliance throughout their chain.

SaaS is a model for software deployment in which applications are hosted offsite and provided to users through on-demand access. Operational compliance systems delivered by these methods reduce upfront software purchase costs as well as other costs associated with traditional applications, including installation, maintenance and support. They also go a long way in solving the mystery of what really happens within the store, and the results can mean the difference between the winners and losers in today's tough retail climate.

Improve communications throughout the organization. On-demand operational compliance systems streamline communications with stores by centralizing all communications between stores and corporate/regional offices onto one software platform. This eliminates the inefficient manual communications methods currently being used.

Increase productivity and satisfaction of employees at the store level. Retailers can improve store productivity by providing a tool to directly communicate with each store, and if necessary, each employee within the store. Today's employees have been immersed in technology almost since birth, and based on their experiences as students and consumers, they have come to expect it in the workplace as well. The pervasiveness of social media and social computing is a big part of that. These expectations have to be factored in when trying to recruit, retain and motivate young employees.

Ensure compliance with corporate objectives. The ability to monitor store compliance increases accountability at the store level and provides a measurement tool for monitoring which stores are compliant with their tasks.

Improve financial performance. Retailers can drive financial performance through quicker, more accurate adoption of corporate initiatives. Streamlined initiatives and compliance monitoring reduces operating expenses by having a standard set of workflows that optimize operational efficiencies across all stores.

The new generation of solutions can provide a way to not only solve the traditional operational issues facing retailers but can provide insight, an eye in the sky view, of the entire retail enterprise. This type of insight is essential for helping retailers change their business processes and gain the strategic advantage they need for sustained growth.