Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration Business Overview for Retail & Hospitality – 1 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

MicrosoftMicrosoft Enterprise Enterprise CollaborationCollaboration Business Overview for Retail & Hospitality Business Overview for Retail & Hospitality

White Paper November 2005 Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 2 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Summary

It’s a given that successful collaboration is essential to any well functioning company, and that information technology has become a key enabler in achieving this status. Retail and hospitality companies are increasingly recognising the importance of collaboration internally and externally with suppliers and trading partners, as a means of creating efficiencies, empowering employees, and gaining competitive advantage.

This paper shows why such collaboration can be of value — and how retail and hospitality organisations can enhance their current communication and collaboration capabilities, using technology that is available, and in many cases already installed in their enterprises today. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 3 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Trends In Retail Collaboration Although each sector of the retail industry poses special Sustained success in retail and hospitality relies on an effective, communication and collaboration challenges, virtually all simple strategy that can be communicated to all stores and companies face some issue. Forrester Research defines four employees and implemented in a consistent way. Retailers broad phases of collaboration, and notes that the majority that can create a consistent quality of brand and customer of global 2,000 companies are still in phases two and three; experience across all stores or outlets and all channels, with only a handful achieving the benefits of phase four. regardless of time of day or location, are the ones most likely to attract new customers and retain their existing customers. Forrester recommends that companies move as quickly as The pace of change in the retail sector makes speed to market possible through phases one, two, and three to gain the and close collaboration between and within retail departments efficiencies and competitive advantages of phase four — lower vital to improve profitability and reduce costs. costs, ease of management and administration, and the highest level of flexibility. Those reaching phase four are perceived to be Traditionally, retail and hospitality companies have the most agile in their ability to respond to changing business communicated internally face-to-face and over the phone or needs. Improvements in store productivity and customer service by using the post, fax, and e-mail. Currently, although still reliant are the main benefits of better retail collaboration. on paper based, manual processes, many companies are starting to experiment with electronic collaboration products on a Forrester’s report also notes that technology is only one element departmental basis, in response to specific needs. Eventually, in developing a collaboration strategy. Within an organisation, retail and hospitality companies will see these tools proliferating addressing behavioural trends is also crucial, because many across the organisation and will need to establish enterprise employees resist sharing their knowledge with e-mail as a wide standards and strategies in order to avoid a lack of primary collaboration tool and have few incentives to change interoperability and duplicated functionality. Any successful such behaviour. In addition, senior management support for collaboration strategy needs to keep pace with the rapid, any collaboration strategy is critical to its success unpredictable changes that are part and parcel of the retail and hospitality industries.

A Roadmap to Enhancing Communication and Collaboration Throughout the Retail and Hospitality Enterprise

Collaboration Strategy

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Traditional Experimentation Proliferation Enterprise Strategy and standardisation

1997 > Majority of Global 2,000 companies today < 2007

• Face to face • Point product • Tools in use on • Enterprise strategy • Phone • Departmental basis widespread basis in place • E-Mail • Prompted by specific • Lack of • Standardisation user needs interoperability on enterprise • Duplicate collaboration functionality platform

Forrester’s four phases, outlined in “Stop Experimenting and Develop a Collaboration Strategy”, by Erica Rugullies, February 2004 Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 4 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Key Drivers Retail and Hospitality Challenges Several business and societal trends are increasing complexity These problems are exacerbated in environments which suffer in the retail industry. As complexity grows so the need emerges from particularly high employee turnover. SkillsMart Retail for clear communication and improved collaboration. The key estimates that employee turnover is over 60 per cent a year drivers are: for most European retailers. Companies cannot rely on a store associate’s personal knowledge to perform tasks correctly or • Store associates are currently bombarded with paperwork make optimal business decisions; because it is unlikely that and administration and need to free up time to spend with individual has held or will be holding the same job for an customers, improving service, and increasing sales. extended period.

• When market conditions change or new strategies are In addition, many retailers and hospitality companies are still implemented a mechanism is required to ensure all retail managing their businesses with collaboration tools from the employees receive relevant information quickly and easily. mid-1990s or earlier. Fax, post, courier, and telephone are still amongst the most common means of communication between • Product life cycles are shorter than ever before. It is essential stores and their head offices. E-mail and portal technologies that retailers and their suppliers work together to develop, are still in their infancy as true tools for collaboration. allocate, and replenish products quickly and efficiently to gain maximum revenue from a short sales period. The key challenges for head offices communicating with their stores are: • Retailers are developing closer relationships and partnerships with fewer key suppliers and need to be able to share and • Vast quantities of instructions and directives going to exchange information with them easily and securely. stores from various head office departments, often in an un-coordinated way. • Many large retail and hospitality projects, such as store, pub, • Much of the communication is irrelevant for the store’s restaurant, or hotel openings and refurbishments involve grade, type, or product range. a number of different departments in a company working • Huge inconsistency in local execution of central strategy. together. To reduce the time needed to complete these • Difficulty in checking compliance with head office initiatives. projects, a more effective collaborative approach is needed. Within the retail or hospitality head office there are similar challenges. Many standard retail processes rely on inter- departmental collaboration, such as new openings, refurbishments, promotions planning, set-up and “We were looking for a system that would give us execution, and product recalls. an overall picture of the chain and show us details such as the scope of sales, turnover, inventory as well as information regarding our customer club. We needed the ability to provide details drilled down to branch level, departments, and even individual products, so that each manager or supplier could see just the information relevant to him or her.” Yitzhak Shafer, CIO, Supersol, Israel Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 5 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Microsoft Collaborative Solutions

Within a retail organisation there are a number of areas where A self-service portal could provide access to corporate collaboration will bring about increased productivity and applications and requires authentication of identity for customer service. These are: each individual. Accessibility is seamless, so users would not necessarily be aware they are accessing multiple applications. • Head Office to Supplier Collaboration Access can be via a fixed desk top, an EPOS device, or a Allowing suppliers access to appropriate, pre-determined mobile device such as a PDA. Typical applications that might information that can help speed up replenishment, and be accessed include human resources applications for leave anticipate stock-outs, with significant resultant benefits. This requests, pension information, merchandise management to data could include sharing of sales data, sales forecasts, and check stock information, expected deliveries, space planning, production information, as well as exchanging of documents staff scheduling, time and attendance, logistics, and staff such as purchase orders, Advance Shipment Notifications training packages that record results and report on them. (ASNs), invoices, and credit notes. Collaborative product development and fast fashion or speed sourcing projects The store managers’ and district managers’ workbench allows could also be facilitated using supplier portals. access to and interpretation of multiple data sets for further action and response. The store, area, or district manager could Inter-departmental Collaboration • drill down into performance data and make decisions quickly This involves helping different teams within the retailer’s and effectively — and update other systems accordingly. head office work on joint projects together. These would include projects like new store openings, store Microsoft collaboration solutions make use of tools and products refurbishments, promotions, marketing, and branding. that many retailers may already have in place, so leveraging Workflow management tools form a key part of the solution, existing investments and systems that employees are already enabling project managers to reduce the time needed to familiar with. Also, Microsoft has one platform that will service carry out critical projects. the supplier, stores, and head office. Where a cross-company • Head Office and Store Collaboration strategy for collaboration is not adopted, retailers may be in Stores can access relevant information, directories, training, danger of leveraging different platforms — thereby inhibiting and store operations procedures. The type of information collaboration, rather than fostering it. accessed could include compliance and directives associated with merchandising, special offers, promotions, company news updates, access to key performance indicators, and workload and task management tools.

Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration Focus Areas

Supplier Stores • Access to sales data • Role based access to sales data, • Shared forecasting inventory • Supplier scorecard • Corporate HR information • Collaborative product Head Office • Defined workflow and feedback Store communication development Access and share information • • Promos and space plans across departments e.g. store • opening, promotion campaigns, marketing, IT-projects • Corporate HR information Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 6 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Virgin — Case Study Corporate Information Portal and Collaborative Team Site

Virgin is the world’s leading music and entertainment retailer with 23 Megastore locations in the United States, as well as stores throughout Europe and Japan.

Virgin Entertainment needed a more efficient and cost effective communication solution linking its head office with the store network. E-mail and a rudimentary Intranet named ‘The Wall’ had become severely limited in capacity, security, and functionality. To disseminate and share accurate and timely information throughout the organisation, Virgin Entertainment chose to evaluate many portal technologies, including Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003.

Virgin Entertainment and Xavor, a Microsoft partner, implemented SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to help its 1,600 employees collaborate more efficiently by creating a corporate information portal and collaborative team sites. The portal is the central source of information for all Virgin employees.

As a result of the implementation, the key benefits are: “We had to stop overwhelming people with unneeded information. SharePoint Portal • Managers spend 20 per cent more time on the sales floor • IT support costs have reduced by more than 15 per cent Server will give us this capability.” • Time spent resolving product stock issues reduced by Lisa Sullivan, Director of Operations, Virgin more than 20 per cent • 15 per cent of a typical manager’s time freed up for higher value tasks • The total cost of ownership substantially lower than competing technologies. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 7 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

E.Leclerc Yvetot — Case Study Customer Service Collaborative Solution and Store Communications Portal

Leclerc is the third largest retailer in France with sales of €26 billion (U.S.$31 billion), market share above 17 per cent, over 500 stores, and 76,000 employees.

E.Leclerc Yvetot had a slow, manual system of answering customers’ letters and complaints. There were no standard templates for responses and little sharing of knowledge between employees.

In addition, store employees had little access to specific store information and spent a lot of time looking for information and checking its validity. It was also difficult to brief area managers about important events, such as sales results, news, promotions feedback, and performance.

E.Leclerc implemented Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services with workflow management for both the customer services and in-store collaboration areas. They used Microsoft Office

InfoPathTM 2003 to create user forms, which provide a suggested format for customer queries and automatically convert Microsoft Word documents to mail. The suggestions for customer “Microsoft was very dynamic and very responses were piloted using Microsoft SQL ServerTM. responsive throughout the project. In-store Windows SharePoint Services was used to share local Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services critical information for departments in the stores. is very easy to integrate in the existing The key benefits of the customer services collaboration solution IT environment. This solution is become are: a major point of information access for • Reduced time to answer customer queries thanks to the managers and has a great user acceptance” ability to re-use previous answers and create a series of M. Hervé Peretti, Managing Director, templates, saving time and ensuring consistency. E.Leclerc Yvetot • The ability to provide suggested answers to save management time. • Available dashboards allow E.Leclerc to make informed decisions quickly to improve their business and customer relationships.

The key benefits for the store communications solution are:

• All employees are aware of local critical information and details. • Managers are able to increase face-to-face time spent with customers. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 8 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Edcon — Case Study Store Portal and Workflow Solution

Edcon is the largest apparel retailer in South Africa with eight retail brands and 750 stores.

Store Portal The initial project included an assessment of the electronic communication process between Edcon and stores in order to understand the content and frequency of this communication and provide recommendations on how to streamline com- The main benefits Edcon has realised have been: munication and maximise space utilisation on the Citrix sever. The second part of this project involved Edcon Group IT • Ability to take advantage of templates to handle many providing Edgars (Edcon’s department store division) with recurring journal entries efficiently. capacity to address issues within the store communication • Ability to apply a validation process during data capture, process. This includes identifying opportunities to improve rather than after which eliminates errors when interfacing communication and implementing these initiatives. with the ledger. • Provision of a view of what is being charged to each cost The main objective of the project was to develop and centre throughout the month, rather just at specific times, implement a portal that served as a single interface for which improves management response and planning. all stores related communications. The application was developed on the existing SharePoint Portal Server infra- structure and was designed with the intention of re-using existing components, data, process, and system structures in the Edcon environment.

Workflow Solution Prior to the introduction of the store portal Edcon started using other Microsoft collaborative solutions. Over the past couple of years, Edcon has been upgrading its IT systems with a focus on more efficient and productive business processes. They previously had a complex accounting and budget approval system across the group.

Working with Microsoft partners K2 and 3fifteen they implemented a web based journal application to cut down on response times for captured journals and to make amendments faster and simpler. The solution uses the K2.net workflow solution and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 for database functionality. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 9 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Marks and Spencer — Case Study Accor — Case Study Head Office Departmental Collaborative Portal Group Enterprise Portal

Marks and Spencer is one of the UK’s leading retailers, serving Accor is one of the largest hotel groups in Europe with 10 million customers a week in over 300 British stores and 4,000 hotels and 158,000 employees. trading in 30 countries worldwide. Traditionally, Accor used multiple intranets to communicate The company realised that productivity could be improved information, however this approach made the implementation by allowing employees to share and reuse information more of multi-lingual, personalisation, and authoring processes very effectively. A simple to use and cost effective knowledge difficult. They wanted to have a unique portal to share and network was seen as the ideal solution for the 600 strong communicate with all employees of Accor, very easily and IT group, plus its contractors. quickly.

Marks and Spencer selected SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Accor chose SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for the new portal. and Conchango, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, to This is already used by 20,000 employees and will soon implement the solution. increase to more than 30,000. The portal was implemented rapidly in less than three months and is now used as a real Some of the benefits from the collaborative solution include: multi-lingual management tool for sharing information with employees all over the world. • Easily accessible, up-to-date information enabling faster and smarter decision making within the IT group, which The key benefits for the new portal are: translates into improved support for all parts of the business. • It is possible to produce new content in 10 minutes — • A document repository containing best practice guidelines before it took several days, so the portal can be updated with all documents stored in and/or indexed by SharePoint and revitalised easily. Portal Server, giving people access to common documents • It saves IT costs, as it is a consolidation of a number of and templates in one central location. different Intranets. • An easy to customise front end based on community • It is easy to share information with many employees preferences. and broadcast the same message. • A custom built e-training package enabling new users to understand functionality in their own time and at no additional extra cost. • Secure access ensuring that documents can be read and amended only by the appropriate people. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 10 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Microsoft and Its Technologies

Benefits of a Phased Approach Setting Up the Base Infrastructure Microsoft recommends a phased approach to enhanced Every company has different communication and collaboration communication and collaboration. Most retail and hospitality requirements, but there are some common paths that retail and organisations can make extensive use of products and systems hospitality companies can take to achieve significant benefits.

that are, in many cases, already deployed throughout their The Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM is a basic component companies. This not only leverages the technology investment in enabling communication and collaboration capabilities that in existing servers and systems, it also promotes faster, more can help retail and hospitality organisations to move towards an complete user adoption by building on tools and interfaces that enterprise-wide strategy of standardisation. Another advantage are already familiar through daily use. of the Windows Server System is that it may already be supporting many retail and hospitality systems. Companies that Microsoft commitment to standards and open designs allows are investing in methods to make stores, restaurants, and pubs its solutions to work well in heterogeneous technology more collaborative can leverage the same infrastructure in environments. For example, a Windows SharePoint Services use at head office and throughout the enterprise, further collaboration team site can link within any enterprise portal enhancing collaboration. solution. This allows retail and hospitality companies to create best-of-breed solutions that fit their immediate business needs, For storing and managing user information and roles, Active while laying the groundwork for their eventual move to an Directory® is the integrated, distributed directory service that is

enterprise-wide strategy of standardisation. included with Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. Active Directory enables a single sign-on With phased implementations, retailers can maintain their for its users. With the Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory current portal usage and communication patterns while gaining infrastructure, companies can establish team collaboration sites additional collaboration functionality. For example, setting up by making use of Windows SharePoint Services and, when unique roles for end users lays the groundwork for a roles-based necessary, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, which allows them to portal, where an individual logs in and has a single source for all more easily manage a large number of team sites. The Web based the information needed for his or her job. Roles-based portals team collaboration environment enabled by Windows SharePoint allow managers to make faster, more accurate decisions in key Services is closely integrated with Microsoft Office 2003, and areas such as labour scheduling, loss prevention, promotions, because Windows SharePoint Services is a component of and stock control. Windows Server 2003, it provides powerful server-based communication and collaboration tools that enhance tasks users perform with Office programs every day.

“ SharePoint was very easy to integrate… …actually, Windows SharePoint Services is core to the base infrastructure needed for collaboration. It lets organisations take file storage to it even enabled us to have a centralisation a new level, providing communities for team projects and making point for all our Intranet technologies. Accor is it easier for users to work together on documents, tasks, contacts, plans, events, and other information. established in a number of countries through various activities, such as the hotel trade and services, it was therefore important that this tool could be used in different languages, worldwide.” Jean Marc Espalioux, Chairman of the Management Board, Accor Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 11 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Enabling Basic Collaboration Advanced Communication and Collaboration E-mail and messaging is a vital first step in enabling basic Windows Server 2003 supports advanced communication and collaboration. Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 provides a strong collaboration. Supporting the application integration process are platform for mission critical messaging and collaboration. XML Web services and Microsoft Web parts. Collaborative Exchange Server is designed to work together with Windows services such as discussions, calendaring, and document Server 2003 to provide high levels of performance, reliability, management are provided. security, and manageability. Exchange Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, and Microsoft Outlook® 2003 are also Web parts are Microsoft customisable components for exposing designed to work together, helping users to be productive and information and applications through a portal. Web parts can collaborate whenever and wherever they work. Used properly, be intelligent to a user’s role and so can filter the wide range of e-mail and messaging enables mobile and remote workers, who corporate information hospitality managers use on a daily basis. are common in far-flung retail and hospitality enterprises, to Taking advantage of the development flexibility offered by communicate and collaborate on the go even with a low Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio®, Web parts can plug bandwidth connection. into corporate systems, such as labour scheduling and sales or stock data, to present customised views depending on role. Then, The ability to detect another user’s availability on one or users can access internal data, external feeds, and collaboration more devices (known as ‘presence awareness’), such as those tools from a single interface. supporting voice, e-mail, instant messaging, and videocon- ferencing can really help knowledge sharing. Microsoft Office Retail and hospitality companies can more easily control who Live Communications Server 2005 provides a powerful, scalable, has access to information with the help of Microsoft Windows enterprise-grade instant messaging, and integrated presence Server Rights Management Services, which provides information solution that lets people communicate in real time across protection technology and helps safeguard digital information the company. from unauthorised use.

Live Communications Server 2005 also supports peer-to-peer Webconferencing Made Easy audio and video, as well as application sharing and data collab- Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a powerful tool to allow users oration. It improves business efficiencies across organisational to run, track, and participate in webconferencing meetings. All boundaries by extending instant messaging and other real-time the attendees or presenter needs is a PC, an Internet connection, communication capabilities to trusted partners, customers, and and a telephone. Live Meeting allows users to share desktop suppliers. Examples include training, process communication, applications, presentations and Microsoft Word and Microsoft sharing information, and joint product development. Excel® documents collaboratively anywhere in the world.

A Powerful Development Environment The Microsoft .NET Framework provides retail and hospitality “Of course the store managers are out walking companies (and their ISVs) a development environment that allows them to easily tailor applications to specific business needs. the floor. Now they have a system backing them In addition to supporting more than 20 programming languages, up with hard information and alerts.” it also manages much of the ‘plumbing’ involved in developing software. Dr Gerd Wolfram, Executive Project Manager, Future Store Initiative, METRO Group Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 12 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Making the Connection or restaurant level, can free managers from the back room and All this communication and collaboration functionality is put them where they can have the most positive impact on accessed in different ways by different individuals throughout sales and customer service the organisation. The common vehicle in pulling it together is the enterprise portal. These enterprise portals will contain a variety When these portals are extended to mobile and handheld of elements depending on the user’s role and the portal devices, managers gain even more freedom, allowing them to deployment. engage in real-time decision making to deal with issues such as out-of-stocks, customer complaints, or in-store merchandising. Additionally, Microsoft offers users more of what they want: The ability to access such resources remotely is also essential • A familiar and consistent platform so everyone can use the to both retail and hospitality district managers responsible for portal immediately. multiple stores, restaurants, pubs, and hotels. Their efficiency can • Anytime, anywhere access to collaboration services, for be significantly improved by the use of digital dashboards which example through mobile devices for area managers on provide top-line reports from all locations, with Web parts that the move, at the till for store staff or via PDAs or lap tops give them the capability to drill down into the full report if they for buyers, marketing executives, and head office store require more detailed information. Increasingly sophisticated operations employees. dashboard applications allow for exception based reporting, • Single interface for access to applications, so store staff and which raise red flags if key performance indicators (KPIs) fall other users are not even aware that they are dipping in and outside a set of customised, predetermined parameters. Such out of a number of different applications. functionality gives district and area managers an accurate, real- • Access to relevant information only — specific views are time snapshot of the activity they are responsible for. available relevant to a particular employee’s role, department, and geographical location. As retail and hospitality companies increase internal communi- cation and collaboration, they can also look to extend benefits Further technical information is available from outside the enterprise. This could mean working with vendors www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sps2003/ and manufacturers in the product development process, as well default.mspx as connecting with vendors in the supply chain or customers after the sale for follow up and feedback. This capability is important Making Smarter Collaboration a Reality in the case of product recalls, for example. There is also strong As retail and hospitality companies reach the enterprise strategy potential to simplify and speed supply chains, creating additional and standardisation phase of collaboration, new capabilities efficiencies and lowering costs for both suppliers and retailers. become available that embody many aspects of the Microsoft Smarter Retailing and Microsoft Smarter Hospitality initiatives Collaboration doesn’t just happen once the tools are in place; from Microsoft. Smarter Retailing®, consisting of Smarter it requires a cultural shift for many companies. Each company’s Shopping, Smarter Selling, and Smarter Operations is designed to experience will vary, but there are some general principles that help retailers dramatically improve how they sell and operate can help make these deployments successful: through better access to customers and product information. Smarter Hospitality, with its three pillars of Smarter Guest • Define and communicate new collaborative processes so Experience, Smarter Service, and Smarter Operations, helps everyone understands and complies with the new process. hotels, pubs, and restaurants operate more efficiently, while • Ensure that there is a central owner and content manager of meeting the expectations of digitally enabled guests and the portal so that there is a common look, feel, and purpose. employees. In the case of store portals, it is essential to have head office control over content so that priorities are given to stores. In the store, restaurant, or hotel environment, there are numerous • Companies should use a variety of methods to ensure that ways that enhanced communication and collaboration gives users not only understand how to use collaboration tools, companies the tools to embody Smarter Retailing and Smarter but in what contexts they can and should be used, training Hospitality. By creating a single source or workbench for relevant, people with as many ‘real life’ scenarios as possible. actionable corporate information, roles based portals at the store Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 13 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Flexible Architecture Benefits of Smarter Collaboration Microsoft’s comprehensive range of partners, along with its For those companies that manage the process effectively the embracing of standards and open systems design, supports the benefits will be significant. These include: creation of best-of-breed solutions that meet a retail or hospitality company’s specific business requirements. The Microsoft support- • Increased sales and better productivity. ing infrastructure and many of its collaboration applications are • Store employees are freed from administration and can designed to work with existing portals and communication tools. spend more time with customers. • Store employees can easily access information on stock levels, Phased Implementation and Completeness of Solutions promotions, and other channels to help customers. Microsoft supports phased implementations of communication • Greater consistency of retail experience from the brand and and collaboration solutions as the most effective way to achieve operations point of view. corporate buy-in. These solutions provide strong, measurable • Faster decision making with better access to more actionable return on investment where business needs demand it most. information. These phased implementations are made possible by Microsoft’s • Better and more timely execution of head office initiatives, flexible technology architecture. However, retail and hospitality such as promotions, markdowns, planograms, and branding. companies that make more extensive use of Microsoft com- • Increased employee motivation as less time is spent looking munication and collaboration solutions can take advantage of for information and more is available for higher value tasks a fully integrated platform, one that will interoperate effectively • Better prioritisation of activities and information. out of the box, providing information anytime, anywhere, and • Reduced communications costs — less post, fax, and courier on any device. usage. • Alleviation of information overload. In conclusion, the Microsoft enterprise collaboration platform, • Faster, more accurate decision-making. combined with these three major asset areas, allows retail and • Ability to create a virtuous cycle of insight and execution. hospitality companies to enable the Smarter Retailing and • Ability to work to tighter deadlines through collaboration, Hospitality scenarios that will bring them the greatest business e.g. fast fashion and collaborative product development. value in the quickest possible time frame, while also laying the groundwork for additional solutions that will help them address A Comprehensive Approach to Communication their evolving business needs. and Collaboration Microsoft is in a strong position to help retailers and hospitality companies collaborate more effectively, internally and with external companies. The key Microsoft assets in this area are the following:

Market Leadership Microsoft communication and collaboration solutions make extensive use of tools and technologies that are not only available today, but may already be deployed throughout the company. Because these technologies are familiar and are in widespread use, retail and hospitality companies have an opportunity to extend their collaboration infrastructure from head office to stores, restaurants, and hotels, leveraging their entire technology investment and lowering lifecycle costs, both in terms of capital investment and in the areas of IT expertise and resources. Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 14 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Microsoft Supplier Directory

Avanade Avanade is a leading system benefit of its customers and includes to generate business benefits, for www.avanade.com integrator specialising in the leading-edge technologies in its example with portal, data warehouse, conception, development, and long-term strategy. Highly-trained identity management, or implementation of Microsoft employees experienced in the infrastructure solutions. technologies for large and mid-sized management of complex projects Avanade is a global company with companies. As a joint venture by provide professional and custom more than 3,700 employees in Accenture and Microsoft, Avanade solutions within tight time constraints. Europe, Asia, the United States, participates early in the development Many customers in the retail industry and Australia. of new Microsoft products. Avanade like Central Retail Corporation, Tesco uses this specific expertise for the or buy.com use Avanade’s expertise

Charteris Charteris Real-time Business Activity rapid and intelligent business meanwhile, have the ability to realise www.charteris.com Monitor for Retail. It enables retail decisions that can boost revenues the full potential of investment in businesses to empower managers and improve customer service. Key hitherto diverse and unconnected and executives at local store, regional, staff on the ground can now have the systems — quickly and at relatively national or global level with the real-time reporting information they low cost. unprecedented capability to need to support ‘gut-feel’ and collaborate with each other to make experience. Head office and IT,

Conchango Developing and maintaining an ‘collaboration’ as a means to create provides a comprehensive range www.conchango.com environment where employees efficiencies, empower employees, of services and software that and suppliers can instantly share and gain competitive advantage — understands the unique needs in information and make efficient and however realising the issue and fixing retail, and delivers the capability to error-free transactions is one of the the problem are worlds apart! enable people and systems to work toughest challenges facing retailers Conchango understands these together more effectively. today. Retailers see the importance of challenges and has formulated an both internal and external/ supplier ‘enterprise collaboration vision’ that

K2.net The K2.netTM 2003 solution automates K2.net supports the Microsoft Smarter support the back office to enable www.k2workflow.com human-to-human and human-to- Retailing initative by accelerating the retailers to optimise these processes system business processes, providing automation of processes at ‘the edge’ to both reduce costs and provide a a robust, flexible workflow and throughout the Retail enterprise. better and more personalised environment that promotes creative K2.net helps to design and automate customer experience. and collaborative ideas whilst processes that interact with the reducing costs. consumer, manage supply chains, and

Meridio Meridio is a leading worldwide business efficiency, and profitability. access, retention, and destruction www.meridio.com provider of enterprise Document and With massive scalability, exceptional policies of content, across the Records Management (eDRM) usability, and proven deployment distributed enterprise and has software, engineered for Microsoft success, Meridio’s secure Document excellent live references across a .NET platforms. Meridio’s mission is to and Records Management is an number of market sectors. Meridio is enable senior executives to meet their essential component of compliance an accredited Microsoft Gold Partner. goals of regulatory compliance, infrastructure. Meridio eDRM enforces Microsoft Smarter Retailing Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration – 15 Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

Software4You Software4You Planungssysteme development of customised BI as tools and techniques for use in www.software4you.com GmbH provides unique skills, tools solutions for use by mid-sized and data analysis. and technologies for modern enterprise companies. This includes information management. We offer portal server implementation, Web years of experience, expertise and based reporting / analysis, scorecard specialised knowledge of the retail implementation based on Microsoft trade Software4You concentrates on Business Scorecard Manager as well

Tata Consultancy Services Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a ahead of the competition through workbench, New store opening, www.tcs.com USD 2.2 billion IT solutions & services complete lifecycle services from Store-HQ collaboration, Store firm, envisioned & pioneered the actionable advice to application employee training portal and Supplier adoption of global service delivery development & maintenance across collaboration. To learn more about that today enables companies to retail functions like supply chain, the way TCS can help you, please operate more efficiently & produce merchandising & store solutions. contact Amit Bajaj, Head — Retail & superior value. For over three Within the enterprise collaboration CG (Europe) at [email protected] decades, the retail industry vertical at space TCS has deployed retail TCS has been helping retailers stay solutions like Store managers

Wipro Wipro’s Store Manager Workbench store manager to get an accurate information portals, discussion www.wipro.com allows the store manager to always picture of the product availability. boards, forums for exchanging tips be available on the shop floor. The Wipro’s solution supports a ‘Shared and creation of a personalised web solution provides real-time sales Vision’ between the organisation and experience to meet business performance tracking to improve its employees, who are integral to objectives with a combination of store level profitability through trend an organisation. the Microsoft and InterWoven analysis and forecasting. Out of stock The portal and content management product suite. alerts and quality of service allow the practice provides solutions enabling Microsoft Enterprise Collaboration Enabling the next generation of retail innovation

More Information

To find out about Microsoft’s Retail proposition, please visit www.microsoft.com/smartretail

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, Windows, BizTalk Server, and SQL Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.