In today's business environment, the successful deployment of technology is critical to the success of the retail enterprise. Technology can enable companies to sustain a competitive advantage and achieve financial performance goals. LakeWest Group's focus on the retail industry, extensive knowledge of a large number of retail systems, and experience planning and managing complex technology projects allows our clients to achieve desired benefits as early as possible in the process.
Some of the current technology innovations include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment). LakeWest Group has capabilities in helping clients develop strategies to address these initiatives; assess potential benefits; and evaluate, select, and implement systems.
LakeWest Group offers services in all areas of technology advancement from Software Package Selection to Retail Package Implementation.
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment
Customer Relationship Management
RFID
Software Package Evaluation and Selection
Stored Value Cards
Our Retail Technology Experience
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment
CPFR is the first business-to-business supply-chain initiative with established guidelines sponsored by industry leaders. Pilots initiated by prominent retailers and consumer product companies have demonstrated significant supply chain improvement. CPFR encourages trading partners to work from a common forecast resulting in a more complete view of their product cycles. CPFR can generate 1) revenue improvement 2) inventory reduction 3) improved technology ROI and 4) improved overall ROI.
Importantly, the traditional barriers of capital requirements, technology start-up and lack of industrywide standards have been eliminated. This permits organizations to focus on the change management efforts, process design and management, and trading partner interface that can generate increased revenue and cost reduction for both retailer and supplier. However, developing and implementing a scalable CPFR strategy and infrastructure between two separate organizations with historically divergent ways of doing business is not an easy task. An outside point of view with unsurpassed industry expertise is truly needed to assist trading partners align, organize, and define the business rules around their collaborative relationship.
LakeWest Group has over ten years' experience working with retailers and consumer product companies to create strategic, operational and financial competitive advantage. Our in-depth knowledge of the supply chain and relevant engagements involving the retailer and supplier interface qualify us to make CPFR a successful reality for your organization. Our service offerings include
- Readiness Assessment
- Business Case Development
- Business Strategy
- Business Pilot and Rollout
- Project Planning
- Change Management
- Process Design and Management
- Technology Assessment and Implementation
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Customer Relationship Management
In today's increasingly competitive global marketplace, effectively managing the customer relationship is essential to short-term success and long-term growth. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has emerged as a tool to help retailers overcome this challenge. LakeWest Group focuses on helping clients maximize customer relationships by identifying and exploiting opportunities to integrate their technology systems and business processes around the customer.
With an effective CRM strategy, a firm can identify and cater to their best customers on an individual level, resulting in increased satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Customer retention is a competitive advantage and can directly improve the bottom line. LakeWest Group's expertise in the retail industry, combined with our track record of successful results with satisfied clients enable us to help clients navigate the CRM landscape. Our services include
- Business Planning and Strategy
- CRM Process Improvement and Redesign
- Systems Assessment
- CRM Package Selection and Implementation
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RFID
Perpetual inventory systems down to the item/store level are the norm in retail today. The reality in retail inventory management today, however, is that oftentimes perpetual inventory is largely incorrect. Consequently, retailers find themselves losing money due to out-of-stocks while also pumping inventory into their systems to compensate for the inaccuracies. Costly cycle counts and periodic inventories are only temporary solutions, and CFOs lay awake worrying about real vs. “paper” shrink. This is all about to change because a solution is within reach.
We stand at the forefront of the next generation of truly transforming retail technology, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), where real-time visibility of product availability and movement is possible, enabling quantum leaps in operational efficiency and customer service. At last retailers can know precisely the quantity and location of each item in their supply chain. Not since the introduction of UPC technology has retailing witnessed a technology capable of significantly transforming daily business operations and materially improving efficiency and profitability.
Radio Frequency Identification is a system in which pallet, case, or item-level data stored on radio frequency tags is accessed at predetermined points along the supply chain to capture information necessary to fulfill critical business needs. The technology will propel product identification and tracking to levels most retailers have never considered possible with UPC, thereby creating opportunities for significant profitability improvement.
What makes RFID more efficient, and thus more attractive, than its UPC predecessor is its ability to identify product in real-time, absent a direct line of sight. RFID technology relies on radio frequency tags that can be read through a variety of substances and surfaces such as cardboard, plastic, and paint, among others, making them more universal than barcodes. And, as the cost of tags continues to decrease due to the economies tag manufacturers will achieve through mass production, the universal applicability of RFID technology will become increasingly affordable for all retailers.
Most pressing among the critical retail business needs satisfied by RFID is comprehensive visibility of products at all points along the supply chain. Such visibility allows retailers to better avoid stock-outs, a major contributor to lost sales and, importantly, a common customer inconvenience to which customers are becoming increasingly intolerant. And, in a largely mature retail market in which opportunities for growth are becoming ever more elusive, maintaining sufficient in-stock positions that adequately satisfy existing and potential consumer demand remains a cornerstone of retail success.
In addition to better in-stock positions, RFID will likely yield
- Distribution Efficiencies
- Improved Inventory Management
- Improved Shrink
- Streamlined Backroom Operations
- Enhanced Point-of-Sale Operation
- Decreased Return Fraud
All indices suggest that RFID technology will be mainstreamed in the relatively near future, and LakeWest Group believes that early adopters will leap-frog their competition. Contact LakeWest Group today to assess the impact RFID technology can have on your business.
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Software Package Evaluation and Selection
Deciding which software should be used to support attainment of company objectives is among the most important and costly decisions management must make. Organizations burdened with less-than-optimal solutions can be substantially handicapped in reaching their goals.
LakeWest Group's unparalleled package selection experience and extensive knowledge of retail software products equip us with extraordinary capability to assist retailers with this important decision. Our software selection approach is unique in the following ways:
In-Depth Knowledge of Retail Software Options
- Hands-on experience with all major retail packages, vendors, and platforms
- More than one hundred retail software package engagements
- Proprietary Retail Software Package Database and research on retailer satisfaction with major packages
Experienced Project Resources
- Staffed with senior retail specialists who understand day-to-day operating issues
- No client-funded training in retail issues required
- High officer-to-staff ratio
Pragmatic Project Approach
- Avoids cost-justifying paper generation, redundant activities, and evaluation of nonviable alternatives
- Identifies critical issues and provides structure and facts to resolve them
Dedicated Project Management
- Avoids "remote control" management
- Preserves client ownership of project
- Senior executives take personal responsibility for on-time quality performance
Negotiation Assistance
- Provides historical perspective
- Identifies impact of alternatives
- Provides feedback to vendors
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Stored Value Cards
Stored value cards are rapidly becoming the payment alternative of choice for retailers. These are most often found in the form of gift cards, plastic replacements for gift certificates that offer a number of significant advantages over their paper cousins. Other applications include a plastic replacement for merchandise return vouchers or, less desirably, cash refunds.
Stored value card programs are capable of:
- Enhancing customer service and satisfaction
- Reducing paper costs
- Increasing brand-building opportunities
- Reducing gift certificate fraud
LakeWest Group is experienced at managing all aspects of a stored value card implementation. Our stored value experts are not only adept at driving to completion the technical portions of the new program in a time- and cost-effective manner, but also at matching stored value's capabilities with the retailer's needs. Our goals are not only project completion, but full benefit-realization.
In every stored value engagement, LakeWest Group also focuses our efforts on making sure the program can grow in the future. This means not only growing with the retailer's gift card requirements, but also creating a program capable of addressing its other needs, including loyalty programs and CRM.
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LakeWest Group has extensive experience serving some of the industry’s largest retailers and consumer goods companies in the
following related areas:
- Year 2000 (Y2K) Systems Compliance and Remediation
- General Systems Remediation
- Global Systems Implementation and UPC/EAN Standardization
- Strategic Systems Assessment, Design, Selection, and Implementation
- Systems Integration, Data Conversion, and Testing
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Our Retail Technology Experience
Successful customization and implementation of retail technology solutions require insight into the retail business drivers, in-depth knowledge of available software offerings, and extensive experience managing similar complex projects. LakeWest Group has demonstrated that it can more than meet this challenge. The firm's clients have achieved smooth transitions and early attainment of desired benefits. Cornerstones of the LakeWest Group approach include
Unparalleled Retail Systems Implementation
Experience
- Executives have over 100 combined person-years of retail systems implementation experience
- Hands-on experience with all major retail packages, vendors, and platforms
- Skills to design and implement custom solutions
Experienced Project Resources
- Staffed with senior retail specialists who understand day-to-day operating issues
- No client-funded training in retail industry or operations required
Business Process Expertise
- In-depth understanding of retail business processes and issues
- Management perspective independent of particular functional area
- Rapid grasp of current processes
- Ability to assess operational and financial impacts of alternatives
- Integrates process redesign with new systems
Dedicated Project Management
- Avoids "remote control" management
- Preserves client ownership of project
- Senior executives take personal responsibility for on-time quality performance
Retail Package Experience
ERP
- JDA
- SAP
- Island Pacific
- Intrepid Evolution
- Transatlantic (SQL Retail, OpenRSA)
- Oracle Retail
- NSB
- Jesta I.S
- GERS
- Lawson
POS/Store Operations
- IBM
- Fujitsu
- NSB
- Triversity
- NCR
- Datavantage
- Epicor CRS
- Softechnics (DSD System)
- Oracle
- Marconi
- Unitech
- STR
- Kronos
- Campbell Software
Consumer Direct
Warehouse Management
- Manhattan Associates
- Armature
- EXE
Planning & Replenishment
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