Business Intelligence (BI)

These are challenging times for the nation’s chief information officers — and speed is of the essence.

An annual survey of global CIOs found that digital innovation is actively causing disruption to business models, requiring IT leaders to move quickly to deliver new infrastructures, platforms and applications to meet customers’ fast-changing needs. An overwhelming two-thirds of all CIOs believe digital disruption is now a very significant change to business, according to the “Harvey Nash CIO Survey 2015,” done in association with KPMG.

One of the best ways retailers can make both their financial data and store systems more secure is to reduce potential vulnerability by removing financial data from the store.

“Take any credit card data out of your store systems,” advised Perry Kramer, VP and practice lead for Boston Retail Partners. “Most retailers don’t know what’s on their systems or their risk profile. You need a good inventory. Some data you might keep.”

The October deadline for retailers to accept EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa)-compliant, chip-based payment cards or face increased fraud liability has placed payment card security in the industry headlines. While important, securing card-based payments at the store is one small facet of the huge undertaking retailers face in protecting their entire network.

Detroit’s fledging reputation as a Midwest Silicon Valley took took a big step forward with the news that Amazon is creating a tech hub in the Motor City.

“Michigan is a rapidly growing technology corridor and we’re eager to bring the incredible local Detroit talent to Amazon,” Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace, told the Detroit. Free Press.

Walmart has taken a big step towards becoming 100% supplied by renewable energy.

The discounter entered into a long-term power purchase agreement to buy the majority of the electricity generated by Pattern Energy Group’s new Logan's Gap Wind facility.

The 200 megawatt facility is in Comanche County, Texas.

IBM aims to let retailers get more personal with their customers. As part of a general release of new cloud-based industry platforms, IBM is introducing a Retail Consumer Experience platform.

An ongoing computer glitch has been wreaking major havoc at Walgreens. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Deerfield, Illinois-based drugstore giant was gradually restoring its automated pharmacy system this week after a massive outage on Sept. 22.

Pharmacists at all 8,200 U.S. Walgreens stores had to start manually filling prescriptions on Tuesday morning after the glitch occurred following overnight maintenance. As of the afternoon of Sept. 24, thousands of stores still lacked access to Walgreens’ central pharmacy database.

There may not be a return of the annual “Running of the Brides” sales event, but a legendary discount retailer is back in business. Filene’s Basement has launched an e-commerce site that combines its traditional bargains with new omnichannel features.

Retailers always take a gamble when targeting promotions, and The Limited is doing its best to improve the odds. The specialty apparel retailer is using the First Insight InsightTargeting predictive analytics solution to determine which products and prices will appeal most among specific customer segments.

InsightTargeting combines data from First Insight's real-time consumer engagements with behavioral data from CRM and social media platforms.

Executing merchandise optimization, or at least performing it so the end game is won, can be confusing and convoluted since “optimization” seeps into almost every retail activity. Are we talking assortments, space, price, promotion, categories, merchandise or some combination?

Terms are irrelevant. Results are not. Merchandise optimization must deliver and reverberate success among every store and online channels. It must drive shopper loyalty, and must be executed to maximize margins, beat competitors and draw in your shoppers.