Business Intelligence (BI)

New York -- More than half (53%) of middle market executives believe that their companies are on solid ground, according to a survey by CIT Group Inc., a leading provider of financing to small businesses and middle market companies. (In order to be eligible to participate in the survey, respondents had to be in a leadership role at firms with revenues between $25 million and $1 billion, the majority of whose employees were based in the United States.)

To address the challenge of increasingly complex supply chains, IBM this week introduced a new inventory optimization solution as part of its Smarter Commerce initiative.

New York -- Only 58% of consumer product goods executives view dollar stores as a strategic channel, according to Deloitte’s new Dollar Store Strategies for National Brands study. Deloitte advises that CPG companies may not be keeping pace with the explosive growth of the $56 billion dollar store industry, and should act now to maximize market share and profits.

In other survey highlights: 

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. has received the Alliance to Save Energy’s top award, the “Galaxy” Star of Energy Efficiency.

New York -- Target Corp. will soon join the ranks of retailers who are no longer reporting monthly same-store sales. The discounter on Thursday said it will no longer report comparable sales, beginning in fiscal 2013.

Vancouver -- LightHaus  announced that Foot Locker has deployed the LightHaus Visual Customer Intelligence (VCI) solution to measure customer traffic and sales conversion rates at all of its Champs Sports stores in the U.S. and Canada, as well as its Foot Locker Canada stores. The chain is adopting LightHaus VCI in stores in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia.

Louisville, Colo. -- Envysion, Inc., the leading Managed Video as a Service (MVaaS) provider, announced that Chick-fil-A has selected Envysion as a video provider. Chick-fil-A, a leading quick-service chicken restaurant with more than 1,600 locations in the United States, will use Envysion to improve operations, training and customer service.

Sears has equipped 27 of its Home Services division vehicles with engines that run on propane gas as part of a broader energy management effort.

The efficiency initiative involving 27 Roush CleanTech Ford E-250 cargo vans fueled by propane autogas will be deployed in the Sears Home Services Seattle fleet.