Within the mobile-first, cloud-first era, the business environment is being reshaped by technological trends that are altering consumer behaviour and challenging conventional service models.
So said Wayne Morris, corporate vice-president of Microsoft Business Solutions, speaking at the Microsoft Reimagine 2015 event at Emperors Palace, Kempton Park, yesterday.
Retail systems need to continuously adapt and change, making them easy for both the organisation and the customer to use, he added.
According to Morris, with the advent of systems of intelligence, companies have the means to analyse and become familiar with their customers' wants and needs.
The systems should be able to predict and identify trends that help them in caring for the customer.
Marc Gower, Dynamics lead at Microsoft SA, said most South African retailers are running on legacy systems which are not inter-connected and not data-centric.
However, there is an increasing amount of retailers starting to reassess their strategy and systems with the realisation they are competing for consumers in the global market. "The landscape is changing and if you do not adopt new systems, you will be left behind."
He said Microsoft was seeing an increased amount of retailers finding interest in machine learning, big data processes and structure in an attempt to win and keep up with customers.
Karen Garrette, global retail director for Microsoft, said most of retailers' supply chain risk was out of their control.
She pointed out customers don't care about channels - they engage with the retailer and do not care about the problem they have behind the scenes; they are connected on social, across multiple devices; and they expect to have access to the retailer on all of these platforms.
Therefore, the processes and systems should always be about the customers. Retailers should be able to provide intelligence systems to engage with them and their needs, said Garrette.
Some online stores like eBay are opening brick-and-mortar stores in a bid to provide customers with a seamless experience, she added.
They should be able to provide their customers the same experience online as in their stores, and enabling them to move between the two channels without friction - creating a seamless experience, concluded Garrette.
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