ICT and e-Business Impact in the Retail Industry - empirica

e-Business in the Retail SectorBrookland is also investigating into RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) forwarehouse and distribution operations. However, an initial pilot project was rejectedby the board management as the technology was considered to be too expensivefor item-level implementations. RFID has better potential, according to Brookland,for pallet and container tracking, as well as for tracking crates that are used for thedelivery of perishable goods. Security and privacy are reported by Brookland as twoaddiional concerns related to RFID.By the end of 2008, Brookland will also implement Aldata G.O.L.D. Topase, aforecasting and stock replenishment optimisation application that will replace thecustom-built forecasting software that is currently in use. With this newimplementation, Brookland expects to improve its forecasting and replenishmentefficiencies both at store and warehouse levels, because demand forecasts will bebased on an extended historical data range and suppliers' purchasing and logisticsconditions will be automatically taken into consideration during the forecastingprocess. As a result, the company expects to further improve shelf-availability whileminimising supply chain costs.5.3.4 Lessons learnedAmong the key lessons learned by Brookland and Dirk van den Broek are:The effort required on change management shall not be underestimated whenimplementing a new SCM solution. In the case of Brookland, the effort required wassignificant but highly beneficial for the success of the project.Training is an important step for successful deployments of new SCM software.Brookland provided training material for warehouse personnel and conductedspecific training sessions to warehouse supervisors, who in turn trained their teammembers.On the other hand, it was more difficult to perform training of assortmentmanagers and buyers due to their time constraints. As a result different trainingmethods are required to match different users' needs and get all users aligned tothe new practices, rules and systems characteristics.Brookland recognised that the initial design and project scoping phase arefundamental areas that need to be carefully assessed in order to ensure properproject execution and alignment of IT with strategic business goals.Brookland already established a positive working relation with the IT Vendorselected for the new SCM software implementation. When Aldata consultants joinedthe project, knowledge about the G.O.L.D. Suite was rapidly built; and alongsideIBM Global Business Services, Aldata’s partner in the G.O.L.D. implementation, astrong team is assisting Brookland in the project.Another important lesson learned at Brookland is that the replacement of any ERPsystem does not come by itself: every adjacent system will be affected. A thoroughdiscussion on data migration is required as well as an impact analysis on theapplication landscape.143