CRM And ASP:Will They Determine Your Future?

The trend in retail, from both retailers' and customers' perspectives, is toward multichannel, interactive shopping experiences. As the use of graphical interfaces in the consumer environment - at the traditional counter, in kiosks, and on Web sites - becomes increasingly common, consumers expect personalization at the point of sale, wherever it might be. Resellers and integrators should take advantage of software that can now accommodate multiple channel and interactive retail environments.

Retailers Want To Get Intimate With Their Customers
Mike Todd, VP of indirect channels for Kyrus Corp., urges VARs and integrators to thoroughly understand the changing face of the consumer. "Retailers used to define customer as the person who parked in the lot and walked through the door. Now they don't always see their customers, but they still want to track their trends and buying habits." Consequently, Todd advises integrators to be prepared to deliver systems that include CRM (customer relationship management) along with checkout and inventory functionality. "If integrators are just providing software to check out customers and that's all, they're going to get left behind. The solutions are going to be increasingly interactive at the point of sale. They're also going to be tied into Web-based applications. So you're going to have to provide a software-based solution that can run both click and mortar point of sale on the same system."

The evolution of touch screen technology gives integrators additional tools for providing interaction at the point of sale. Keith Neerman, CEO of Touch Industries, Inc. (Atlanta), notes that barriers to early adoption have been removed. Therefore, touch screens should no longer be a tough sell for integrators. "Touch screens have gotten much more reliable and much cheaper at the same time. In some ways, we're talking about a mature technology, not a leading edge technology. Most touch screens now have warranties of five to ten years. That's a long time for hardware."

Neerman suggests some simple tests for determining whether or not a particular touch screen-based interface will be accessible when integrated within a retail environment. "A good touch screen application is one that an eight-year-old child can walk up to and use with little or no instruction. A good test is the software's ability to permit clerks to quickly create a new customer record in the middle of a transaction without relying on a keyboard."

Get Ready To Be An ASP
Though widespread adoption is probably two or three years away, the wave of the future in retail software is delivery through a subscription or ASP (application service provider) model. "It is so much more cost efficient to update systems from a central location without having to update every terminal in every store," Neerman said. "We expect retailers to increasingly want their upgrades to happen automatically." Todd agrees that retailers will eventually seize on the convenience of ASPs. "You're going to see tier one - and even middle to lower tiers - outsource or rent their software instead of purchasing and having to maintain it. The software is so dynamic that it will be like refreshing your browser every morning."

For outsourcing to happen on a widespread basis, communications technologies will have to evolve as expected. "POS is a mission-critical application, and you need tremendous reliability," Neerman said. "Bandwidth is the key. You can't develop subscription services with dial-up. It's simply not feasible for the kinds of graphical interfaces that people expect these days."

Todd believes that retailers' traditional systems and business practices will have to change as well. "There are legacy systems deployed out there and huge investments in infrastructure that you just don't uproot overnight. Some of the POS terminals out there are too old to handle the graphics. Retailers are used to buying hardware and software and wrapping it around services that they provide. So it will require a paradigm shift to turn the technology over to an ASP."