The countdown is on! Three more days until #NRF2019. Visit with us at the Infor Retail at Booth #3647 and discover how to Leave Your Legacy with next-gen software. 

Is your omni-channel strategy killing employee morale?

After a year that saw unexpected innovations, disruptions, and new policies and tariffs, can we truly predict what’s ahead for the global supply chain in 2019? We’ll certainly try. In the final episode of 2018, Matt Gunn and Guy Courtin gaze into the crystal ball to gauge what the near future will bring to the world of supply chain, and whether businesses are better prepared to sense and respond to the many unexpected changes that happen each day.

What happens when the biggest names and the biggest brands in retail come together in one place? Watch these  highlights from 2018 and make sure to visit Infor and ICCG at NRF 2019 in Booth #3647 to learn more about how Infor is revolutionizing the retail industry with next generation solutions and how ICCG can provide the critical implementation strategy for Converged Commerce, Customer Experience, Demand Management, Dynamic Enterprise Performance Management, Enterprise Asset Management, Financials, Human Capital Management, Networked Order Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Retail Intelligence, and Supply Chain Management.

Retail’s Big Show promises attendees the opportunity to network with the best including nearly 40,000 retailers, vendors, and industry experts.

Independent Computer Consulting Group (ICCG), a Global Information Technology Solutions Provider for the Enterprise today announced that it will join Infor as a co-sponsor at NRF 2019, retail’s big show, January 13-15 in New York City.

ICCG, a Global Alliance Partner for Infor is focused on the Fashion and Apparel and Retail vertical. Consultants will be available to discuss Infor Retail’s next generation enterprise software suite, and how retailers and fashion brands can have the toolkit to transform. These tools leverage the power of science, design thinking, the supercomputing capabilities of the cloud, machine learning, and AI, and will usher our partners, customers, and today’s consumers into the future of retail.

Every retailer is facing a similar challenge. If you are a retailer and constantly feel the pinch from online giants like Amazon and Google, you have an opportunity to gain back control and competitive advantage with more personalized products and services, building that intimate relationship that these giants simply cannot provide.

In a perfect world, functionality and ease of use would be the top criteria manufacturers use when deciding to purchase, replace, or upgrade their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Unfortunately, in the real world, cost considerations rear their ugly head. Business leaders are concerned about the price of not only purchasing the solution, but also how much it will cost to implement, support, and maintain. Further, there is significant concern that an ERP implementation will cause significant disruption to the business, cause the organization to lose focus, or even “break” business processes that the company looked upon as core to their success.

Digital technology is changing the world, one industry at a time. With these changes comes a reimagining of the supply chain, from the systems businesses use to communicate and interact, to the strategies they deploy to move goods around the world.

Digitalization gives rise to new business models, in which real-time connectivity, greater visibility, reactivity, and anticipation become the underlying characteristics of our supply chains. But this kind of change isn’t easy, and transformation doesn’t happen overnight.

By taking a staged approach to digital transformation, and building greater connectivity across the supply chain, businesses can pave the way toward a fully connected future, while still being able to tackle the biggest challenges they face right now.

Matt Simonsen, Director of Retail Strategy at Infor talks about 3 ways that retailers can exceed customer expectations with a networked supply chain.

When it comes to their orders, customers want them fast and they want them free. But these two forces are often in direct conflict inside the supply chain, where planning and production typically take place months in advance, and inventory is widely distributed among a geographically diverse set of stores and warehouses, logistics providers, and factories. The question for many retailers becomes, “How much margin am I willing to sacrifice to satisfy my customer?”

Retail powerhouses like Amazon and Walmart have conditioned customers to expect their orders in days, if not hours. And a growing number of consumers have become comfortable using options like click-and-collect to secure an item online and pick it up shortly thereafter in a store, or rely on third-parties like Instacart to do their shopping for them.