Relationships count when it comes to proving new technology

Whatever the state of the economy, there are no brakes being put on innovation in technology. The rate of innovation is affecting payments, mobile devices, the Internet, social media, business intelligence and in-store technology. The result is that retailers have even more decisions to make about what to adopt, what to monitor and what to reject.

With a typical large retailer already running as many as 30 IT projects, working out what to add for the future is getting harder and harder. This is particularly true as the embattled sponsor has not just to keep existing systems going but has to work out the business case for technologies that might well be proven in terms of functionality, security and cost, but cannot demonstrate how well they will be received by end users.

Retailers in previous tough economies have looked to point solutions that they can adopt quickly and often without Capex approval, to fix a particularly tricky problem or to take advantage of a profitable business opportunity. While there is already evidence of this, particularly as technology can deliver benefits so much more quickly than it could in years past, there is also evidence that some retailers are using the current competitive environment to do a total systems replace.

Fortune favours the brave as all previous downturns have proved : those companies that invest and innovate, while of course managing their costs as far as possible, emerge more quickly from the downturn. And this includes those that recognise that when competitors retrench, this leaves the field open for grabbing market share.

IT vendors that recognise these dynamics become the trusted advisors that retailers depend on not only to manage whole systems replacements, but also work closely with them to get best advantage out of innovative technology.