StORES Magazine - September 2007 - (Page B8) 2007 Retail IT Budgeting Study Product development and on-shelf availability at center of supply chain spending As retailers across all segments continue to expand their private-label offerings to reinforce brand loyalty and improve margins, interest in product lifecycle management (PLM) applications remains high. Of the retailers surveyed, 15 percent plan to implement PLM technology for the first time in 2007, and that figure is likely to remain the same or increase next year since 40 percent of surveyed retailers are not currently using technology in this area. New deployments are likely to take the form of packaged applications. According to the AMR Research Report, “PLM Technology Adoption in Apparel: Turbo-Charging Investments for Fast Fashion,” 85 percent of companies surveyed use or planned to use packaged software. PLM supports retailers’ efforts to efficiently create and deliver new products to market, along with replenishment planning and inventory optimization technologies to efficiently ensure on-shelf availability. In 2007, 45 percent of retailers expect to add to or improve existing capabilities as an important means of sensing and responding to consumer demand. While many retailers expect to maintain or improve existing warehouse management systems, a replacement cycle is emerging. Retailers with aging applications are beginning to assess newer systems: incremental functionality includes support for wireless and voice technologies, improved user interfaces and expanded reporting and alerting capabilities. Transportation systems, recently adopted by many retailers, are largely being maintained, and RFID remains a low priority for most companies. FIGURE 9 Retail applications – supply chain systems Sourcing and PLM Replenishment/ Inventory Optimization Warehouse Management Transportation Management RFID Management Not Using Replace Add to or improve Maintain First time 40% — 25 20 15 20% — 45 30 5 5% 10 50 35 — 35% — 15 45 5 90% 5 — 5 — B8 STORES / SEPTEMBER 2007 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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