2012’s Top 5 Game-Changing Retail Technologies: Where and How to Play

 
 
 
Given the fickle nature of the global economy in the last few years, retailers are tasked to maximize the financial output and overall accuracy of their digital and offline investments by fine-tuning related marketing, pricing, product, customer, and fulfillment strategies. Can 2012 be the game-changing year for retailers when it comes to customer engagement, retention, return on net assets, and gross margin return on inventory investment?

Five game-changing technologies will come to the forefront of retail in 2012: Mobile Store, Social Analytics, Omni Channel Product Information Management, Digital Marketing, and Cloud Computing. How and in what ways can these game-changing technologies address the customer challenges, business process gaps, and technology redundancies ailing retailers globally?

Come and join us for an insights-filled 75-minute trends presentation and virtual panel discussion on each of the top 5 game-changing retail technologies that will shape customer and business decision-making in 2012. Each panel will consist of an Aberdeen Retail Analyst and other industry experts such as Dayakar Prabhakar, VP of Engineering at Calumet Photographic, who will share trends, candid opinions, and industry insights with you.


About Our Presenters:


Sahir Anand, VP and Principal Analyst, Retail and Banking, Aberdeen Group
Sahir oversees and enables the overall research and analysis in the vertical industry segments including retail and hospitality, and retail banking related process management and technology value chain areas. Mr. Anand's work is related to use and adoption of technologies and processes that aid optimization and efficiencies in the multi-channel business environment. He specializes in the points of customer interaction and points of integration (technology and business workflow) functions.



Dayakar Prabhakar, VP of Engineering, Calumet Photographic
Dayakar is a visionary leader that understands the role of technology in supporting business process. This makes him a very valuable asset in leading business transformation and IT projects. He also has a unique ability to communicate equally well with business and IT people making him a strong negotiator and decision facilitator. He is the perfect guy to ensure implementations are on time and on budget.




Chris Cunnane, Research Analyst, Retail and Banking, Aberdeen Group
Cunnane's research focuses on customer-facing technologies within retail and hospitality to identify the practices, technologies, and behaviors that separate Best-in-Class retailers from their peers. Cunnane's retail coverage focuses on the customer experience, and topics include cross-channel retail, customer loyalty, enterprise marketing, and campaign management. Cunnane's hospitality coverage includes property management, customer experience management, and revenue management and forecasting.




Deena M. Amato-McCoy, Research Analyst, Retail and Banking, Aberdeen Group
Deena's research focuses on the use and adoption of technologies, including both back-end and customer-facing applications, optimizing brick-and-mortar store experience, customer intelligence functions, emerging technologies including social media, and related process management and technology value chain areas. She is an avid blogger on industry trends and events, and has been quoted in retail industry publications, including Retail Touchpoints and DigitaSignageToday, and others.



Bruce Yen, Director of Business Intelligence, Guess, Inc.
Bruce Yen is currently the Director of Business Intelligence at Guess, Inc. and leads the business intelligence and data warehousing initiatives. He specializes in creating a cohesive data dissemination strategy that brings actionable data to diverse user communities and business needs. Bruce has over 11 years of data warehousing and business intelligence experience. His team has designed award winning dashboards and mobile applications. Mr. Yen is a recognized leader in business intelligence and has received industry recognition as an innovative and cutting-edge information manager for both dashboard and mobile application design and implementation.



Amitava Sengupta, Global Head - Solutions, Retail and CPG, HCL Technologies
Amitava is responsible for the Vertical Solutions & Marketing group for HCL's Retail and CPG practice. He has 18+ years of experience with the last 10 years in Retail, CPG and Logistics. Amitava has worked with global Retailers and CPG majors extensively both in the areas of outsourcing, and in providing technology solutions to the Retailer's business needs. His current focus on understanding the key trends of cross channel, multi-format, and customer centric Retailing, and applying today's technology platforms in addressing the challenges resulting out of these trends.