Data is Not a Project: Large Retailers Need Less Composability and More Connectivity

In terms of emphasis, I see a lot of people focus on what solutions they need to compose together, and very little attention to their workflow.

Where data starts, how it combines and flows through the systems, and are these systems connected together? Usually the places where Excel lives, those are the breakdowns.

Stop me if you've heard this before: the systems you should be using for planning and analysis, have:

* The systems who have the right data are not connected

* Or the data appears, but it is too late

* The wrong level of aggregation of the data

* With questionable accuracy, and

* no way to remove exceptions or anomalies

The system integrators are helping you process transactions, but that is usually the bare minimum. The data you need to analyze and make decisions about the business are usually at another level of difficulty.

Meanwhile, your data analysts don't know the business well enough to deliver the right data to business owners. I find the most common problem here is simple:

Data is treated like a one-time project, and not a continuous improvement process. As a result, once the project is over, the business teams are left to fend for themselves. Data is like your child as they grow up, as you get more experienced you start asking more complex questions. If there is not a data team there to support you improving the number of data sources, their reliability and how they are used.

This generally means analysts embedded within the business teams there to help enable the improvement needed to get the business where it needs to go.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
Previous
Previous

Target 2024 Earnings: Warning Signs But Is There Hope Ahead?

Next
Next

commercetools Layoffs Likely Signal IPO Plans on the Shelf, For Good?