Sector suffering a systems failure

A key skill in our profession is the ability to adapt to changes in customer needs and behaviour, often on a weekly basis. The fleet-of-foot survive and thrive.

But there are obstacles to making fast changes. I want to talk about one in particular, a silent foe that has gathered in strength over the years and now has an iron grip on many retail businesses. It is the one whose co-operation we now need to do almost anything, which costs us a fortune to support, and from which we cannot escape.

No, it’s not the Government – it’s our own IT. In our anxiety to gather as much data as we can about our business and customers, to have it sliced and diced every which way, and of course to have it now, we have created a monster. Retail IT systems are so complex that getting them to support an initiative is often the hardest task.

To illustrate: many supermarkets are currently running meal deals, where the customer buys a combination of items to make a meal for a bargain price. Recently Marks & Spencer launched a version where you could combine different choices from a “menu” of main courses, desserts and side dishes. At Superquinn, we thought this was a good idea and we’d try the same. But no.
It would need a rewrite of our system. So we have to make do with one combo a week, a much less attractive offer.

It’s not just promotions, though. Catering for local demand by altering planograms is a challenge and a lot of work. More worrying are reports I’ve had from suppliers that sometimes our buyers turn down offers of product at great deals because setting them up on their system is too much work for a one-off. 

Now, don’t get me wrong – we get some amazing data from this system and it can empower many other positive initiatives. But my point is that there seems to be a natural tendency among IT professionals to over-specify systems. 

This is compounded by users who constantly ask for bells and whistles to be added. And there is a general appetite among managers to drool at the exciting things a proposed system will do, without always considering the human effort needed to use it fully. 

It’s a bit like the time I paid a fortune for a video recorder that (I think) could have made programmes for me, whereas I only ever wanted to tape the odd thing off the telly – something I found difficult because the VCR was so complex.

So beware the lure of being able to psychoanalyse your customers from their purchasing history, or predict the future, or similar mouthwatering claims being made for a new IT system. 

Remember that 99 per cent of what you will use it for is the mundane business of recording sales data, keeping stock and paying your bills. Instead of imagining the god-like powers it might give
you, focus on whether it will keep the simple things simple.

Simon Burke is chairman of Majestic Wine and Superquinn