How can retailers develop technology strategies that keep pace with the rapid rate of industry change? What are the pros and cons of implementing long-term, company-wide changes vs. faster, more focused projects?

Interactive Edge’s CEO, Zel Bianco comments, featured on RetailWire’s Braintrust :

I really hope this is true. So many companies have taken the approach of implementing these years-long ERP system replacements so that nothing else gets done, to the detriment of sales solutions and other critical applications that effect the top and bottom lines. That’s not to say that ERP and other internal systems don’t need attention, they do, but when other solutions take a back seat to them, the only ones that seem to win are the big legacy software companies that are glad to keep the retailer paying out big dollars because there is no way to turn back. This same scenario goes for the internal IT projects that promise to deliver ROI and then a year and sometimes two years later produce very little to show for the money spent. Point solutions do work and do produce ROI in many cases, faster and at far less cost than can be accomplished internally. I have witnessed this to be the case over the last 25 years in this business many times.

Read the entire article from RetailWire: