Behind the Client Projects

Understanding the Software Contracts Process
Companies today can’t get by without thinking about the information systems that will make their products and services more efficient and profitable. For several reasons, more and more companies are purchasing supply chain software from commercial software vendors rather than developing it themselves. Understanding the software contracts process and associated risks is what truly makes an informed, knowledgeable buyer, and what results in the best solution for the least investment. This article aims to create awareness of potential issues encountered during the negotiation process

Just-Style’s Technology Roundtable Management Briefing
One of the most critical areas of apparel manufacturing and retailing is technology. It is the backbone of any successful organization and provides the means of executing every aspect of a brand promise. just-style asked top apparel technology analysts and researchers for their insights into what today’s companies need to know about how to run their companies more effectively and efficiently through technology. In this excerpt from the final report, KSA sheds light on where your organization needs to be right now in terms of solutions, and if you are not already there, what steps you should take moving forward.

Merchandising Dominance through Revenue Optimization
To generate shareholder return in the next decade, retailers must take the offensive to dominate the competition and make raving fans of their customers. Core merchandising process improvement is critical to achieving merchandising dominance. With significant short-term benefit potential, revenue optimization has emerged as a high-priority initiative, but to achieve sustainable benefits it must be considered within the context of the organization's overall merchandising strategy. SAS, the leading software provider for merchandise intelligence, and Kurt Salmon Associates have joined forces to provide a proprietary solution focused on delivering rapid return on investment while building a strong foundation for long-term improvements.

Multi-Channel Retailing: Exponential Opportunity
Multi-channel retailing is in full swing, but many multi-channel retailers are leaving significant opportunities on the table. KSA's experience indicates the successful MCR has an integrated strategic plan to take advantage of each channel's intrinsic strengths. Acquiring, analyzing, and applying customer data creates enhanced opportunities in five key areas of retail operations; applying the functional abilities and expertise developed in each channel across all retail operations releases these opportunities. KSA has collected best-practice examples to offer a hint of the possibilities multi-channel retailing offers.

Pulling the Trigger on RFID in Apparel Retail
The major opportunity for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-enabled processes to drive improvements in the apparel supply chain lies at the item level, and not at the case or pallet level. Yet there is a misperception that sizeable benefits will only be attained once shelf readers become ubiquitous and individual garments are tagged in mass quantities. This Perspective helps apparel retailers and suppliers clarify their RFID vision by outlining the migration path, highlighting format-specific execution considerations, and providing steps for getting started.

Electronic Product Code/Radio Frequency Identification (EPC/RFID) Best Practice Scorecard: A Powerful Tool to Accelerate Value
Electronic Product Code/Radio Frequency Identification (EPC/RFID) is a transformative technology with the ability to generate significant business value while fundamentally changing the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail industries. KSA has teamed with Intel, METRO GROUP, and GS1 to develop the EPC/RFID Best Practice Scorecard, a powerful tool to help you navigate the changing landscape intelligently and create business value, both now and as your EPC/RFID deployments grow.

Moving Forward with Item-Level Radio Frequency Identification in Apparel/Footwear
In spring 2005 the Voluntary Inter-Industry Standards Committee (VICS)/American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) Joint Committee on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Apparel and Footwear asked Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA) to conduct research to help member companies better understand the timing and manner in which item-level RFID would impact their businesses. KSA's evaluation was based on a series of in-depth interviews across a variety of disciplines, including store operations, inventory management, loss prevention, merchandising, distribution/logistics, accounting, and information technology. The goal was to highlight short- and long-term benefits and challenges to provide participating companies with a macro framework for determining the merchandise categories best suited for RFID tracking, the incremental value of moving RFID upstream in the value chain from the store level, where tagging should take place, and the right time to begin adoption.

The Facts and Fiction of Information Technology Strategy and Cost Alignment
IT is applicable to all major facets of a company's business strategy. Yet odds are the primary metric by which the IT department is measured is IT expense as a percent of sales. As such, IT managers are actually encouraged to minimize their budget allocation to non-sales initiatives, such as cost reduction and supply chain efficiency. This Solutions sorts through the fiction and facts of IT strategy/cost alignment to help companies drive greater productivity from their IT organizations and maximize the contribution IT makes to the bottom line.