| 2012 Elective Sessions |
Keeping Pace with Retail Evolution
Elective Session Schedule
Be sure to check back often, as we will be continually adding more exciting sessions!
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Super Sessions
The Super Sessions will be a process combination of an: elective session, panel discussion, round table, birds of a feather and demonstrations. Short presentation will be made by selected panel members, other IRUG associate members, with a topic focus - from a different perspective. The panel will also feature retailers and an outside expert. There will be three Super Sessions for 2012.
IBM Super Session
Not Just Another Channel: Transforming Stores in a Cross-channel World
Despite the proliferation of e-commerce, smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices, 92% of purchases still occur inside the four walls of the store. Retailers face a dual challenge: giving information-rich, channel-hopping consumers a dynamic, personalized experience inside the store; and extracting maximum value from existing investments in store and enterprise infrastructure. At this session, learn how leading retailers are transforming their stores in the context of channel convergence.
Host and Moderator: IBM
Specialty Super Session
The challenges facing specialty retailers
Specialty retailers face tough competition from other retailers who offer a differentiated brand or shopping experience, and from e-commerce pure-plays such as Amazon, EBay, and Zippos who can offer a much broader selection. Come hear how a variety of specialty retailers are transforming their stores and enabling a more personalized, cross-channel shopping experience to attract and retain customers. The session/panel will include IBM solution experts and solution partners, IRUG associate members equipped to help you meet the challenges of these changing and competitive times.
Host and Moderator: 4690World
The Mobile Customer and Connectivity Is Reshaping the Retail Industry and how Retailers stay Competitive.
Host and Moderator: Frank Riso, Motorola Solutions
Managing on the move gives customers on-demand access to product information as they shop, and provides merchandise pricing and availability to satisfy customer demand. Retailer and shopper mobility drives measurable results from the warehouse to the sales floor to merchandise in the hands of the customer. Customers and retailers alike are using mobile as a way to research products, deliver cross channel promotions and coupons and loyalty programs.
The Super Session will explore innovative mobile shopping, personalized product information, special offers and social media empowering consumers; setting the stage for integrating mobile payments with opt-in marketing and loyalty programs. The consumers’ newest shopping lifeline is their mobile phone; but its vast scope is challenging: ranging from mobile payment—with PCI issues—to M-Commerce.
Host and Moderator: Frank Riso, Motorola Solution
Elective Sessions - as in the past will be presented by IBM, Associate Members and retailers. There will be approximately 30 sessions. The elective session will be about 45 minutes, covering a large spectrum of topics of interest to the retail membership and associates.
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Succeeding in Uncertain Times: Strategic Preparedness in a Turbulent Age
Uncertainty and change are facts of modern life. Economic turmoil and uncertainty are global concerns today and not apt to fade quickly. Rapid, disruptive change is ongoing among consumers and technologies that touch them – from social networking to smart phones to point-of-sale/service. Consumer-technology cycles though ultimately virtuous are highly disorderly exercises. No industry is more sensitive to consumer-technology upheaval than retail. This session presents a framework and guidelines for strategic positioning for success in uncertain times. The methodology promotes readiness for quickly and effectively responding to change at the intersection between consumer and technology – where retailers flourish or fail.
Hollis Posey, Chairman and COO, Next Retail Group
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Mobility in Retail: Payments & More
The move towards mobile for a myriad of solutions is in high gear – from payments to couponing to clientelling and more. Coupled with the emergence of NFC as a vehicle for payments and customer communication and interaction, there is a lot of activity going on in our industry at a very rapid pace. This session will provide the audience with a clear picture of where mobility is playing in the retail space, how NFC benefits both the merchant and the consumer and how to securely implement mobile and NFC payments and solutions into the retailing business as a growing source of revenue.
Erik Vlugt, Vice President, North America Product Marketing, VeriFone Systems, Inc.
ScaleAbility
We consume more fresh than our parents. Addressing consumer demographics, expectations and behavior, the grocery retailer increased substantially the size and variety of fresh products in the store, fresh today accounting for a big percentage of the grocery retail. With that there other aspects that come along: legal aspects, product declarations, country of origin, labeling, traceability, liabilities but also huge opportunities: better service at the counter, in-store-couponing, event based marketing, cross-selling, product advertising, price, promotion and CRM consistency, extensive use of mobile applications and intelligent digital signage. The goal is: “satisfy any desire with zero waste”. To reach that goal, a whole industry in changing: the scale becomes an IP based system with full IT visibility, uses POS Standards, offers unmatched opportunities through separation of HW, operating systems and applications. Traditional companies have to change, new players arrived, early adopters can tell the story of short ROI and substantial benefits. The dream of having the same application on all customer contact points, even on a scale, still fulfilling all Weights and Measures requirement is now reality and many 3 rd party providers, together with Bizerba are making that happen thus changing a whole industry and opening many new application fields with real customer benefit. The scale platform is supporting not only the UPOS drivers, it supports also IBM4690OS, opening the door to completely new possibilities for the American IBM grocers.
Tudor Andronic and an EU/US Retailer, Global Delivery and Development Director, Bizerba
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Automating Cash Handling at Retail Point of Sale
Automated cash recycling delivers measurable benefits in self checkout. These benefits can be applied to cashier attended payment terminals as well, multiplying the value to retailers. By replacing cash tills with automated cash recycling devices, cashiers can be empowered to provide improved customer service without the concerns of correctly handling their cash. These cash recycling equipped lanes:
- Reduce labor costs and cash shrink
- Improve lane up-time
- Increase safety and security
- Reduce cash on hand, cash management and CIT costs
Come join MEI to discuss how this system can improve POS from your consumer’s perspective while delivering ROI to your stores.
Joshua Clapper, Marketing Product Manager, MEI
Russell Strickland, Sales Manager – Retail, MEI
Services Enabled POS…….from Self Checkout to Mobile POS
Join us to learn how Walgreens capitalized on their next generation point-of-sale strategy to enable the use of mobile point-of-sale, self checkout and kiosks through exposing their next generation POS as a service to other in-store devices and applications. More specifically, this session will explore the building of a solid point-of-sale foundation, and how exposing POS functionality as a service has enabled Walgreens to quickly implement new customer service initiatives while reducing costs.
Scott McArthur, IT Director Retail Customer Systems, Walgreens
Mike Timmers, Director, Product Services, PCMS
Self-Service Systems that Supermarket Customers Love to Use
Many kiosks applications have been tried by supermarkets, but while the novelty has worn off in many cases, self-ordering kiosks and queue management systems for the food service departments continue to enjoy increasing popularity with shoppers. The reason is simple: Convenience! Who likes to have to wait in line!
Juan C. Perez, President and CEO, ADUSA, Inc.
What You Need to Know Before Going Mobile: Key Considerations and Best Practices
Mobile technology provides a unique opportunity to retailers who integrate it into their in-store selling strategy. By empowering sales associates with mobile devices, retailers can increase customer interaction and enhance service while also making the most of a store’s inherent assets — physical inventory and trained sales personnel. This session will highlight key issues to take into consideration as you make the move toward mobile, such as:
- Infrastructure and device management
- Security and integration
- Store flow and operations
Jerry Rightmer, President and CTO, Starmount Systems
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Maximizing the Retail Experience, A Case Study Using Video Analytics
Harris Teeter, a recognized market leader will share their experience in using innovative technologies, including video analytics, to deliver a compelling value proposition that contributes to their growth and profitability in today’s competitive marketplace. Harris Teeter will share the challenges, decision process, implementation experience, and business benefits of using video analytics to monitor, measure and manage in-store factors to maximize the shopper’s retail experience. SCOPIX will share how an innovative technology, video analytics, can be implemented and drive quick and compelling ROI for retailers in any segment by leveraging the cloud and web technologies. (94 words)
Shannon Pardue, Project Leader, Harris Teeter
Casey Adams, Director of Implementations, SCOPIX
On the Trail to WIC EBT Nationwide
A 2010 federal mandate requires all WIC State agencies to convert to an Electronic Benefit Transfer system by 2020. Interest is high among WIC State agencies with over 45 now formally planning or in some other phase of implementation. Attendees will be able to get a national outlook on WIC EBT, understand federal/State plans for optimizing existing cash registers, and learn about WIC EBT Operating Rules. We will also discuss challenges related to potential for budget reductions from Congress and efforts to streamline and improve certifications of cash register systems that support WIC EBT. This session provides key information to keep you informed as States where you do business adopt electronic WIC processes that will affect your checkout lane.
Erin McBride, Technology Specialist, USDA, Food and Nutrition Service
Bob Hoblit, Retail Integration Manager, WIC Direct System
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EMV Chip & Pin
Stephen Braceland, President, STJ Retail
Future of Mobile
Two payment technologies NFC and EMV are on a collision course at a store near you! In 2011 Visa announced what is essentially a 5 year roadmap to accelerate the migration of EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the Unites States. Retailers are looking for clear direction on how to “future proof” their point-of-sale investment, but do these VISA mandates force retailers to pay more, will it substantially reduce payment fraud, and will it pave a way for NFC-based mobile payments in the US. In this presentation we will explore the status of this announcement and implications for retailers.
Dennis E. Blankenship, Managing Principal, Verizon
How to Keep Your Store Employees Engaged with Your Customers
This elective session will introduce the newest solutions to keep store staff engaged with customers who bring their own smart phones into your store. We’ll show you how employees can collaborate with those connected customers, not compete for their attention. By using the solutions that help orchestrate the customer behaviour stores can enhance the shopping experience. We will also discuss the solutions that can generate customer loyalty to your store. Solutions include assisted selling, guided selling, clienteling and dressing room assistance. Solutions that keep information at the finger tips of store staff so that they can drive, orchestrate and even close the sale.
Frank Riso, Sr. Director, Global Lead Retail Industry, Motorola Solutions, Inc.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly- Where’s the Disconnect?
Everyone is talking about the latest trends in retail such as mobile marketing, social networking, cross channel, enterprise inventory visibility and mobile payments. We will explore these trends to bring you real world examples of what works and what doesn’t. We will take the consumer’s perspective to see which retailers are making it work and why some initiatives are just not making the grade.
Michael Hess, President, Tech Global Partners/ Accuvia Consulting
Reasons and Benefits for Transforming Tax for Retailers: The Automation Imperative
In recent years, sales and use taxes have taken on an unprecedented level of importance, as has the corresponding scrutiny by governments and companies. This is particularly true for the retail industry, where the collection and remittance of sales tax is an everyday concern. But by transforming how the sales tax collection and compliance process is handled through automation, retailers are discovering significant benefits - in terms of process efficiency, risk management and impact on the bottom line. This session will explore the benefits of tax automation for retailers, and how new technology can help transform their tax operations.
John Cowan, Director of Retail Solutions, Vertex
Nancy Rieti, Retail Product Manager, Vertex
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IBM will be delivering a variety of elective sessions at this year's IRUG Conference, covering topics from POS to mobility to the smarter consumer. Some of the topics that will be offered include:
- Self-service checkout is all about modularity
- Research innovations in retail
- Creating a unified customer experience with cross channel order management
- Smarter checkout and the connected store
- Winning over the consumer - why trust matters
- Gateway to a smarter store: IBM POS portfolio
- Understanding the Smarter Consumer
- Get back on target with IBM's offering and promotions systems
- The world of payment options
- Why mobile shopping works for IBM grocery retailers
- The path forward for specialty retailers
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