Background
A major retailer who grew to over 1000 stores in malls throughout the US felt the technology deployed at their store networks was outdated and no longer met the business requirements of delivering the services needed in an efficient manner, and that their current printing needs would be better met by installing PCs and printers in the back offices of all of their stores.
The Challenge
IPI was engaged to perform an assessment of their store infrastructure to determine if the upgrading the WAN and installing a back office PC and printers in every store would address their business needs.
The Solution
The IPI team performed and in depth evaluation of their technology, business drivers, and processes associated with the delivery of sales through the store network.
By conducting interviews with key stakeholders of the company, it was discovered that the problems associated with the store network were not associated with their WAN or the lack of back office PCs and printers in every store. IPI completed a detailed cost analysis to determine if deploying Printers would be more effective than utilizing a National Print Services company. IPI identified that there were over 45 business functions required to enhance the store efficiency that none of the existing application services addressed.
The Results
- The client executive team greatly appreciated the recommendation of IPI to focus their efforts on resolving the true problems facing their business.
- IPI proposed the development of an application framework strategy that takes a holistic view of their Enterprise and not just the store network.
- This resulted in the client reallocating over 10 million dollars that would have been spent on an initiative that did not have an ROI associated with it.
“It’s nice to make decisions based on facts.” –IPI Client—CIO of Major U.S. Retailer
