2005 Frost & Sullivan Award for Preferred Retail Solutions Vendor Goes to IBM Corporation17 January 2006
Frost & Sullivan's recent research Global Strategic Directions and Preferences of Retailers, identified IBM Corporation as the recipient of the 2005 Preferred Retail Solutions Vendor Award for receiving the highest brand preference across multiple retail segments and tiers.
Based on the research, IBM has emerged as the vendor of choice for Point of Sale (POS) systems and among the top three preferred vendors for POS Operating Systems (OS) in all geographies. Retailers have also nominated IBM as the most or second most popular vendor for integrated retailing solutions. This has earned IBM a unique differentiated position as the preferred retail solutions vendor.
IBM Corporation demonstrates its preferred vendor status in the retail space by offering a broad range of retail-hardened, partner-leveraged applications, all easily deployed and integrated through the use of open standards to address the dynamic strategic needs of retailers. With customized solutions, IBM offers new ways for retailers to interact with their customers and employees.
In addition to its leadership in the POS arena, IBM is also a leader in the area of open standards adoption, Most retailers are looking to achieve integration between new and old processes through technology adoption but are reluctant to adopt new technologies due to the inherent technical risks, pricing, or cost efficiency. IBM has successfully addressed this issue by championing the adoption of open standards. Open standards enable retailers to focus on strategic business priorities rather than technology integration issues. By focusing on open standards-based store infrastructure, IBM offers solutions that help retailers seamlessly integrate the store, enterprise, and supply chain. Without an integration platform, systems function as independent islands that aren't able to communicate. IBM's open framework approach links all of the islands, making it possible, for example, to share customer and inventory data instantly throughout the enterprise down to the individual store. With SIF, deployment and management are done at the enterprise level, sparing the store the need for rare technology expertise.
"IBM's Store Integration Framework (SIF), enables the retailer to run multiple operating environments, thus offering a choice of best-of-breed products through portability of code across multiple platforms," says Frost & Sullivan Research Director Shalini Chowdhary. "SIF gives retailers the flexibility to marry legacy systems with the latest technology, to share data throughout the enterprise and to quickly and economically install and manage new solutions that can revolutionize the store experience and achieve a distinct competitive advantage."
"IBM helps retailers plan their integration capability from web to store, across the store, and to the enterprise through choices driven by business strategy. IBM leverages partner capabilities and ties deployments together to help retailers differentiate their store experience, reduce costs, become more profitable, and help associates do a better job in serving their customer set," notes Chowdhary. "This has resulted in a large percentage of retailers indicating IBM, as their most preferred vendor for mobile computing needs."
About IBM Corporation
IBM, the world's largest information technology and business services company, is the leader in providing the Retail Industry with a full range of e-business solutions, including: point-of-sale systems, automated self- checkout systems, other hardware and software technology, consulting focused on business transformation, IT strategy and planning, store operations improvement, and supply chain optimization, and with services, such as outsourcing, managed operations, systems integration, and application development and design. IBM has a list of retail customers in 100 countries worldwide that reads like a "Who's Who" of retailing. For more information on IBM Retail Solutions, please visit http://www.ibm.com/industries/retail .
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com .
Contact:
Stacie Jones
210.247.2450
Stacie.jones@frost.com
Source: prnewswire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Related Computer Hardware Articles
|
