Solution BriefIBM ISV & Developer Relations Retail

Criti and IBM: systems to give growing retailers a competitive edgeProviding a unified shopping experience with multimodal solutions to enable mid-size retailers to survive and grow in a changing world

One look at into the modern retail experience and one finds increasing complexity and fragmentation. Some customers want to shop online and pick up the item in store. Others want to order from a catalog or a smartphone for home delivery. Shopping, delivery and payment preferences jump across the various modes. Retailers need to leverage cross-channel dependencies and not fall prey to them. Strong, fast systems translate into shorter lines in-store, faster checkouts, happier customers, and increased sales and profits.

For some retailers, going global can seem like opening the magic door to growth and profitability, especially when local markets are flat. But then the accompanying complexities come to mind – multiple languages, multiple currencies, multiple cultures and multiple channels, whether in-store, online, catalog or mobile. How can a retailer navigate these challenges successfully?

The answer lies in a partnership between Criti and IBM. Spectrum is Criti’s retail solution, built upon the IBM Retail Industry Framework. It provides a unified shopping experience for consumers around the world.

Highlights:

• Partnership works to integrate retailers’ diverse systems and create a unified on-demand store environment

• System enables retailers to grow internationally, addressing the challenges of multiple languages and currencies

• Solution optimizes the balance between management control and local store autonomy

• One version of the truth: Providing retailers and customers real-time information whether in-store, online or mobile

• Speed matters: Launching a new promotion? What once took months may now take only minutes

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Solution BriefIBM ISV & Developer Relations Retail

Solution overviewSpectrum is a robust and flexible business management system that helps retailers build all-around value in a rapidly evolving competitive environment. It uses a customer-centric approach, leveraging multiple channels to reach customers, thereby driving higher-profit margins and faster business growth.

Spectrum is designed for retailers looking for solutions rather than software. It is especially valuable for specialty retail chains targeting customers with a specific demographic, brand creators seeking to get closer to their customers, or retailers with an eye toward global growth. Retailers offering clothing, furniture, shoes, books, jewelry, sports equipment or any kind of consumer goods can benefit from the Spectrum solution.

The system is lean and fast. It is designed to reduce mind-to-market time, enabling real-time execution of complex retail strategies through a flexible and scalable architecture. Innovative promotional campaigns can be created and managed within minutes.

Spectrum also seamlessly handles multiple currencies and languages, whether online, in-store or mobile.

The system’s user interface is process-oriented and simple to use, thus reducing training costs.

The Spectrum solution is comprehensive, taking into account a wealth of variations. It’s also highly configurable and easy to customize. Built for change, developers can deliver in a matter of days what might take weeks or months in more complex systems.

It is also modular. Customers can solve a particular issue through a Spectrum module without having to invest in an entire business solution.

Built by teams of people who have experienced the pains and complexities of retail in their daily lives, Spectrum takes a multi-dimensional approach:• multiple channels: create a distinct and seamless shopping

experience• common store platform: connects information, processes

and associates to deliver an inspired shopping experience• loyalty and segmentation: appeals to local preferences and

variations in demand based on facts• mobility: extends service capabilities by engaging shoppers

and associates anywhere, anytime

Spectrum’s technical architecture

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Solution BriefIBM ISV & Developer Relations Retail

Spectrum’s capabilities include point-of-sale, merchandising, in-store management, logistics, inventory, customer loyalty and business intelligence. These help retailers to:• adopt consumer-centric retail strategies • track the entire supply chain • enhance security and controls, built on the PCI-compliant

Spectrum platform • accelerate integration timelines with enterprise systems • minimize issues relating to geographical boundaries

Not only does Spectrum address areas where retailers are hurting, it also breathes new life into businesses through:• brand differentiation based on comprehensive merchandise

and assortment management. This is especially useful for building private label programs

• anytime, anywhere customer engagement, converting salespeople to customer relationship agents

• proactive up-selling and cross-selling• features that create, manage and enhance customer loyalty• new ways to break through a highly promotional marketplace

through creativity and agility

Spectrum was developed over two-and-a-half years, based on lifetimes of retail management experience. Version 1.0 was launched in May 2010. Premaman, a European specialty retailer, signed up to deploy Spectrum across 350 locations in 50 countries across Europe and the Middle East.

In January 2011, Spectrum 2.0 was launched at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York City. The new version has enhanced business intelligence capability and a fully integrated e-commerce platform, as well as cross-platform mobile shopping solutions for smart mobile devices.

The Criti and IBM solution: a closer lookSpectrum resides on top of the IBM WebSphere® Remote Server (WRS), a leading Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that delivers a fully integrated platform to manage remote environments. This helps make Spectrum available to retailers at an attractive price while easy to integrate into existing systems.

Due to the process-oriented nature of the business, the solution incorporates a Business Process Management Engine providing ease of configuration. Additionally, the n-tier, replicated layer and reliable synchronization engine not only allows for multi-level data consolidation, but also provides disaster recovery features at an application as well as data level.

The Business Analytics layer comes preconfigured with standard retail analytics and has the possibility to integrate with any enterprise data warehouse. Device independence is brought in via implementation of the UPOS interface standard, which makes the POS interoperable with a wide variety of peripherals.

The underlying DB2® database makes Spectrum capable of handling large volumes of data, while WebSphere MQ is leveraged for much-needed reliable data synchronization across the enterprise. The WebSphere Application Server within WRS provides the base platform for all the server-side features to operate in an orchestrated fashion.

Spectrum is tested and validated to work on IBM SurePos™ 700 Series systems with a local DB2 Express database, which has a low memory footprint that keeps the POS till performing well at all times.

Spectrum helps retailers “go green” by using IBM technologies to control energy usage, increasing efficiency and extending the life of their assets, thus reducing costs and fueling growth.

Capable of handling large volumes of data, Spectrum is certified as “Ready for IBM DB2 Data Server Software” and “Ready for IBM Retail Industry Framework.”

“Spectrum and IBM are a winning combination. Our common goals unite us. We are both focused on going green and lowering the carbon footprint for our customers. We both help retailers integrate diverse systems into their stores. Together, we offer industry-leading scale, performance and reliability. And Spectrum fits well into the IBM Retail Industry Framework. Our IBM partnership gives us the credibility to be viewed as best-of-breed by our customers.”

– Gev Satarawalla, CTO, Criti

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

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Produced in the United States of America July 2011 All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DB2, SurePos and WebSphere are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at: ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.

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Rely on Criti and IBM experienceCriti and IBM combine extensive retail experience with expertise in business management, hardware, software and services. Together, the partnership delivers capability that enable retailers to address their challenges and achieve profitable growth.

Criti• Retail empathy – Spectrum developers have retail

experience. They understand the pain points and ambitions of retailers across formats and merchandise categories.

• IBM validation – Retail industry Framework, open-standards-based platform for retail solutions for ease of implementation and integration.

• Support services – Support is provided during and after implementation by staff with the experience of managing technology in some of the largest organizations in the world.

IBM• Comprehensive support – IBM has more than 4,400

consultants dedicated to the distribution sector, with more than 750 consultants worldwide specifically focused on the retail industry.

• Global experience and reputation – IBM has nearly 2,000 retail business partners – the largest business partner network in the industry.

• Retail-specific hardware – IBM’s time-tested, trusted and robust PoS devices, servers, printers and peripherals are designed for the retail sector.

For more informationTo learn more about IBM in retail, contact your IBM sales rep or visit: ibm.com/software/industry/retail

To learn more about the Spectrum retail solution, please visit: www.retail-spectrum.com