Breaking out of the legacy cycle
Visiting a renowned brewery in Yorkshire recently involved a tour around its Victorian architecture and equipment that reminded me of the scenario facing many retailers in the UK in ensuring they are not hidebound by legacy infrastructure.
The impressive copper brewing vessels date back to the early nineteenth century and are evocative of the era but this comes with the downside that they are very much showing their age. Gavin Scoresby, head brewer at Samuel Smith Brewery, says previous head brewers have put off replacing the ageing kit but as a relatively young employee he suspects that this major task will inevitably fall into his hands at some point. The company will then have to make some big decisions on investment at that time.
I’m sure this sounds rather familiar to many retailers who have chosen to continue operating with old systems that probably should have been replaced many years ago. This kit has done its job adequately and so various senior managers over the years have avoided the painful process of ripping-out these old legacy systems and replacing them with updated infrastructures that better reflect current requirements and fulfil customer expectations.
A former IT director of John Lewis rather bluntly likened the process of replacing old technology and systems to slum clearance. It is not a pretty process and involves great cultural change but at some point an upgrade is inevitable.
Retailers and brand owners have become incredibly adept at using sticky tape and elastic bands to hold their various systems together but for all companies there comes a time when they have to bite the bullet and sign-off an overhaul. To be fair to retailers it is not difficult to see how they reached the current predicament with multiple systems and processes cobbled together.
When the internet emerged the typical view of many managements was to keep the e-commerce channel separate from the stores business. They were unsure whether this new tech was simply a flash-in-the-pan and they also had great reservations about it cannibalising their physical outlets so the best strategy was to keep it at arms-length and not sully the mother ship.
The problem is that, as we all know, it was anything but a fad and although online sales continued to accelerate at unprecedented levels the template had been set for online to operate as a separate unit in a silo. Subsequent developments and new channels – including mobile, marketplaces, DTC and B2B etcetera – have been largely added to the existing underlying infrastructure in the form of yet more silos.
This creation of a complex architecture built on a base of these silos has been increasingly damaging to retailers and brand owners. This situation has become increasingly apparent as customers have become ever more demanding of a personalised, slick experience. This inevitably involves retailers needing to access data and the personal details of customers from across all channels and touch-points. The emergence of new developments like AI – that are wholly reliant on the access to quality data – are merely exacerbating the situation for many retailers.
Thankfully, during the years that retailers have been building their silos, technologies to help them address their issues have become widely available. Plug-and-play, cloud-based as-a-service type solutions have become widespread. They are designed to increasingly ensure retailers can upgrade their technology stacks as painlessly as possible and deliver the best outcomes for a modern retail environment.
This all sounds rather good but care has to be taken because there is another problem around the corner. The temptation to customise solutions rather than running them predominantly out-of-the-box has the inherent risk of retailers storing up problems for the future as it could be argued they are effectively building the next generation of legacy systems.
Glynn Davis, editor, Retail Insider
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