Look for the Silver Lining

The economy continues to sputter. Most of the retail-related news is bad, but thankfully there are a few bright spots as some companies (Buckle, Wal-Mart, BJ’s, AutoZone) continue to buck the trend and produce sales increases.

It’s easy to become gloomy and further retreat into a no-spend mode in our business and personal lives. Reading the news, I almost succumbed to depression: After a brief talk with myself, however, I decided to adopt the philosophy of the old Jerome Kern song, “Look for the Silver Lining.” Sure enough, I discovered that there are, indeed, some positives that can come out of this dreadful recession.

Like many of you, ARTS members are dealing with travel restrictions; we have transitioned several of our committee meetings to web conferencing. This change, forced by economic conditions, has been a blessing in disguise. Attendance doubled in our first week of virtual meetings, including folks from seven countries.

Increased attendance will result in better standards because it gives us the opportunity to incorporate a wider range of views. Because travel time is eliminated, virtual meetings allow for an expanded agenda; I suspect they will also help us recruit and retain members, because participation augments the value proposition.

The moribund economy is causing consumers and companies to determine whether existing assets can be enhanced to extend their functional life, thereby conserving capital. This change is reflected in the sales increase in the auto parts industry, as folks repair and service existing automobiles.

Upgrade instead of buy new
The same thinking is being applied to POS terminal and computer applications, and ARTS can help. UnifiedPOS allows retailers to offer new functions at point of sale by adding or upgrading peripherals like printers, signature capture and mag stripe readers for PCI without purchasing new terminals.

Instead of replacing a working application to make it fit into a new IT platform, consider retooling the application to SOA based on guidance provided by the ARTS Blueprint and Best Practices, which also provides tips for low-cost start-up. Not quite sure how to proceed? Consider contracting for ARTS education on SOA, XML and our Data Model; education is much less expensive than hiring new skill sets.

The delay in purchasing new software and hardware forced by this downturn can be a great opportunity to begin updating your infrastructure and staff, while enabling rapid integration for the time when “new” can be cost-justified.

When times are tough, all expenses are challenged. When things are running smoothly we focus on the execution of existing processes, not finding new or better ones. In this time of reflection, we encourage you to think about the better times ahead and revise processes to utilize technologies like mobile phones, digital signage and video analytics for payment, loyalty, promotions and other transactions.

Create a little sunshine
As I wrote in the March column, mobile payments will offer new options that can lower interchange charges. When the economy improves, thoughts of survival will turn once again to competition. These technologies can provide an edge; this is why ARTS is working now to develop standards and instructional information to enable their rapid implementation.

Look for the silver lining,
When e’er a cloud appears in the blue
Remember somewhere the sun is shining,
And so the right thing to do is make it shine for you.

ARTS is trying to help you to create a little sunshine; our standards can reduce your expenses today and help jumpstart your brighter future. I hope you will consider our dues to be money well spent so we can continue to offer support in good times and bad.