{"id":3796,"date":"2021-10-23T14:18:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T19:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgruehn.com\/?p=3796"},"modified":"2024-11-19T11:46:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T17:46:30","slug":"a-view-of-retail-technology-at-the-turn-of-the-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgruehn.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/23\/a-view-of-retail-technology-at-the-turn-of-the-century\/","title":{"rendered":"A View of Retail Technology at the Turn of the Century"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Technology Trends at That Time<\/h2>

In the early 2000s, many of the technical advances we take for granted today were still very new. Enterprise personal computing had been around for about a decade, but enterprise networking was still maturing and the internet was still an infant. Most retailers were still using proprietary cash registers and integrated peripherals with dial-up connectivity. Using PC’s in stores was considered revolutionary, and the internet was still the Wild West back then. Topics deemed futuristic to retail at the time included broadband internet connectivity, virtual private networks, kiosks, wireless point-of-sale, and Bluetooth connectivity.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Period in Years That It Took Major Innovations to Become Mainstream<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Internet Was Still New<\/h2>

In January of 2000, the internet was still relatively new to most people. Many retailers still didn’t have a web presence but most were rapidly exploring how they could utilize it as a new retail channel and customer experience conduit. In my presentation I provided some examples of innovative retailers who were ahead of their time:<\/p>

  • dELiA*s: their website was experimenting with social communities and the concept\u00a0 of crowd-sourcing. It would be five more years before Facebook hit the scene.<\/li>
  • Eddie Bauer: was an early retail pioneer on the web and provided wish lists, FAQs, and an attempt at frictionless returns, all of which were revolutionary web concepts in retail at the time.<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    The Digital Nervous System<\/h2>

    The core thrust of the presentation was a concept called the “digital nervous system”. Digital nervous system is a phrase, popularly associated with Bill Gates of Microsoft, used to describe a vision for how the IT infrastructure of an enterprise could be analogous to the autonomic nervous system of a biological organism. Gates made extensive use of the term in his 1999 book Business @ the Speed of Thought. This book greatly inspired me and was instrumental in convincing me that I should join the company in June of that year. The idea is that companies need a technology foundation that works constantly and autonomously to benefit the organization. It should automatically do things that need to get done or prevent things from happening that shouldn’t, without the company having to focus on them. I like the analogy to our own digital nervous system because it made a lot of sense. There are critical things our body just automatically does that we never have to think about, like a beating heart, breathing, and blinking our eyes. If I had to consciously focus on these things I’d have less time to focus on the things I want to do like blogging, playing the drums, and devouring a good steak. This concept still exists today and is now called an Intelligent Enterprise. But it was revolutionary thinking in early 2000. The key benefits of an Enterprise Digital Nervous System include:<\/p>

    • allowing a company’s internal processes to operate smoothly and quickly<\/li>
    • enabling an organization to respond to customer feedback quickly<\/li>
    • enabling an organization to react to competitive threats in a timely manner<\/li>
    • empowering employees with critical knowledge<\/li>
    • enabling an organization to focus on business, not technology<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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      This presentation was my first attempt at helping retail’s leading technology executives see Microsoft’s potential for their enterprise computing needs. My credibility as a former retail Chief Information Officer lured some big industry names to this conference, including executives from Nordstrom, London Drugs, McDonalds and Starbucks.<\/p>

      It’s an interesting look at retail’s “hot” technology topics at the turn of the century and, for me at least, was a fun stroll back through time in my career.<\/p>

      Presentation Topics:<\/span>
      02:30\u00a0 The Rapid Evolution of Retail Technology
      03:45\u00a0 An Exciting Time to Be in Retail
      06:15\u00a0 The Internet’s Potential for Retail
      08:40\u00a0 How the Internet is Empowering Consumers
      09:48\u00a0 The Internet’s Potential for Brand Identity
      10:20\u00a0 A Early Glimpse of Social Networking & Crowd-sourcing
      11:43\u00a0 A Early Glimpse of Customer Experience in Retail
      12:10\u00a0 Early Examples of Internet Retailing
      13:20\u00a0 Using the Internet to Connect With Customers
      15:00\u00a0 An Early Glimpse of Connecting Physical & Digital Shopping
      15:30\u00a0 Primary Forces Impacting Retail
      16:05\u00a0 Examples of Why Retailers Need a Digital Nervous System
      19:48\u00a0 Enterprise Digital Nervous System (DNS)
      22:22\u00a0 Retail Specific DNS Example
      24:00\u00a0 How a DNS Transforms Your Business
      25:22\u00a0 Microsoft’s Retail DNS Strategy
      28:10\u00a0 Microsoft’s End-to-End System Strategy
      28:55\u00a0 The Bombay Company Store Intranet on Windows
      33:45\u00a0 Predictions for Retail IT investment Going Forward<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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