The Indian retail industry, the fifth largest in the world, has been reported to be the most attractive destination for retail investment. Cisco has been taking commendable initiatives to make this industry more robust, by applying its intelligence to the retail industry business. In an interview with VOICE&DATA, Anil Bhasin, VP, Enterprise Business, Cisco India and Saarc, shares his thoughts on the industry dynamics, Cisco's Intelligent Retail Network, and how technology can change the way the retail industry does business. Excerpts:

Can you tell us something about the dynamics of the retail industry?
According to projections made by Assocham, the Indian retail industry is well poised to score a y-o-y growth of 30-35% over 2007.

Traditional markets are making way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, and specialty stores. Large malls have begun appearing in metros and second-rung cities alike, introducing the Indian consumer to an unparalleled shopping experience. The future of retail is promising in India-the market is growing, government policies are becoming more favorable, and emerging technologies are facilitating operations.

How relevant is technology in this industry?
In today's competitive environment, retailers increasingly rely on in-store technologies to help enhance customer service, differentiate their stores in the marketplace, streamline operations, and increase revenues.

Technologies such as kiosks and interactive handheld devices provide more information to sales associates and customers, enabling better decision-making and increasing satisfaction. Rich-media displays that provide educational or branding reinforcement are becoming commonplace.

In-store rich-media systems such as plasma video displays, kiosks, digital signage, personal PDAs, and other devices play an increasingly important role in providing customers and stores personnel with advertising, brand reinforcement, pricing, training opportunities, and corporate communications.

Additionally, IT can be leveraged to connect a seamless supply chain network that connects supply, planning, manufacturing, and distribution operations to critical enterprise applications. Supply Chain Network aids in providing real-time visibility across the supply network, thereby enabling rapid decision-making and optimal execution.

In terms of IT, what are the challenges for the retail industry?
Indian retailers are leapfrogging in terms of leveraging IT. The fact that they started late in comparison to their Western counterparts, gave them the advantage of analyzing which solutions work out and which do not. Retailers adopting these IT trends in India are still in an introductory phase, and are in the process of understanding the benefits of IT in retail.

The challenges faced by the Indian retail sector include an unprecedented growth in data size and number of users that can cause major system overhauls; accommodating all the supply chain models in the same solution; scaling up IT to support growth plans; dealing with different retail formats; constant shopping experience enhancement and the need for a single customer view; calculating RoI on a retail IT implementation; and proper infrastructure and timely distribution.

How is Cisco helping the retail industry?
Cisco's Intelligent Retail Network (IRN) is a platform that enables retailers to streamline business operations, accelerate decision-making, improve customer satisfaction, and manage inventory better.

With IRN, retailers can boost productivity by connecting people, places, and information, especially managing third party vendors; improve customer satisfaction by enhancing shopping experience; and increase revenue by improving decision-making through utilization and delivery of data.

Cisco's Intelligent Retail solutions are tuned to meet the specific needs of retailers and offers comprehensive and scalable networking solutions. In all, Cisco retail solutions are made up of four modules, each designed to meet the specific needs in the retail environment.

The Intelligent Retail solutions impact the retail environment by increasing operating efficiency across stores using wide area networks (WANs) and virtual private networks (VPNs) to access corporate and store information, including RFID-based inventory management and standard retail applications.

Can you tell us about solutions offered by you?
Cisco's Intelligent Retail Network solutions are tuned to meet the specific needs of retailers and offers comprehensive and scalable networking solutions. The various components of Intelligent Retail Network solutions range from a simple retail solution like the point-of-sale (POS), enterprise-wide and media-rich customer interactive environments. The most sought after ones include unified communications, video surveillance, digital signage, mobility, security, and data center.

Who are your main clients?
We are currently in talks with the Future Group and the Bharti Group to provide them with our Intelligent Retail Network (IRN) solutions. We are also working with other leading retailers in the country like Reliance, Shopper's Stop, and Khaitan.

How, according to you, will the industry shape up in the next two years?
Two major factors that will impact the Indian retail market are globalization and adoption of technology.

India has topped AT Kearney's annual Global Retail Development Index for the third consecutive year, maintaining its position as the most attractive destination for retail investment. The Indian retail market, the fifth largest in the world, is expected to grow from $330 bn in 2007 to $427 bn by 2010 and $637 bn by 2015. Additionally, modern retail, which presently accounts for 4% of the total market, is likely to increase its share to 22% by 2010.

For retailers, competing successfully is no longer simply a matter of offering a range of products at the lowest price. They are compelled to create a multi-dimensional shopping experience for the customer.

The Indian retail market has entered a mature phase with intense competition where operating efficiency, along with the total customer experience, will make the ultimate difference and enable retailers to stay ahead of competition. To attain this, retailers will invest in beefing up their IT environment.

Empowered by technology such as the Intelligent Retail Network, retailers gain the flexibility to meet constantly changing business demands. Across the store-operations, merchandising, human resources, training, customer services, and the supply chain-organizations can develop a roadmap, based on this powerful foundation, which will support their corporate vision in the coming years.

Gyana Ranjan Swain
gyanas@cybermedia.co.in