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LOS ANGELES -- The information technology executives who will assemble here for the Food Marketing Institute's MarkeTechnics conference Feb. 22 to 24 are seeking solutions ranging from basic pricing and promotion tracking systems to providing home shopping over the Internet.Despite the variety of applications they seek, a common theme is the desire for technology that provides integrated solutions.

LOS ANGELES -- The information technology executives who will assemble here for the Food Marketing Institute's MarkeTechnics conference Feb. 22 to 24 are seeking solutions ranging from basic pricing and promotion tracking systems to providing home shopping over the Internet.

Despite the variety of applications they seek, a common theme is the desire for technology that provides integrated solutions. Schnuck Markets, St. Louis, for example, will be on the lookout for a pricing control system that would allow its advertising, marketing and category management departments "to be reading out of the same prayer book," according to Bob Drury, vice president of management information systems at Schnuck.

The conference's co-chairman is seeking another type of integration -- one that recognizes the vital role played by information technology in the supermarket industry. "IT has to understand its role within the organization, and apply a business perspective to its area of responsibility," said Richard Heyman, vice president of information technology and strategic planning at Baker's Supermarkets, Omaha, Neb.

"The goal is the same on both sides of the table," Heyman said. "Technologists need to understand and be comfortable with their importance in the organization, while the nontechnologist -- the chief executive officer, chief financial officer or chief operating officer -- needs to understand that technology isn't a cost center, it's a strategic weapon."

Heyman believes the workshops and general sessions at the conference will appeal to both groups. "The goal is to link technology and business, not to teach technology to the technologist," he said.

IT executives told SN they are looking for technology that performs their business functions in a more integrated way. "Most folks have had a fair amount of success in building independent little systems that do this or that," said Schnuck's Drury. "We're looking for integrated systems that cross boundaries, but basically try to attack the same problem."

In the pricing area, such a system would allow all relevant departments to have access to the same information at the same time. "When advertising people would be putting ads together, the category management people would be seeing how it's going to look and making strategic decisions about pricing, and hopefully it would all be reflected at the point of sale," said Drury.

"Instead of transferring information from one system to another, it would be nice if everybody could see the same information at the same time," he added.

Larger systems integration issues will be a key focus at the conference, said Heyman. "As we try to integrate the supply chain, the question is how do we take disparate systems that may be mainframe or PC based, with a mixture of client-server, database and nondatabase systems, and get them to work cohesively," he said.

One area where distributors are seeking integrated solutions is in electronic commerce, specifically exploiting the Internet's potential to reach consumers. "We're looking at more integrated 'tool sets' for Internet development, especially for home-shopping functions," said Mike Brown, manager of retail systems for United Grocers, Portland, Ore.

"You can get a menagerie of different tools to create a web site, but we're looking at technologies that integrate a few different technologies and applications into a suite," he added. "We'll also be looking for expertise at how to get that technology implemented."

The wholesaler, looking for information and solutions it can pass on to its retailer customers, would also like to present an integrated approach to customer marketing. "It's more than just a frequent-shopper program," Brown said. "We're talking about taking information from a frequent-shopper program and applying it to a marketing program, which means actually marketing to customers based on their shopping habits."

This type of information, coupled with marketing expertise, can be crucial to the success of a customer-loyalty program. "There's a lot of interest by our members in frequent-shopper programs," said Byron Goodwin, director of information systems at Associated Food Stores, Salt Lake City. "We can do a very basic one now, but we want to get a full-function one, which means coming up with the marketing strategy behind it.

"The [frequent-shopper] technology is probably one-third of the issue," Goodwin added. "The marketing program is really the big piece of it."

For Don Abbott, general director of retail systems at Supervalu, Minneapolis, the MarkeTechnics conference is an opportunity to monitor the progress of numerous technologies. Most developments in the supermarket industry are "evolutionary, not revolutionary. I go to see if those developments have matured to a point where they would be economically feasible to pursue."

Beyond technology for areas including the POS, direct-store-delivery, labor scheduling, time and attendance functions and electronic payments, Abbott will also be looking at the latest in electronic shelf labels and customer self-checkout systems.

"With all of these, what we keep waiting for is if someone breaks the barrier of either cost or utility," said Abbott. "That means making it irresistible no matter what the cost, or irresistible because of the cost."

The scope of making a technology shift at Supervalu justifies Abbott's caution. "Just changing something as mundane as an order entry terminal means purchasing many thousands of those devices," he said. "When you do make a decision, you tend not to want to make the same decision tomorrow."

Such strategic thinking must be part of an IT executive's actions, according to Heyman. "Technology is changing, and it's expensive," he noted. "We'll be providing a workshop on the total cost of ownership. If everyone has a PC on their desk and you have 44,000 people in your organization, how do you manage that? How do you make sure you're getting a return on your investment for the dollars, capital, time, effort and labor you've expended to manage that resource?" he said.

"In a capital-restricted environment, you have to say, 'Do I need a new computer or a new deli case?' " Heyman added.

While he acknowledges the need to establish an ROI for technology, Heyman also would like to see IT executives understand the global role of technology in an organization. "You can't measure the ROI on a frequent-shopper system itself," Heyman explained. "But you can measure the ROI of a frequent-shopper marketing approach, and the system cost goes into that global model.

"The question is not 'What's the cost of a computer-assisted ordering system?', it's 'What is the ROI if we automate the ordering process, have lower inventory and better information and take a more global, long-term perspective in justifying those expenditures?' " he added.

"It's what the technology enables, not so much the cost of the technology itself," Heyman noted.

TAGS: Supervalu