Making your CGO project a reality
At Itasca Retail, we work collaboratively with retailers to ensure smooth and speedy installation, configuration, and roll-out. By design, our methods adapt to retailers with varying levels of project management capabilities
- Highly structured Project Management Offices (PMO’s) and Project Management Institute (PMI) certified Project Managers (PM’s)
- Less structured project methodologies, focused on execution
- Informal project management structures where key IT individuals wear multiple hats
We focus on basic tools to deliver projects:
- Project plans in MS Excel, MS Project or new shareware tools
- RAID Logs-Risks, Action Items, Issues, Decisions
- Basic status reports
- Dashboards based on the retailer’s preference for frequency of publication
Itasca Retail Implementation Road-Map
We strongly recommend Steering Committee meetings of key stakeholders as CGO impacts Merchandising, Pricing, Finance, Warehouse and Transportation. Our team works with the retailer to sequence your CGO rollout into logical phases based on your priorities, data and systems.
A retailer’s roadmap with CGO is dependent on:
- Current state of data and systems
- Pricing and master data disciplines
- Category management proficiency
- Warehouse ability to send and receive data
- Store infrastructure
Our veteran retail services and support team has worked on DSD and CGO for the grocery industry for the majority of their careers. Experience matters in grocery – there are few surprises in terms of systems and processes.
What was the biggest hesitancy for your customers to implement Magic?
Once it's decided there is indeed a problem that the system can solve, it's often the resources they currently have to deploy or the other projects they have in queue. Once all the important features and benefits of the system are understood, it's rarely any particular item on the Itasca side that is of concern.
Our Approach and Methodology
Our approach provides a phased transfer of knowledge of Itasca’s Magic system in digestible chunks for better adoption and retailer support. We focus on:
- SKU/UPC/Supplier relationships
- Promotion types
- Planograms and shelf management
- Supplier receiving orders, confirming order contents via ASN’s or DSD receiving
“People Readiness” is the key to our software’s success. We work with our customers to understand their:
- Culture
- Management structure
- Expectations and objectives
- Geography and current support structures for stores
- Success in deploying previous technology initiatives
- Training department
- Communications style and vehicles to stores and support personnel
- Store presentation ‘look and feel’ to the customer
Itasca team members work with the retailer’s team to generate:
- Appropriate and timely communications
- Efficient process designs consistent with training materials
- Readiness assessments
- Pilot and project success criteria