Three weeks ago, I introduced readers to START^SM, RSR’s new methodology to aid in the transformation our industry faces. At that time, I promised to also introduce our audience to STARTER ^SM, the logical extension of START ^SM, and one that brings us closer to you, the retailer. Today’s the day. Welcome to STARTER ^SM.

As a recap, START ^SM takes us through a retailer’s Strategy, the Tactics to support that strategy, helps create an Action plan for transformation based on alignment between strategy and tactics, the Rework of processes based on that action plan, and finally Technologies to support these reworked processes.

STARTER ^SM is START ^SM, plus more. It’s an engagement model that allows us to maintain our objectivity while assisting retailers in their transformation process, however big or small. So STARTER ^SM includes two more elements:

Execute Process and Technology Change: Based on the data gathered from a START ^SM analysis, RSR will assist a retailer in executing on a transformation initiative. During this phase we’ll establish the Key Performance Indicators that help us all know if the retailer is headed in the right direction, and track key milestones achieved along the way.

Review: Nothing is done perfectly the first time. During the Review process, RSR will support a look at actual KPI changes, how processes are flowing, and issues uncovered during technology implementation. We’ll make recommendations for tweaks and changes at that time.

There are a few details here that are very important to understand:

• When we embarked on our first START survey, we quickly discovered that while an on-line survey takes us deeper into an organization’s day-to-day activities, for any one retailer it still likely represents one person’s opinion and by necessity does not drive to the bottom of operational nuances. In other words, we can’t ask you to take an online survey that takes an hour to complete and we can’t gather multiple responses from a single company. So when we engage with a retailer, we’ll start with a deeper START dive. The store (for example) is a complex set of processes and activities. We had to cut about fifteen questions out of our on-line survey, and I still felt we were missing tactics and processes that potentially have become obsolete. Further, an organization needs some kind of management consensus on what they’re willing to change and what must be kept. We can’t get there with an online survey, either. We need a larger, cross-functional group.
• We are able to support creating a roadmap of technologies that are appropriate without naming any one vendor. Rest assured, because we have a core value of vendor neutrality, we won’t point you towards any particular vendor during this process. We have confidence in your ability to do this once the direction has been set.
• While we’re walking a somewhat narrow tightrope, we’re not wandering into the world of consulting. Our goal is engagement where we support your efforts, pay attention to milestones, and assist in re-work as required. We won’t stay forever. The engagement will have a beginning, middle and end. In other words, we will be your advisors through the process. That’s core to RSR’s value proposition…we’re just taking it to another level.

This is very new for RSR, but we’ve been preparing for it for a decade. We started out with the goal of putting technology in the context of business challenges and opportunities. We speak the language of retail. And we know, from talking to you and gathering ten years of data, what’s going well and what’s not. It sounds corny to say this, but we do feel your pain.

So STARTER ^SM is the next step in RSR’s evolution. We invite you, our readers to talk to us about it. We believe we can use our unique perspective to help you in a unique way. Give us a call. Drop us a line. Let us know what you think.

Here’s to the next decade.