Control Tower and Social Network In Retail

The collaborative supply chain network and the integration of social networking practices in the retail omni market is the perfect application for a control tower framework to support the integration and coordination of the communications across the network. A key aspect to this network framework is the distributed nature of the integration and communication that is not focused on any one partner or function within the network and this is one of the key strengths of the control tower framework. There is a great deal of disruption generated and driven by consumers through social network capabilities and their interactions between retailers and all partners in the extended supply chain and retailers must put a framework in place that will allow the navigation and through the network and the integration and collaboration with the partners in the network.




The control tower framework has been historically utilized to coordinate and support interaction and collaboration across the extended supply chain and this model fits very well with the social interactions and the collaborative network now developing and growing in the retail omni market. There are a great deal of touch points across the retail omni market and consumers are leveraging these touch points to support their lifestyle demands in their shopping and purchasing practices. These aspects are now disrupting the retail marketplace and present the next frontier for the retailers especially who will be required to support these changing demands.




Consumers have taken the lead in this interaction and the extended supply chain partners such as transportation carriers and manufacturers have encouraged and extended this interaction through their own new services and capabilities. This has caused the retailer to move from the center of retail marketplace to an orbit around the consumer and really on the same level as the other partners in the extended supply chain. I view this as the most significant development in the retail omni market and as such requires the next round of development from the retailers to support this new framework and new reality.




This framework becomes something of a virtual mall with the consumer at the center and the stores and services in this mall constantly developing and changing to support consumer demands. This framework requires a means for the partners to quickly connect to new partners, support new capabilities while insulating their internal business systems and operations from the storm of this discontinuous change cycle. In all of this the control tower framework provides the means to support the interaction of new partners, existing partners in new manners and new and changing services without upheaval of the partner business systems.




The retail marketplace is in a time of turmoil and transformation that will continue for the the foreseeable future. There is a critical need for the partners, and especially retailers, in the marketplace to implement a framework that allows them to support the external turmoil and allows the internal back office operations to continue without the same velocity of disruption. This control tower framework supports this need and demands effectively and efficiently and I see more partners in the marketplace embracing this framework moving forward.

Optimize Fulfillment Through Logistics

Customer order fulfillment services remain front and center in the priority list of retail services and capabilities and this will remain for the foreseeable future. The customer is continuously demanding improvements in fulfillment services in support of their changing lifestyles and this has been increasing in velocity of the years and again these changes in demand show no sign of slowing. These points come have been coming together to push the demands for change even earlier in the supply chain to require changes in supply chain logistics to support the fulfilment demands that are coming in quicker and more powerful waves. The supply chain and the partners in the supply chain from fulfillment services, to product and material supplies, to demand forecast and planning are all coming together now in the extended collaborative network to optimize fulfillment services.





According to Wikipedia ‘in a general business sense, logistics is the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet requirements of customers or corporations’. Based on this definition, fulfillment is a piece of the logistics chain and benefits from the improvements to the entire chain. This is important to understand the interactions and dependencies across the entire extended supply chain in order to understand both the demands on the entire supply chain and also the dependencies and interactions required to support the demands in any function within the supply chain. Based on these demands and the relationships across supply chain you can see the importance of the network and the importance of the means and the methods to communication across the entire supply chain in order to optimize the fulfillment services within the network.





Communication and collaboration requirements have increased dramatically and will remain a key requirement to the continued support of the changes across the supply chain. This requires a control tower network and process that allows the supply chain partners to plug in and provide integration and communication tools through the entire supply chain to reduce the cost and effort for new partners to participate and support new services and products across the entire supply chain. The retail extended supply chain cannot afford to continue in a command and control practice and procedures and must transition to collaborative practice a procedures in order to effectively support the demands with the velocity that the changes demand.





The extended supply chain partners are in a position now to support the changing demands to improve the end fulfillment of goods and services. The network partners are in place now with the goods and services to optimize the fulfillment and not only that but to also to provide the framework to support the changing demands. The focus now for the extended supply chain should be implementing the control tower communication and collaboration capabilities to support the collaborative interaction required to create the supply chain collaborative network. I believe we will begin to see an increase in discussions and topics focused on this control tower communication and collaboration tools and capabilities to support the optimization not only in fulfillment services but probably more importantly in the entire extended logistics supply chain.

Velocity Of Social Innovation In Retail

The velocity of change in the retail marketplace has been increasing for quite some time and this velocity will increase with the increased social innovation that is driven by consumers in their interactions. The social innovation has been embraced by consumers to implement changes and new capabilities using social networking capabilities in their retail shopping. Consumers have incorporated specialty service providers and specialty omni market retailers in their shopping and purchasing practices along with their social networking to meet the demands of their shopping and purchasing changes that are in turn have been embraced to support their changing lifestyles.  This combination of social network and the omni market network and network partners come together now to encourage a collaborative approach across the retail marketplace to support the velocity of the social innovation driven by consumers.

While retailers have been building out their operational capabilities to support purchasing and delivery demands across the entire omni market network, consumers have been utilizing their social network to develop new methods to shop and then utilize the purchasing and delivery capabilities developed by retailers in new and innovative ways.  Consumers are introducing increasing amounts of innovation through the use of specialty providers of services and even products to the omni marketplace to mold and specialize their capabilities by utilizing these social network capabilities to enhance the purchasing and delivery capabilities of the omni marketplace.

There have been a couple of developments in both the consumer social network capabilities and the retail omni marketplace that have helped to increase the velocity of social innovation; the introduction and expansion the specialty providers in both the retailer and the social network and the collaborative capabilities that have been growing and improving.  These capabilities are combined then utilizing the improved wireless networking capabilities and the growth and expansion of unlimited data on all of the wireless networks to bring about a discontinuous social innovation in the retail marketplace that is both increasing in velocity and the depth and span of the marketplace. In other words, consumers and speciality service and product providers are coming together now in ways that increase not only the level and amount of social innovation and also an increased velocity of social innovation.

The challenge that large retailers are facing now is the embrace of the social shopping capabilities and expansion of the retailer collaborative network to link and collaborate with the social shopping and specialty service and product suppliers that support eh social network to link the retailer into the expanding consumer capabilities. The challenge for these large retailers is their need to change to a collaborative interaction that enhances the social retail network of shopping, purchasing and delivery of products to consumers in this expanded collaborative network environment and then to plug into the social innovation of this network.  The challenge is the combination of the consumer social networking with the retailer supply chain purchase and delivery network to support the social innovation.

The forward thinking large retailers are beginning to realize there are many forces coming together in the larger omni marketplace creating a new reality where the retailer’s success and survival is based on their ability to integrate and become part of this network.  The benefit of the network to the retail marketplace is the ability to sense and respond to the velocity of innovation introduced by consumer demands along with the cost of this support being born by the network and not just by the retailer. This is the future of the retail marketplace and really the only way that retailers can hope to keep up with the velocity of change in the marketplace.