Trends 2007: Retail IT

In 2007, retail IT budgets continue their stabilization trend, with fewer retailers expecting budget cuts for the coming year. But a preference for best-of-breed applications (BoB) takes its toll on IT organizations' abilities to be strategic partners to the business, with more time and energy spent on the tactics of implementations and integration. It affects IT strategy as well — leaving retailers with less time to pursue initiatives like service-oriented architecture (SOA) that can potentially make future implementations easier. Despite the emphasis on best-of-breed, retail business users have only marginally more influence over IT priorities than their counterparts in other industries, creating a mishmash of business and IT projects that will rise to the top of the list in 2007: multichannel convergence, customer service in stores, supply chain data foundations, merchandising renewal, and optimization technologies.