There is no doubt that the cycle of business change in retail is accelerating. And with it, demands on Information Technology departments (IT) are ever-increasing. At the same time, IT is under the same pressure as other operational groups to hold the line on costs. RSR’s research has shown that retailers still expect IT to deliver important new capabilities to support changes in the business while holding the line on costs.

John Gage, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is credited with the visionary statement, “The network is the computer.” This vision has in fact come true over time. Retail Winners certainly see the opportunity to implement more flexible, adaptive solutions that are service-oriented and deployed over an enterprise network.