As our team reflects on the recent NRF 2023 event, one of the biggest takeaways we heard was from companies who want to make the shopping experience more personal and interactive but they struggle with legacy systems and outdated business processes. Even some of the largest retailers we ran across were still using outdated point of sale and order management options and that surprised us.

According to a survey from Digital Commerce 360, 36% of the B2B organizations surveyed found that upgrading older legacy systems to new technology is one of their biggest challenges.

Organizations know they need to leap into the new age and take on a digital transformation – but they often only make the effort when they desperately need a new tool, process or feature. This bolted-on approach is not sustainable and only makes it more challenging to implement new technology further down the line.

As a result, their business processes and point of sales (POS) systems are slow and out-of-dated.  Additionally, their customer data is siloed across the organization making it difficult for organizations to have access to real-time data and information.

Forrester’s US Customer Experience Index found that only 3% of U.S. companies were customer-obsessed in 2022.  In their definition, this meant putting customers at the center of their leadership, strategy and operations.  This is a decrease of 7% from the year prior.

To remain competitive in 2023, customer experience is key.  If you want to offer a streamlined, frictionless shopping experience – it starts with upgrading your legacy systems.

There are a number of reasons why upgrading your legacy order management process and point of sales systems is important.

• Improved efficiency: Newer systems are often designed to streamline processes and automate tasks, which can save time and reduce errors.
• Better scalability: Legacy systems may not be able to handle the increased volume of transactions and data that comes with business growth. Upgrading to a more modern system can allow for better scalability and flexibility.
• Enhanced security: Legacy systems may not have the same level of security features as newer systems, making them vulnerable to cyber threats. Upgrading to a modern system can help protect sensitive customer and financial data.
• Better customer experience: Modern systems that standardize on a digital core will have access the real-time data which gives organizations the ability to see throughout their system and better understand customer history, inventory and order management, personalization and more. All of this helps retailers improve the customer experience.
• Cost savings: Upgrading legacy systems can also save money in the long run as older systems often require more maintenance and support and may become obsolete in the future.
• Easily integrate new technologies: Legacy systems may not have the capability to integrate with newer technologies such as AI, IoT, and mobile, which can lead to missed opportunities for innovation, growth and sales opportunities.

If you want to position yourself to win, you need to have a central place for the data to reside—one point of truth. Data exists in many locations within an organization and can often be disconnected, or siloed, from one another.  Siloed information becomes a problem when organizations need to make critical, data-driven decisions and do not have all of the relevant information.  The result is costly.  Incomplete data can result in too much supply being ordered and wasted, increase in material costs, deadline delays – all of which impacts the bottom line and decreases customer relations.  Your organization must be able to aggregate data from all of your organization’s various systems onto a single location.  If you organization is built upon a digital core such as SAP, then aggregating that data into a central platform allows you to have access to real-time data and make faster, more accurate decisions.

DataXstream’s OMS+ is the only platform on the market today that directly addresses the challenges that exist in complex business models by streamlining order management and point-of-sale (POS) capabilities directly within SAP.

By leveraging SAP’s database and all SAP processes, users can interact with the most accurate and current order and availability data. With data available in real time, users will no longer experience lags due to complicated integration and data transfer processes.  One version of the truth.

• Enable High Touch Retail Transactions Directly In SAP
• Achieve end-to-end inventory visibility
• 360-degree view of the customer
• Simplify Non-Stock Sourcing
• Manage Profit Margins Instantly

Moving towards a more integrated, unified commerce approach allows retailers to win by focusing more on the customer experience rather than their system.