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Will Cloud And 4G Rewrite The Franchisee IT Rules?

Written by Todd L. Michaud
September 15th, 2009
The convergence of cloud computing and 4G cellular networks will revolutionize the retail technology industry the same way the PC did when it changed a cash register into a POS. It will finally allow retail CIOs to take retail technology out of the stores and put it in the data center and have it managed by IT people.

Today, writes Franchisee Columnist Todd Michaud, his average restaurant has eight to 10 pieces of technology that are complex enough to house their own operating systems. These same restaurants now have five or more vendors providing technical support. With the high level of integration, when a problem occurs the store manager is often hit with the “It’s not us, it’s them” excuse. The store manager, who is typically not an IT administrator, is left trying to decipher cryptic error messages, leaning on a peer group and spending hours if not days on the phone with various support organizations trying to get to the root cause of the issue. Symptoms of this situation usually manifest themselves in screams from the back office: “I have already rebooted it 14 times. I am not doing it again!”

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Posted in CRM, In-Store, IT Strategy/Industry, Mobile/Wireless/Contactless, Premium Content, Security/Fraud, Software, Supply Chain
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