The courses in this program:
- explore how digital transformation and emerging information technologies (especially AI, blockchain, and security) foster innovation to achieve a competitive edge in the retail industry.
- are customized based on the retail industry (e.g., department stores, clothing stores, grocery stores, convenient stores, specialty stores, auto, home furnishing, multi-channel), and the background and objectives of the candidates.
The following is the template describing the 4 courses for this certificate:
(All courses are available live/synchronously
face-to-face & online)
1. Retail Industry IT Trends and Issues
The certificate starts with the business imperatives of companies operating in this sector, and their approach to creating an IT strategic plan and project roadmap intended to create worthwhile business value encompassing the entire value chain. The unique challenges of competition, regulatory compliance, lifestyle changes, security, massive data sets, business analytics locations etc. are addressed. The impact of emerging technologies (e.g., blockchain, robotics, AI, cognitive computing, analytics, big data) will be focused on.
2. Retail Industry Technical-Processes
The certificate then deals with the technologies involved in the retail technical systems for building, maintaining, and scheduling the infrastructure. Understanding how to leverage emerging technologies (e.g., blockchain, social media, analytics, big data) is essential.
3. Retail Industry Back Office Operations
The third course deals with the business functions that support finding, development & production, such as Finance, HR, Production Accounting, Legal, Tax, Treasury etc.
4. Retail Industry IT Best Practices
The fourth and final course deals with best-practice execution, in terms of organizational governance, marketing, buying, distribution, incentives/clubs, sourcing & vendor management, portfolio & project management, and service delivery.
Individual customized course for senior level executives
As Retail organizations accelerate the digital transformation of their industry, they are focusing their investments in leveraging information technology to improve customer/client products/services while lowering overall costs. In today’s highly regulated, increasingly resource-constrained, and cost-focused environment it is essential to understand how to effectively and efficiently manage an organization’s information technology (IT) resources. There are numerous strategic, tactical, and operational choices to be made about managing Retail IT resources and it is essential to ensure that IT and non-IT executives across the organization work in harmony.
Experience has made it clear that Retail organizations need well-conceived organizational structures, skills, processes, and decision rights to ensure that IT investments are appropriately leveraged across the organization, especially when considering the impact of emerging information technologies.
This course prepares Retail executives by providing a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental decisions related to the management of IT resources in the Retail environment. The course will also provide an overview of current and future information technologies and their potential impact on customers/clients, organizations, and associated stakeholders.
The course is designed to be delivered live/synchronously (face-to-face or online) with a total of twenty (20) contact hours. While the schedule is flexible, it is usually delivered in approximately ten (10) 2-hour modules/lectures/sessions.
The IT-Retail topics include:
- Deriving IT-business strategies
- Considerations for types of organizational structure, sourcing, governance (i.e., decision-making and decision rights), roles/responsibilities, and processes
- Leverage emerging digital technologies; especially AI, blockchain, and security
- The business value of IT
- The definition, concepts, and contexts of Retail IT
- Enhancing business-IT alignment
