| |July 201719CIOReviewBy Mahesh Khetan, Assistant Vice President ­ Supply Chain, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd (Pantaloons Division)hen the Rate of Change outside Exceeds the Rate of Change In-side, the End is in Sight" ­ Jack WelchExcellence in Information Technology Management can make your organization's rate of change exceed than that of the competitors, thereby converting it into a Compet-itive Advantage. IT is no longer just an important tool, but a necessity to run a Business. Monitoring various operations through real time data/information is a must in today's evolved consumer expectations. Many organizations suffer from these common pain areas:· Data non-availability· Data analysis not systematic· Deployment of IT initiatives not in-depth· Review and refinement processes not visible· Insufficient benchmarking· Lack of enabling environment for creativity and innovationExcellent organizations address such gaps by build-ing and managing their Knowledge Assets through the following key attributes. These are gradually becoming hygiene (bare minimum requirement) in the industry. · Management of organizational data, informa-tion and knowledge needs to be done to ensure the properties like:· Accuracy· Integrity and reliability· Timeliness· Security and confidentiality· How the required data is made available to the work-force, suppliers, partners, collaborators and customers creates a major difference in building long term relation-ships· Ensuring that hardware and software are reliable, se-cure and user-friendly· In the event of emergency, continuous availability of hardware and software systemsThere are number of IT interventions which, the Ap-parel Retail organizations are undertaking to manage their businesses in an effective manner and get an edge in the market place:Creating Competitive Advantage Through Information Technology in Apparel Retail Industry CXO INSIGHTS"WAditya Birla Retail Limited is the retail arm of Aditya Birla Group, a USD 41 billion corporation in the league of Fortune 500 companies. Pantaloons posted revenues of Rs.2,164 crore in FY15-16, up 17 per cent from the previous year. The company offers a wide range of brand offerings across apparel and non-apparel categories and across varied price points.Managing inventory and demand across all channels separately, cross channel reallocation of inventory, pooling of demand across all channels and integration of logistics for all channels are the market differentiators in the apparel retail industry
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