Post on 14-Jul-2015
Creating a Smarter Shopping Experience with IBM Solutions at Carter's Session - 6578
Eddie Lizondro Sr Manager, Integration Carter’s
Satya Kallur Director Perficient, Inc.
Agenda
• Carter’s – Introduction
• Understanding Carter’s Business and Customers
• Business and Technology challenges
• IBM tools used in the overall Solution
• Carter’s Integration landscape
• Approach
• Future steps
• IT Trends in Retail industry
1
Carter’s Story
2
• Leading U.S. brand of children’s clothing, gifts and accessories
• Approx. 15,000 Employees
• Retail, Wholesale, eCommerce and International business units
• 530+ Carter’s/200+ OshKosh B’Gosh stores
• 26 consecutive years of growth
• $2.8 Billion Revenue
• History Highlights:
1865 – Carter’s founded by William Carter
1895 – Oshkosh B’Gosh founded in WI
2005 – Carter’s acquired Oshkosh B’Gosh
2011 – Carter’s acquired Bonnie Togs (Canadian children’s apparel
retailer with 59 stores and plans to grow to 160)
2011 – launched eCommerce business
2012 – built Braselton, GA Distribution Center (1.2 million square
foot omni-channel facility)
2013 – consolidated corporate headquarters to Atlanta, GA
Carter’s Core Systems
3
Understanding Carter’s Customers through the Generations..
4
Po
pu
lati
on
by A
ge (
as
of
20
13
)
BOOMERS (age 50-68)
GEN Xers (age 35-49)
MILLENNIALS (age 14-34)
TBD Gen (age 0-13)
Market growth opportunity with population
swell entering child-bearing years
Millennial Moms
5
Value: Shops more frequently and spends more, but
prefers discount/off-price clothing and specialty stores
Digital: Knows a world with 24/7 connectivity and
immediate, expansive access to information
Social Media: Spends more time consuming media,
especially smartphones and tablets
Word of Mouth: Trusts other Moms more than brands
Personalization: Expects brand to know her and
speak to her via her preferred methods
Who she is What matters to her
• 24 – 34 year old Mom
• 83% of first time moms
• Largest generational segment:
80 million
• $1.3 trillion in annual spending
• Carter’s ranks #1 with Millennials
as well as Baby Boomers
• OshKosh is positioned mid-pack
competitively with Millennials; top
3 for Baby Boomers
Challenges
• Business Challenges
• Why invest in IT and/or newer technology?
• Support growth in both domestic as well as
international segments
• Consolidate supply and demand into a
single solution
• Increase the collaboration with wholesale
and mass customers
• Support for multiple distribution centers US
and International
• Integrate the processes and organization for
the replenishment of Carter’s stores
• Building towards OMNI-Channel visibility
6
Challenges (contd.)
• Technology challenges
• Small IT staff
• Seamless integration with the vendors to improve the quality,
consistency and to reduce the costs
• Multiple legacy systems
• Consolidate the applications supporting various channels to
make it OMNI-Channel
• Existing IT Culture
7
IBM Solutions used
• Sterling Order Management Systems
• Order Management and fulfillment services
• WebSphere Message Broker
• Enterprise Service Bus for Carter’s
• IBM DataPower
• Security Gateway
• Sterling EDI
• EDI and data translation engine
8
Carter’s Integration Landscape
9
Trusted Zone
Tax Calculation
Gift Cards
Drop Ship Vendor
Email Service Provider
eCom Portal
Credit Card Authorization
Business User / Call Center
Web Store
Call Centervia UI
Identity Management/
Access Management
IP Filtering
WebSphere Message Broker
Product Hub
Sterling Order Management
SystemGeneral Ledger
Other Data Sources
FTP Server
EDI Engine
Data WareHouse
Address Verification
Service
WebSphere DataPower XB62
Warehouse Management
System
Account Payable
Logistics
Product Life Cycle
ManagementGoods Tracking
Q Mgr
S S S
<SOAP>XML
File Based IntegrationService Service Service Service
Interface Interface Interface Interface
Error Handling
Error Notification
Auditing /Logging
Scheduler
Monitoring
Patterns
Legend
Applications(Internal)
Applications(External)
Roles
Internet
Project Challenges
• Multiple projects with different team executing them
• Multiple versions of the same applications existed
• Sun setting legacy applications and moving business functions
to newer standard systems
• Business functions being moved in phases in different projects
• New tools and applications being implemented as part of overall
Solution
• WebSphere Message Broker
• DataPower
• Sterling OMS
• Legacy systems primarily interacting via files and DB calls and
in batch mode
10
Approach
11
• Enable Carter’s team on use of
ESB and patterns typically used
• Establish strong foundation by
setting patterns for the interfaces
across all projects
• Pub-sub
• Asynchronous
• Canonical models
• Collector patterns
• Established Integration standards
and best practices to be used
across all projects
Approach (contd.)
12
• Establish frameworks for the
Integration layer
• Logging
• Error Handling
• Error notification
• Scheduler framework
• Interfaces across projects built in
an incremental fashion
Additional IBM solutions being considered
• BlueWorks Live
• BPM
• UrbanCode
• IBM API Management
13
Technology trends in Retail Industry
Interoperability in Retail industry
15
16
IT trends in Retail industry
• Modernize IT – Services and APIs
• OMNI-Channel visibility
• Security
• Securing IT applications and assets
• Deliver the same Customer experience across all channels
• Mobility
• DevOps maturity
• Scalability and Flexibility
Thank You Your Feedback is
Important!
Access the InterConnect 2015
Conference CONNECT Attendee Portal
to complete your session surveys from
your smartphone, laptop or conference
kiosk.