Former Retail Systems Alert Group team launches RSR research firm
Following the June 15 shutdown of Retail Systems Alert Group, producer of the former Retail Systems store operations conference and trade show, three former Retail Systems Alert Group executives have launched Retail Systems Research, or RSR, as a research and advisory firm covering web-technology-enabled retailing.
“We’ll cover all major retail technology topics,” says Nikki Baird, one of RSR’s four firm partners and the former executive director of research at Retail Systems Alert Group, or RSAG. She adds that RSR will produce reports sponsored by technology vendors and based on surveys of retailers’ technology strategies, and distribute the reports for free. Unlike RSAG, which is in the process of liquidating its assets, the new firm will not get involved in producing conferences or trade shows, she adds.
The scope of Retail Systems Research’s coverage will include web-technology-enabled merchandising, supply chains, multi-channel retailing and store operations, she says. The firm will also cover core technology developments such as web-based software-as-a-service models for delivering on-demand technology over the Internet, she adds.
Baird is joined in the firm’s management by founding principals Brian Kilcourse, former president and CEO of RSAG, and Paula Rosenblum, former vice president of research and content at RSAG. Steven Rowen, a specialist in payment card security systems, has also joined RSR as a partner.
Baird, Kilcourse and Rosenblum each have extensive backgrounds in the retail industry. Prior to Retail Systems Alert Group, Baird was a principal analyst at Forrester Research covering supply chain and store operations, and had served as director of marketing for StorePerform (now a part of RedPrairie Corp.), a provider of store execution management software, and director of product marketing for supply chain software company Viewlocity. She also worked as an IT consultant at PwC Consulting (now part of IBM Global Services).
Kilcourse, before serving as head of RSAG, was chief information officer of Longs Drugs, a West Coast retail chain.
Rosenblum had joined RSAG from Aberdeen Group, where she was vice president of its retail research practice. Before Aberdeen, she was retail research director for AMR Research Inc. Prior to AMR, Rosenblum spent 20 years in retail technology management positions including CIO.
Back...
