New IBM middleware suite backs multi-channel retailing, analyst says

IBM’s new suite of middleware technology for retailers offers a unique collection of tools for integrating multiple retail channels, Gene Alvarez, vice president with research and analysis firm Meta Group Inc., tells InternetRetailer.com. "IBM has pulled together a collection of components that retailers need to address day-to-day integration problems, whether for integrating store operations, improving merchandising or for improving a multi-channel environment," he says. "If try to get all this from somewhere else, you have to go to multiple vendors."

IBM recently introduced its IBM Middleware Solutions for Retail suite, which comes in six individual sections: Multi-Channel Management, Retail Merchandising, Item Management, Inventory Management, Store Operations and Advertising, Marketing and Promotions. Each module also comes with IBM’s Websphere integrator for connecting with third-party applications, such as merchandise management software from Retek Inc.

The practical advantages to retailers of using IBM’s middleware, Alvarez says, come in the ability to more easily share information between retail channels and enterprise applications. For example, he says, many multi-channel retailers still use e-mail to forward online orders to store managers for fulfillment. But that requires the manager to constantly check e-mail for online orders that need to be forwarded to pick-and-pack workers in the store warehouse. With IBM’s middleware, Alvarez says, retailers can more easily set up a direct data connection from their online order management system to the back-end fulfillment system, so that warehouse workers can get direct alerts to handheld devices regarding orders.

And with more retailers moving toward an RFID system to track the movement of goods through the supply chain, IBM’s middleware can support the integration of data collected by RFID readers with back-end inventory management applications, Alvarez says. "It makes it easier to integrate RFID data with enterprise applications," he says.

Depending on how much middleware a retailer initially deploys, prices for large-company enterprise versions start at about $200,000, says Pamela Klym, segment manager for the retail industry at IBM Software Group. An Express version for small and mid-size business starts at about $30,000, she says.