Global Retail Insights' European IT Opportunity: Retail and Wholesale advisory service provides insights into the Western European distribution sector, with a specific focus on retail and wholesale markets and information and communication technology (ICT) strategies applied to improve retail supply chain and demand planning efficiencies, store operations management, cross-channel sales, and business performance management at a corporate level. Our analysis includes estimates on ICT spending in the sector based on primary end-user research, competitive assessments of ICT vendors targeting retail and wholesale, and continuous monitoring of the market aimed at identifying key industry business trends and ICT investment trends.

This advisory service develops unique analysis and comprehensive data through Global Retail Insights' proprietary research projects, along with ongoing communications with industry experts, retail and wholesale CIOs and line-of-business executives, and ICT product and service vendors.

To ensure relevance, our analysts work with subscribers to identify and prioritize specific topics to be covered in research reports. Our analysts are also available to provide personalized advice for retail/wholesale executives and ICT vendors to help them make better-informed decisions.

The European IT Opportunity: Retail and Wholesale advisory service covers a broad range of sectors and topics, including:

• Retail/wholesale market structure and key performance indicators
• ICT requirements and purchasing trigger points in the European distribution sector
• Impact of the business environment on ICT demand
• Investment outlook for enterprise solutions and industry-specific applications (including point of service [POS], self-checkouts, merchandise and promotion management, inventory management)
• Investment outlook for new and emerging technologies (e.g., RFID)
• Service-oriented IT strategies in the European retail sector
• Patterns of IT adoption in large retail chains and status in small retailers
• Competitive analysis of top ICT vendors and initiatives

Our research addresses the following issues that are critical to your success:

• What are the key retail business trends in ICT?
• What is the IT investment by retail/wholesale and by country and/or application area
• What are the IT adoption and spending patterns in each subindustry?
• What are the emerging wireless technologies and their impact on business processes?
• How can companies leverage CRM and customer-facing technologies to attract and retain customers in the retail sector?

The European IT Opportunity: Retail and Wholesale advisory service is ideally suited to support ICT vendors targeting the European retail and wholesale markets. Industry-specific software providers and systems integrators will find this service valuable for gaining additional insight into the needs and investment trends in retail and wholesale in Europe.

The European IT Opportunity: Retail and Wholesale advisory service is offered on an annual subscription basis and provides access to:

• Detailed reports that cover industry performance and key spending trends
• Direct inquiry access to the Global Retail Insights analyst team for answers to specific questions related to the research or referrals to additional resources
• Web conferences focusing on recent research and client concerns - providing an opportunity to interact with Global Retail Insights' analysts, invited industry experts, and peers from other participating organizations
• Online access to a comprehensive library of published reports covering an extensive range of retail topics

Ivano Ortis is the EMEA Research Director at Global Retail Insights. In this position, he analyzes and anticipates key trends in and forecasts on IT strategies and spending in retail, logistics, and specific subvertical industries (e.g., HoReCa; motor trade; distribution; air, land, and water transportation) in Western Europe and provides consulting and advisory support to end-user organizations as well as to IT vendors. Ortis has developed extensive insight into the ICT and telecommunications value chain and a strong market experience in understanding how to merge industry dynamics, retail business requirements, and technology trends to provide vertical-specific strategies on IT demand from both the end-user perspective and the vendor perspective.

Global Retail Insights' experts are available for proprietary consulting engagements to address specific client challenges or to customize the results of our syndicated research offerings.

For more information, please contact Global Retail Insights at 508-935-4490 or visit our Web site at www.globalretail-insights.com.