Spice Newsletter update

‘NLEETWTESR SPICE World: Global Brands Scale their Operations QuicklyAbrand that has seen parts involved and the usually speed-to-market. The platform initial success in short timelines mandated to combines consulting expertise, Canada or the US is ramp up and achieve targets. A resources, specialized technology now setting its short list of entities involved in & project management required sight for rapid participating in such an by a brand’s management teamcontinental expansion. This expansion includes third party to expand operations quickly andexpansion usually means that logistics companies, successfully. Our teams arethe management team is transportation providers, helping expand homegrown,taking more direct control of recruiters, real estate brokers, European & Asian brands intothe brand locally, opening supply chain network designers, North America. SPICE is alsophysical stores in certain technology providers & launching new initiatives tomarkets, engaging in “Omni integrators and many more. expand our ecosystem ofchannel” commerce and Each of these entities has to be partners for helping Canadianestablishing a more selected, integrated and and US brands access markets insubstantive supply chain operationalized. China and India, with a particularnetwork. Several operational focus on the emerging One Beltdecisions have to be made Where does a management & One Road (B&R) opportunitycarefully: from choosing the team commissioned with this across Asia.right logistics partners to objective, turn to? Do-it-yourselfselecting the appropriate sites on a piecemeal basis, or engage SPICE World is a businessfor distribution centers and experts who can provide a one- platform that a brand can “plug-offices. This sales & distribution stop-shop solution? in” to a pre-connected network ofexpansion also requires several business service partners andimportant and complex SPICE manages over 2,000 information technology solutionstechnology-related global brands within its & providers.considerations such as: ERP, technology and businessCRM, WMS, TMS, e-Commerce, network. Several of these bands Continued on page 2EDI and Business Intelligence are growing their presence(build, buy, extend, integrate). within Canada and the US. WHATS SPICE World, a consulting INSIDE!These strategic, operational service and technology-and technology considerations enabled network, is rapidly SPICE DEBUT AT RCC…….. 3require substantial time, effort becoming a one-stop-shop CONNECTED RETAIL …….. 4& skilled project management. business accelerator platformThere is an inherent degree of for brands that are looking for CLIENT SPOTLIGHT………….. 6risk due to the various moving SCRUM PROJECT MANAtGEMENT ………….. 8www.spicetg.com SPICE IBM SOFTWARE PRACTICE ………….. 8 REAL TIME ANALYTICS .. ………9

Continued from page 1 Beyond consulting and project provides the visibility and management, SPICE also business reporting requiredThis ecosystem is designed provides pre -integrated by the management team toto provide the technical and technology with major North monitor success.operational solutions that a American merchandise retailers,brand needs in order to automotive manufacturers and With SPICE World, growingexpand from a modest other major buying organizations brands are receiving the helppresence to a more allowing the brand to quickly they need to ensure thatsubstantial operation – start operationalizing its achieve their objectives in aachieving speed-to-market wholesale business with the timely fashion and with theat a lower cost and with correct data flow and end-to-end right expertise.reduced risk. The eco-system visibility. The SPICE Connect and SPICE Catalog solutions withinconsists of specialized 3PL the SPICE World platform provide cloud data integration and globalcompanies and catalog management solutions, while SPICE Trade provides atransportation organizations brand to rapidly enable B2B and B2C e-commerce without thethat are pre-integrated with hassles. The solutions are rounded of with SPICE Insight, aSPICE. These logistics Managed Analytics platform thatproviders operate inspecialized vertical marketssuch as fashion, apparel,footwear, sporting goods,CPG, pet products, buildingsupply, consumer electronics,industrial products,healthcare and many others.ABOUT NEEL SHARMA Neel has held senior roles at various technology firms and is currently a Partner at SPICE Technology Group, Inc. Neel is a well recognized technologist within the North American Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution sectors. Amongst the early pioneers in the “cloud” computing market, Neel has been working since the nineties with customers across the globe to achieve technology-driven, quick-time-to-market capabilities for modern commerce and complex supply chains. He brings expertise in digital commerce, supply chain, analytics and in emerging information technologies that are propelling organizations towards new business models. Some of these technologies and their modern applications include “Internet of Things (IoT),” “The API Economy,” “The Sharing Economy” and collectively: “Industry 4.0” Neel is the Program Chair & Board Member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP – Toronto Roundtable). He is also the Chairperson of the Program Advisory Committee for Business Process Management at Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

SPICE MAKESDEBUT AT STORE 2016S pice Technology more. Calvin MacDonald Sephora’s Group made its debut These speakers shared valuable CEO, also urged the Canadian at the Retail Council of insights on the state of Retailers to fully embrace Canada’s STORE 2016 Canadian retail today and the technology or run the risk ofevent as an exhibitor. next steps required to move to becoming irrelevant. next level, especially in terms ofSTORE is a two-day annual Technology. On the exhibition floor, Spiceconference hosted by the was also involved in theRetail Council of Canada in One of the key takeaways from networking session where weToronto with its main focus this event is the importance of showcased all our services andon Canadian retailers; leveraging and embracing solutions, with main focus onranging from large to small technology especially in the Spice Live Board (visit hereindependent stores. Canadian Retail for more details)The 2016 edition was packed One of the speakers at the Drawing some traffic to our spotwith a rich agenda including event stated how important it with giveaways and freekeynote speakers from is for Canadian Retailers to chocolate, we were able toleading Canadian retailers. catch up to the U.S as we are introduce the retail industry toSome of the speakers currently behind by 5 years. “By Spice and also educate retailersincluded: Michael Medline, 2019, an estimated 10 percent on the solutions and services wePresident, CEO, Canadian of retail purchases will be offer and how we can helpTire; Marc Metrick; President, made online, up from 6 connect the numerous movingSaks Fifth Avenue; Calvin percent in 2014”- Forrester parts of their complex supplyMcDonald, President & CEO Research chain.Sephora Americas..and many Overall it was a wonderful experience and we were very excited to be a part of it. We thank the Retail Council of Canada for hosting such a great event and we look forward to more partnerships in the future! Written by: Joy Rotimi (Marketing Coordinator )

SELL MORE – CONNECTED RETAILThe ultimate goal of any due to increasingly easy access Is your business ready to servebusinesses is to Sell More. to information on products / this connected customer?In the retail this is done services and competitor pricing.primarily through Through mobile devices, they To meet these have access to information “anywhere/anytime” seamless • Increasing the number anywhere and anytime– expectations, retailers have huge of customers and including while in-store challenges to enable their shopping. This real-time access organizations. • Increasing the share of allows customers to seamlessly New business processes, their wallet your shop across channels as they organizational structures and business obtains. traverse from awareness, to technology are required on the transaction, to delivery, to after customer engagement side,This is becoming more sales care. Providing them the blurring of the lines betweendifficult in this era of the freedom to shop anywhere at the physical store and digitalultra-connected customer, anytime.What does an Omni-channel supply chain look like? The Omni-channel supply chain will look different depending upon what capabilities a specific retail requires, but the basics concepts are the same: Network wide Seamless channel Speed and cost inventory visibility purchase and effectiveness of returns delivery options. – –enables customer to enables customers make decisions to decide when and where to purchase. where.world by the use of ibeacon, implement. This is due to the organization to secure thevirtual changing rooms, virtual fact most retailers have run their resources and funds. Then,stores, popup stores, endless various selling channels in silos maintaining the focus andaisles, holograms, mobile apps, and have a myriad of commitment of the businessmobile payments and so forth. disconnected legacy systems. To over the multiple years it takes toWhile determining and overcome these obstacles deliver; no small challenge in animplementing the right mix of requires a major multi-year industry where the supply chaincustomer engagement endeavor. This typically requires is generally viewed as a costtechnology is absolutely organizational realignment, new center and not as a strategicnecessary, it is all for nothing if business process, physical store / enabler.your supply chain is not Omni- distribution configurationchannel ready. changes and major IT Getting Started enablement investments.The Challenge The first step is to articulate the The risk for supply chain Omni-channel supply chainThe above concepts maybe practitioners is they need to strategy, which is fairlysimple to understand, but are clearly articulate a supply chain straightforward.extremely difficult to capability strategy to sell to their

The difficult part is to channel, and business • Reserve onlineunderstand when specific leaders who are worried purchase in-storecapabilities are required to about channel salessupport the business cannibalization. • Purchase in-storeevolution, in order to keep deliver to homeup with customer • Channel Inventoryexpectations. Then the physically stored in different • Deliver to lockers andmillion- dollar question, “how distribution centers. 3 party solutionslong it will really take todevelop and deliver the • Channel perpetual • Return via anycapabilities?” inventory stored in different channel regardless of IT legacy systems. purchase channelRegardless of thesequencing of the various • Inventory has channel • Speed of delivery;capabilities the first specific internal product Standard freefoundation block is one pool codes and product delivery (3 to 5 days)of inventory. This is a huge hierarchies. Premium deliverystrategic move that allows same day, next day,the supply chain to free up • As a result achieving one named day & timeworking capital through pool of inventory can beimproved inventory very difficult and time The above illustrates a fewoptimization, but more consuming, so the sooner of the challenges forimportantly it enables all the you start the better. supply chain practitionersother capabilities to ensure to deliver an Omni-that inventory is available Capabilities channel supply chain. Thewhen and where the major difference in thiscustomer wants it. The capabilities that an Omni- latest supply chain channel supply chain need to transformation is theSurprisingly, a significant support are well known; however, increased requirement fornumber of retailers still have how they are implemented will IT enablement. The supplyseparate store and e- need to be tailored to each chain either has acommerce inventories. I was retailer’s specific business model. capability or does not –talking to a retailer the other These capabilities include but are muscling through withday that has 3 separate not limited to: people will not cut it.inventory pools (catalog,store and e-commerce • Network wide inventory Is your supply chain ready?Moving to one pool of optimization of Customerinventory can be challenging orders.due to: • Order online pickup in-store • Organizational Structures: Inventory “owned” by eachAbout the Author:Ian Rogers is an accomplished business leader with 20+ years in Retail / SupplyChain Management, Portfolio, Program, and Project Management. Ian’sexpertise comes from working in multiple countries (Canada, UK, US, China)and in multiple sectors including manufacturing and multi- channel retail(office products, mass merchandising, lifestyle brands). Over the years Ian hasworked with companies as both a senior line leader and as a managementconsultant in Supply Chain and IT. This broad based experience provides himwith the ability to take a holistic view, thereby understanding the potentialimpact changes in one area of the business will have on other areas.

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: REMCOREMCO was approached by Spice in 2014 for their integrationneeds with end clients. Since then, it has been a great workingrelationship among both organizations.Remco is a warehousing and transportation company with itsheadquarters in Montreal. The organization started over 60 yearsago in Montreal, where the owner’s father was asked by a friend tohelp move freight as a favor. He agreed and rented a truck to helpmove merchandise around.After doing this a couple of times and realized he was gettingmore and more of the same request for free, he decided to turn itinto a business. He rented more trucks, and the business began togrow.From a small local business in Montreal, Remco grew province- with Ruben Moosun,wide and finally became a nationwide organization with Director IT,warehouses in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. REMCO“Remco today, has grown considerably that you can find themacross every mall in Canada at least once a day” said RubenRemco specializes in the apparel business, and most of theirclients are in that industry. With their clients rangingfrom large recognizable brandssuch as PVH, Adidas, Burberry,“Forever 21; to small independent “Here at Remco, we shield our customers from the pain and SPICE and Remco takes on the complexities” “What we are doing at Remco into our customer’s internal system.” He said.retailers. however, is to apply technology to every stage of our business in Asides transportation andAs for future plans to expand into terms of visibility and warehousing, Remco sets itselfother industries, Ruben information on product apart from the rest of the packmentioned some consideration is movement.” by providing “Value Addedbeing given to possible extension Services” based on the uniqueto the food industry. “To stay ahead of the curve, needs and requests of theirAcknowledging the complexities it information is provided to our clients. Requests like pricebrings, in comparison to apparel, customers from when it arrives ticketing, removing andRuben is excited and definitely at our warehouse, till it is replacing labels, knitting andlooking forward to the challenge. delivered to the backroom of sewing damaged items, the stores. This is either provided hanging and many moreLike most businesses, there are through our portal or fed directly services are only few of thechallenges facing the many services Remco providestransportation industry today. One to their clients.of which is competition. Because Remco is also focused onspecial skills are not required to making improvements to theirget into trucking or warehousing, business processes whilecustomers can get heavily reducing the costs passed ondiscounted services from owner to their customers at the sameoperators making it difficult for time. One of the ways this waslarge corporations to compete.

achieved was by partnering with On discussing the improvements the past year and there hasSPICE for their integration needs. Remco has seen after signing up been no down with time. with SPICE, Ruben mentioned theWith SPICE, Remco was able to level of confidence in SPICE isdo a couple of things; reduce IT unmatched.costs by outsourcing the complexintegration process thus giving “We know that 24/7 we have In conclusion, Ruben saidtheir IT department room to support from Spice. We just do not “Based on the integrationfocus on things that they are have an individual, but we have an experience, cultural fit andreally good at like transportation organization. Before we were personal relationships withand logistics. heavily dependent on individuals; people at SPICE, we would and if the person was away or recommend SPICE to our“Our clients now believe that leaves the organization, there is a clients. They understand ourintegration is very simple, and big gap that most times cannot business challenges, andmay not understand the be left unreplaced for too long. understood what we werecomplexities that go on behind Now we can be at ease knowing looking for. The fit and feel ofthe scenes” that our issues are handled by an both companies work well organization and not just an together and I will definitelyA key example was, one of their individual” he said. recommend them to others.”clients Suit Supply based out ofAmsterdam. This company Spice is now able to help control Written by:creates high quality custom suits, Remco’s customer volume and Joy Rotimishirts and pants for men. They now that they have an (Marketing Coordinator )came to Remco while in the organization handling integration,midst of an e-commerce they are able to take on highexpansion to Canada with no volume projects and focus moreexperience using a 3PL. This on providing other services to theirexpansion project included some clients.”integration of some documentsto their Canadian ERP which One of the key strength he sees inSpice took on, the project was SPICE as an organization is thesuccessfully completed and Suit same high quality customerSupply has decided to adapt the service has been maintained oversame process to all otherlocations around the world.

SPICE IBMSoftware PracticeDigital innovators harness guarantee security at every four imperatives: technology to point of interaction –from dramatically change the way they deliver client transactions across your • Analytics-based visibility experience, or the way they ecosystems to your data and decision support operate – or both. They center and everything in across all operational data outperform their peers on key between? helps leaders make the business metrics like share of wallet and new product • Seamless portability – can you right decisions at the right development success. rapidly iterate new time, at the pace of digital Unleashing digital innovation applications and run them in business requires an ambidextrous way of working - it’s not simply about the best place for optimal • An application platform building the next killer app. performance, on any designed for hybrid cloud infrastructure, anywhere? and on-premise IT allows To truly differentiate and harness mobile, data and the • Unprecedented scalability – rapid iteration and internet of things for can your technology deployment of competitive advantage, dynamically and applications on any enterprises need to be able to automatically adapt to the infrastructure. open up their core systems to rapid digital innovation without demands your new • Process management and compromising security or innovations place on them? integration tools designed governance. • Complete visibility – are you for the API economy Bridging the world of traditional able to get insight into the allows reinvention of enterprise operations and things that matter for your processes across ecosystem-based digital business, in real-time? ecosystems, seamlessly innovation is not trivial. How and securely does your technology foundation perform on these SPICE Technology Group’s • Advanced analytics deliver must-have criteria…? Partnership with IBM enables us to adaptive and compelling deliver Security, Portability, content to clients and • Security – are you able to Scalability and Visibility across employees across all traditional IT and digital channels of interaction. ecosystems. SPICE help’s our clients achieve Written by Rad Dockery, Business Development ExecutiveSCRUM PROJECT MANAGEMENTUse Scrum Project Management to Deliver Working Products with More Business Value; Growing TrendScrum Project Management v/s Traditional WaterfallIn Scrum project tasks are divided in short sprints, this iterative cycle can be repeated until enough work items have been completed, thebudget is depleted or a deadline arrives. Project impetus is maintained, and when the project ends Scrum ensures that the most valuablework has been completed.This contrasts sharply to the more traditional waterfall style approach that fixes the project scope upfront, requiring the extensive creation ofrequirements, analysis and design documentation before development can get started. Delays and budget overruns are common, and thefailure to prioritize the feature set often results in low quality products that are overloaded with features that the customer/user does notactually require.Benefits of Scrum Project ManagementThe Scrum approach to project management enables software development organizations to prioritize the work that matters most andbreak it down into manageable chunks. Scrum is about collaborating and communicating both with the people who are doing the workand the people who need the work done. It’s about delivering often and responding to feedback, increasing business value by ensuring thatcustomers get what they actually want.Shifting from traditional project management approaches to Scrum project management requires an adjustment in terms of the activitiesthat are carried out, the artifacts that are created and the roles within the project team.

Real-Time Analyticsin the Retail Space and BeyondWith the world of e-commerce fast logic into the database itself.becoming the future of retail sales,finding a way to utilize all of the • Data Warehouse Appliances are combinationavailable sources of data out there, with hardware and software products designed specificallya real-time, dynamic analytics can for analytical processing. An appliance allows thedefinitely be a challenge for any retailer. purchaser to deploy a high-performance data warehouse right out of the box.Real-time analytics uses all availableinternal and external data resources • In-Memory Analytics is an approach to querying datawhen they are required. It consists of when it resides in Random Access Memory (RAM),dynamic analysis and reporting, based verses querying data that is stored on physical disks.on data entered into an enterprisesystem, and/or provided through • (MPP) Massively Parallel Programming is thevarious online data sources. coordinated processing of a program by multiple processors that work on different parts of theBelow are some examples of program, with each processor using its own operatingtechnologies that support real-time system and memory.analytics: Using a combination of analytics tools to mine social • (PIM) Processing in Memory is a media, such as IBM’s Watson, along with Google analytics chip architecture in which the and reporting tools like Tableau, which offers dynamic processor is integrated into a reporting, utilizing API’s, are helping retailer’s optimize memory chip to reduce latency. customer interactions quicker and more effective than ever thought possible. It can help businesses learn how to • (API) Application Program overcome the inevitable privacy and integration challenges Interface is a set of routines, that they may have encountered in the past. protocols, and tools for building software applications. The API The use of real-time analysis can give the retailer up-to-the- specifies how software minute information regarding their customers and present components should interact and it so that faster and smarter business decisions can be APIs are used when programming made -possibly even during the time span of a customer Graphical User Interface (GUI) interaction. Real-time analytics could be capable of components. instantly refreshing a retailer’s dashboards to reflect business changes throughout the day. • In-Database Analytics is a technology that allows data Written by processing to be conducted within Don Barnetson the database by building analytic (BI Developer Spice Technology Group)

NEW OFFICE ALERT!We are pleased to announce the opening of our new U.S. office in Houston, Texas. This office willserve as the operational center for our upper midsize and large enterprise businesses in the U.S.This important milestone signals our commitment to increase our presence in the US market wherewe have been servicing companies since 2011.We are thrilled about this continuous growth but it's important to point out that this expansion hasbeen driven largely by market forces. Companies with complex supply chains are demanding moreand more IT services and solutions to modernize their processes and systems to compete in a fastpace environment. We are fortunate to be part of their success and look forward to service existingand new clients. Welcome some of our NEW CLIENTS (January 2016 till Date)

PICTURES FROM: Retail Council of Canada’s STORE 2016