1. “Clothes R Us” Point Of Sale
Initiative- Situational Analysis
Ajay Srinivasan Ravi & Pooja Prabhu

2. 2
Clothes R Us- An overview
Situational Analysis
Problem Statement
Project Management Canvas
Project Timeline
Goals and Benefits
Strategic fitment
Cascade Map
Agenda

3. Clothes R Us- An Overview
The following illustrates the growth of Cisco since its inception and business strategy
1
Origin (1986)
Began apparel
operations in
Portland
Built reputation for
hip but affordable
clothing for men,
women, and
children
Growth (1990-
1997)
Experienced
tremendous growth
between 1990 and 1997
Employee base doubled
and store operations
increased by 50%
Net earnings rose by
18% to $534 million and
revenue by 23% to
$6.51 billion
Decline (1998-
2001)
Expanded to 400 stores
thereby doubling its
debt
Total headcount was
down by 20% and
number of employees
per store by one-thirds.
Commenced cost-
cutting in 2001 and
reported net loss of
$124 million

4. System Current State
TRADITIONAL
SYSTEM
Old Fashioned POS
system at front end
Non- integrated
credit authorization
device + Private
LAN
Standardized PC
(Back office)
Factors governing traditional IT system for Clothes ‘R’ Us
Front end Server Back end2
Delayed cash draw and item database pricing
Flawed integration with the server
Circuitous routing via 3 servers
Relying on standard office productivity software for
back store management functions

5. 5
Situational Analysis
3
Listed below are the SWOT of Clothes R Us in 2001 prior to the implementation of POS initiative
1. Strong reputation
2. Leading retailer between 1990-1997
3. Highly knowledgeable product
managers
4. Nation-wide operations(42 states)
Strengths
1. Store office operations
2. Circuitous authorization methodology
3. Insignificant IT capabilities
4. Flawed revenue growth strategy(failed
to factor in key issues)
5. Outdated product line
Weaknesses
1. Gap Inc. ,Eddie Bauer , and Pluto
2. Walmart in the low price segment
3. Depreciating gross margin
4. Dismal sales and attrition
5. Burgeoning debt
Threats
1. Leverage IT at store level
2. Optimize authorization process
3. Improve Customer interaction- CRM
implementation
4. International markets
Opportunities
Positives
Negatives

6. Problem statement
Problem: Clothes R Us is a retailer of hip and affordable apparels across 400 stores in 42 states in USA. Recently, the
company has been losing market share to competitors and has doubled its debt. The “as-is” store processes require the
manager to spend about 75% of his person day in reconciling close outs, cash management, inventory tracking, and staff
scheduling among others. Also, the old-fashioned Point Of Sale(POS) systems have a circuitous authorization process that
routes transactions via 3 disparate servers consuming 30-45 seconds per transaction on an average.
Impact: This has resulted in the company facing a net loss of $123.62 million and reporting its first fiscal year loss in more
than 15 years thereby causing a significant financial burden on the company. Furthermore, the cash dividends shriveled by
83% to $12,857 in 2001 from $79,503 in 2000, making the stockholders lose confidence in the company.
4

7. Problem statement
Problem: Clothes R Us is a retailer of hip and affordable apparels across 400 stores in 42 states in USA. The current store
processes require the manager to spend about 75% of his person day in reconciling close outs, cash management, inventory
tracking, and staff scheduling among others. Also, the old-fashioned POS systems have a circuitous authorization process
that routes transactions through 3 disparate servers consuming 30-45 seconds per transaction on an average.
Impact: This has resulted in the company doubling its debt with a net loss of $123.62 million and reporting its first fiscal year
loss in more than 15 years thereby causing a significant financial burden on the company. The competition from Walmart is
intense in the low-price segment, which happens to be Clothes R Us' primary product segment. Furthermore, the cash
dividends shriveled by 83% to $12,857 in 2001 from $79,503 in 2000, making the stockholders lose confidence in the
company.
Proposal: The company looks to address this issue by freeing up the store manager’s time and automating cash
management processes via enhancing the IT capabilities at the store level to promote increased sales.
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8. 6

9. 9
Project Management Canvas
7
The canvas talks about the overall planning of the project
Resources
Core Team
• Nancy Orlin- CIO
• Product Managers
Stakeholders:
• EMT
• Operations Steering Committee
• Executive Oversight Committee
• Product Management Team
• Store personnel
ABC Consulting team
• Marcus Nord- Program Manager
• Ben Richards- Deployment Manager
• Rich Burke- Infrastructure Manager
• Linda Hansen- POS Project Manager
Activities
Phase1: Planning
Decide monitoring and
reporting parameters
Phase2: Development
• Define system objectives
• Develop data and
software architecture
designs
Phase 3: Implementation
• Prepare Functional and
ancillary requirements
• Design UI and system
interfaces
• Code -
• Test
Phase 4: Deployment
• Phased roll out beginning
with pilot stores
Deliverables
• POS and Credit Systems
• Store management suite
• CRM data interfaces to new CRM
• Inventory data interfaces to
corporate inventory legacy
systems
• Extension of email services
• VOIP at stores and HQ
Goals
• Optimize store manager’ s man
hours
• Automate cash management
processes at store level
• Provide on-network connectivity
allowing dynamic processing
• Bring down credit authorization
processing times
Benefits
• $15 million per year
• $20000/ year/resource in
salary and benefits
• $11000/ year savings through
back office applications
Capabilities
• Insignificant IT resources & systems
• Highly knowledgeable Product
Managers
Cost Risk /Benefits
Delayed Sign-offs
Employee Poaching
WorldCom debacle
Performance Measures/metrics
Cost impact Control ratio Schedule impact Monthly Total planned
expenses

10. 10
Project Timeline
8
The project timeframe is illustrated by means of a Gantt chart
June Jan Feb
Project
Commencement
Review
meeting
Jan 2002
Feb – Apr 2002
Planning phase
Product Definition
& Architecture
Implementation
Completed on time
Mar April May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar April
2002 2003
May – Dec 2002
Jan – Apr 2003
Completed with delays At Risk
Deployment

11. Project Goals & Associated Benefits
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Free up the store manager to
work the store instead of the
store office
Automate cash management
processes to include
credit/debit at store level
Provide on-network
connectivity
Allow cross-store inventory
checking and reduce
authorization times at POS
Increased Man
hours(66% more time )
in the store operations
Savings to the tune of
$20k per resource and
increased Customer
satisfaction
Real time processing of
sales data and increased
efficient utilization of
resources
Improved productivity
and lesser waiting times
for clients from 30-25
seconds to < 5 seconds
Benefits
POS

12. Benefits Cascade Map
1
0
• Store managers to spend 66% less time than earlier
• Savings to the tune of $20k
• Increased employee efficiency
• Reduced Authorization times to less than 5 seconds
This will occur on a daily/ yearly basis
EMT and Consulting firm
• New store management suite
• Automated electronic messaging ,email, and VoIP
• POS ,credit systems, and CRM
• Store Manager
• Customers & employees
• Business stakeholders
Yes, Store managers will spend 1.5-2 hours per day as
opposed to spending 6 hours per day
• Measured in man hours
• Employee efficiency
• CSI
• Processing times
• Sales figures
• Improved CSI
• Long term savings of
$37k/year/store
• Increased sales figures
WIP
Will be achieved in a span of 1 year by
implementing new system capabilities
by associating with ABC consulting firm
What?
When?
Who ?
Change?
Who? How & When?
Achieved?
How More?
Quantifiable?

13. Strategic fitment of benefits
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Benefit Parameter Strategic Fitment Achievability
Good
Fit
Adequate
Fit
Poor Fit Easily
achievable
Achievabl
e
Difficult to achieve
Store Managers spend
66% more time than
before working the
store
Very Very. Needs additional capability.
Has to outsource to a consulting
firm.
Savings to the tune of
$20k per resource and
increased Customer
satisfaction
Very Very. Needs additional capability.
Has to outsource to a consulting
firm.
Real time processing of
sales data and
increased employee
efficiency
Yes Very. Needs additional capability.
Has to outsource to a consulting
firm.
Reduced Authorization
times to less than 5
seconds – Improved
productivity and lesser
waiting times for
clients
Very Very. Needs additional capability.
Has to outsource to a consulting
firm.
Strategic fitment Achievability factor
Their strategy was to reduce operating costs, increase sales by multiplying stores , improve customer satisfaction

14. Thank You
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15. 15
Situational Analysis-2
3
The company went back to the drawing board to perform a SWOT analysis
1. Strong reputation
2. Leading retailer between 1990-1997
3. Highly efficient managers
Strengths
1. Store office operations
2. Circuitous authorization methodology
3. Insignificant IT capabilities
Weaknesses
1. Gap Inc. ,Eddie Bauer , Walmart, and
Pluto
2. Limited schedule for additional
changes and delayed sign-offs
3. Product managers lack of focus
4. Hardware-software incompatibility
5. Deployment deadline slippage
Threats
1. Leverage IT at Store level
2. Optimize authorization process
3. CRM implementation
4. Revenue increase to the tune of $15
million
Opportunities
Positives
Negatives