International Data Corporation announces new initiatives and expanded coverage

International Data Corp. (IDC), a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets has announced the launch of research initiatives in retail merchandise strategies and expanded coverage in product lifecycle management technology.

IDC Retail Insights has announced the launch of a new research service, Retail Merchandise Strategies, offering the retail industry an authoritative perspective on how retailers should use information technologies to achieve key operational, tactical and strategic objectives in the buying, planning, assortment, allocation, replenishment and pricing of merchandise.

Industry veteran, Greg Girard, joins the group as program director. With more than 25 years of experience, Girard has extensive experience in the retail technology industry. He held various positions over eight years at AMR Research, where as vice president he launched the AMR Research Retail Advisory Service and led it for more than five years. He was the first analyst to cover technologies that have become mainstays of today’s best practices in retail including price and revenue optimization, store execution and task management, advanced assortment planning, multi-echelon replenishment and constraint-based supply chain planning.

As program director, Girard’s research will focus on key themes such as differentiation, localization, customer-centricity, revenue and inventory optimization technologies, omnichannel retailing, collective intelligence, and location intelligence. His immediate research agenda will examine new mobile and social media shopping modalities consumers will employ during the upcoming 2010 holiday shopping season; social media analytics; a roadmap for integrating localized assortments, space planning, allocation, and replenishment; and best practices in predictive retail analytics, business intelligence, and optimization.

“The Retail Merchandise Strategies service has been designed to benefit retailers of all stripes operating across channels overcome today’s harsh market conditions and engage the technology savvy, omnichannel consumer with comparable technologies, consumer insights, and unique merchandise and services that maximize financial performance and brand value,” said Girard. “All specialty vendors singularly focused on retail technologies and services, as well as large vendors with any presence in retail, will also benefit from the service.”

IDC Manufacturing Insights has also announced an expansion of its Product Lifecycle Strategies practice. Sheila Brennan joins IDC Manufacturing Insights as program director with over 15 years of experience in process design, performance measurement, product development and quality management, with a strong focus on efficiency and manufacturing.

Most recently, Brennan spearheaded the Manufacturing Peer Forum at AMR Research, where she facilitated best practice sharing groups for F500, manufacturing, supply chain, operations and IT executives. In addition, she conducted dozens of benchmarking studies for AMR and PRTM’s benchmarking groups, measuring the impact of best practices and technology on operational performance to deliver prioritized recommendations for improvement to manufacturers.

As program manager, Brennan will examine business imperatives, best practices and emerging technologies in discrete manufacturing industries. Her research topics will center on product lifecycle economics, and include innovation, design and engineering, service and warranty, social product development and product end of life.

“The addition of two premier analysts demonstrates the tremendous growth we are enjoying in our manufacturing and retail practices,” said Robert Parker, vice president of IDC Manufacturing and IDC Retail Insights. “We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to add analysts of Sheila’s and Greg’s caliber to the teams.”