We recently returned from Chain Store Age’s SPECS Show. SPECS is a show for the design, construction management, project management and facilities management departments within retail organizations, and focuses on what’s next and what’s shaping the future of retail as it relates to those departments.

In light of recent reports about the decline of bricks and mortar retail, it was interesting to hear that most of the attendees were quite positive about the outlook for the industry, and were primarily in either growth or maintain modes, versus contraction. In fact, in a survey of retail attendees, on average they are:

In general, the feeling was that retail is not only alive, but it’s healthy and moving in a positive direction.

That said, these retailers recognized that there is still an opportunity to optimize and become more efficient – whether it was getting a better handle on managing project costs and schedules, or ensuring that their locations are properly maintained and customer ready.

Adoption of new and innovative technologies was also apparent in the sessions at SPECS, which explored topics such as how virtual reality will provide an immersive experience in helping with designing retail spaces, as well as utilizing drones that enables you to view your site while it’s under construction without having to physically visit the site.

These are great examples of where the industry is headed, but the focus of almost all our meetings with retail and restaurant companies was the basics of project management and facilities maintenance.  Namely, how do I improve efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to getting the job done?  And for executives, how can I gain better visibility across projects and programs so I know where we are from a cost and timeline perspective at any given time? The good news is there are innovative ways to solve for these age-old problems.

At the show we were excited to share with retailers how Tango’s integrated solution can provide their construction and facilities management departments with more visibility and help shave days – or even months – off the development lifecycle, and provide their customers the store experience they deserve, with faster and more cost-effective resolution of store maintenance issues.

Interested in learning more?