NEW YORK – Following its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last March, A&P, Montvale, N.J., is nearly a year into a transformational IT overhaul expected to take 24-36 months and encompass all aspects of its business operations, said Nirup Krishnamurthy, chief information officer for A&P.
“We plan to move from a gut-based, experience-based decision-making process to a fact-based, analytically oriented one,” said Krishnamurthy on Monday at a session here at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention, “That’s a huge transformation for us culturally.”
The technology improvements, made in alignment with A&P’s business side, has so far included an upgrade to its networking infrastructure that has “increased bandwidth to stores by five to tenfold and reduced network costs by one-third,” he said. The chain, which operates over 300 stores in six states, plans to consolidate its data center, “reducing its data center footprint by 50% by the end of this year,” he added.
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A&P is also working on using technology to make its assortment match the individual demographics of stores, ensure that planograms are optimized, track inventory more accurately and order product in an automated fashion, he said.
Krishnamurthy told SN that A&P has made a “modest investment” in new technology but is also cutting operating expenses via system improvements.
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