Learn what it takes -- and costs -- to put up a retail store in two weeks.
Project Overview
You've studied the market, researched the location, picked the building, designed the space and ordered the merchandise.
In two weeks, your $15 billion retail clothing operation will officially open another outpost in its 3,000-store franchise.
So now it's time to get to work. Quickly setting up your system for collecting sales information is the final step to a successful store rollout. With a date for a gala grand opening already set in stone, there's no room for error.
But with 250 new outlets a year, your store planners have plenty of experience with these rollouts, so execution—not invention—will be the key to meeting the two-week timetable. An on-site project manager will oversee the hardware installers and the applications and network specialists who will each need a few days to complete their tasks.
Point-of-sale (POS) systems will anchor the front of your 24,000-square-foot "mid-box" store. The applications experts will need to ensure that data from the POS systems and inventory bar-code readers correctly passes to the store control server, where it will be available to headquarters applications that track sales and send orders to suppliers.
A 1.5 megabit-per-second connection will ensure rapid completion of sales and passing on of transaction information. Plan on both a wired and wireless network—a new wrinkle in recent rollouts. The wireless component will allow easy tracking of inventory data and help discreetly measure customer traffic.
Testing and training in the second week will ensure the systems are ready. "People don't like to wait in line," says Eric Olson, vice president of products and services for Retail Systems Alert Group in Newton, Mass. "Whatever your systems, they have to serve the customer first."
Tools: Planners 
