What's most important to retailers right now is keeping costs down and profits up. With that in mind, the retail environment is full of opportunities for improvement in both areas. Now, more than ever, there's an endless array of low hanging fruit that if leveraged properly, can reduce resource (energy, water, waste)/operating costs and elevate profits. Since this is the last of our series, I thought it would be best to summarize all of the elements that we've discussed as you consider how your organization will control operational costs. By Jim Poad, director of client solutions, Advantage IQ

In the first of four articles, we highlighted the gaps in inventory management identified by the Cross-Channel Retail Consortium that met in September 2009. This second article takes a closer look at the three strategies identified — visibility everywhere; sourcing flexibility; and exception detection, notification, and recovery. With these strategies, retailers can optimally use their inventory without risking stock-outs or incurring unnecessary operational costs. By John Stelzer, Sterling Commerce

While the U.S. economy is beginning to recover, retailers still need to consider how to reduce operating costs and increase revenues. Energy is one of the line items being considered these days. According to ENERGY STAR, of all the commercial buildings in the U.S., retail buildings account for the largest energy costs — nearly $20 billion each year — and are also responsible for the second largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global climate change. By Jim Poad, director of client solutions, Advantage IQ

In this podcast, Big Al describes how Magstar Total Retail helped him cut time and labor warehouse costs by 40% in the six years since he went live with Magstar while still adding 2,000 new products each year and tripling his business volume overall.

Walter explains the four-level "Kirkpatrick Model" that is commonly used in the evaluation of training programs within the performance and human resources industry. This model is also helpful in the design phase of a program because it can assist you in articulating your program goals in each of the four levels.

There are multiple factors that affect business performance and managers often push on only one or two of them in an effort to improve an employee's performance. In this episode, Walter walks us through eight dimensions or "levers" of performance that must come together for desired behaviors, performance, and results to occur.

Click here to see how one QSR embraced Epson's ReStick label printer, along with Dinerware POS, to enhance customer service, eliminate errors and save on custom packaging.