2013 comes with positive trends for the retail business in Bulgaria

On 10 October, 2012, Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan (Bulgaria) hosted the second national conference IT in RETAIL. The event was part of a series of seminars organized by Microsoft Bulgaria and Intelligent Systems Bulgaria dedicated to companies from key economic fields. After the success it had last year, in 2012 IT in RETAIL once again offered a place for discussion of problems in the retail business, possible solutions and the latest technologies for effective business management in particular.

At the beginning Lachezar Bogdanov, representative of Industry Watch, summarized the significant events in the industry for the past twelve months and made a forecast for the development of the sector in 2013. According to a research which the agency made, the good signs nowadays will continue during the next year, when we may expect positive trends and even better results.

There was also a demonstration of some of the basic retail business processes. Played out in front of the public were everyday situations, which at that very moment were directly registered in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the vertical solution LS Retail. Boyan Martinov, from Intelligent Systems Bulgaria, presented what’s new in the retail technologies for 2012 and talked about the main industry trends.

IT in RETAIL was the event which first introduced Tatjana Lukic in her new role of MBS Partner Leads South Balkans, Microsoft. She is also the new responsible for Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions and partners in Bulgaria. Ms Lukic shared with the public the vision of the company for the retail business and gave details about the novelties around the Microsoft Dynamics products, and their part specially oriented to that industry.

Interest arose for the presentation of Katja Ocvirk as well. She was a guest lecturer from LS Retail, with big experience in the business, and spoke about the latest improvements in LS Retail – the popular vertical solution based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Ms Ocvirk discussed the future of the sector globally, and gave her point of view for its possible development in technological perspective.

Svilen Stanchev, Business Development Manager in IBS – Bulgaria, drew the attention to the newest hardware systems which retail companies use in their everyday activities. He demonstrated the latest tendencies in the equipment and the opportunities which these modern tools provide to the retailers.

At the end of the event, Kalin Tzvetanov, Manager of Infos Bulgaria, showed why it is important for the retail organizations to have access to accurate reports on KPI’s in real time. He presented the flexible Business Discovery platform QlikView and the opportunities it gives to employees for optimization of business activities in all directions, and also for easier and faster preparation of analyzes based upon criteria of their choice on all company levels.

The Last part of the IT in RETAIL conference program was a cocktail on which all guests had the chance to discuss important topics related to the challenges retailers meet every day.