This research provides a summary of completed retail implementations supported by a variety of time and labor (T&L) management vendors, as well as key takeaways from this analysis.

• No vendor we track is likely to fulfill 100% of a retailer's T&L management requirements, but it's likely that a few, including JDA Software (JDA), Kronos and RedPrairie, would be suitable to meet most requirements.

• Nearly all retailers are seeking guidance about single-vendor T&L management solutions, but only a few vendors (Dayforce, JDA, RedPrairie and Reflexis) have clients contracted to use their solutions to support the end-to-end T&L process.

• Software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions are gaining noticeable adoption from smaller box, Tier 1 and Tier 2 specialty retailers seeking alternative T&L delivery models suitable to their operational environments.

• Ease of use has pushed dominant vendors, such as Kronos and RedPrairie, to invest in improving their user interfaces and access to applications via associate mobile devices.

• Do not pursue a T&L initiative or RFP if you have not first defined your business needs, labor models and project requirements. Some leading retailers have not taken these steps and struggled or stalled with T&L initiatives as a result.

• Consider a SaaS deployment option if the solution suits your business requirements, your need is urgent and your IT resources are limited. Do due diligence in modeling the business case, as well as addressing other challenges that SaaS and alternative deployment models present.

This document was revised on 23 December 2010. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.

Many retailers are budgeting T&L management initiatives to better manage store labor and to support up to 20% projected retailer revenue growth expected by 2013. While no vendor we track can likely fulfill 100% of a retailer's requirements, there are likely to be a few that have specific capabilities that could be suitable to meet most of a retailer's requirements.

During the past year, client interest has grown steadily on retail T&L management processes and vendor capabilities. Many retailers saw their projects and budgets unfrozen, due to evidence of a slow, economic recovery and to advance projects that would support a key resource — store labor — to support retailer growth and a critical customer touchpoint in stores. In August 2010, Gartner completed a retailer survey of 176 retail executives from Tier 1 and Tier 2 retail organizations in nine countries (see Note 1). We found that nearly all retailers expect their revenue to increase from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013. The percentages of survey respondents and expected revenue increases are:

• 38% — increase: 1% to less than 10%

• 20% — increase: 10% to less than 20%

• 11% — increase: 20% to less than 30%

Gartner defines retail T&L applications as workforce solutions deployed to manage scheduling, time and attendance (T&A), and store task management. Task management functionality continues to drive innovation and development efforts of several vendors in this market, and can provide corporatewide visibility into store-level execution of initiatives by enhancing the design, planning, execution and monitoring of tasks and projects.

This research provides a visual summary of several T&L management vendors that we are tracking with suitable solutions for large retailers.

All vendors included in this research were invited to brief Gartner during 3Q10 and 4Q10 as part of our ongoing coverage of T&L management and to support client interest. The following vendors have commercially available, Web-based solutions suitable for supporting very large retailers, and have a minimum of five retail customers implemented or in active enterprise rollout:

• CyberShift

• Dayforce

• Infor Workbrain

• JDA Software

• Kronos

• Oracle

• RedPrairie

• Reflexis

• SAP

• Tomax

• Torex

• WorkPlace Systems

The primary benefit of T&L solutions is to improve retail management's ability to manage the end-to-end T&L process. This means staffing stores with the right people, in the right roles, at the right places, at the right time so that everyone (especially management) can stay focused on maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the largest and most-significant selling channel.

The following figures and key takeaways provide updates of each vendor's completed retail implementations across a variety of key dimensions, including its T&L capabilities. Retailers planning T&L management projects should ensure that they have defined their business needs, labor models and project requirements prior to embarking on the RFP process.

No vendor we track is likely to fulfill 100% of a retailer's T&L management requirements, but it is likely there are a few, including JDA, Kronos and RedPrairie, that would be suitable to meet most requirements. Figure 1 summarizes the total number of current contracted retail customers by vendor, as well as how many retailers are deployed by the specific T&L capability covered in this research.

Retailers should conduct a thorough evaluation of all potential T&L vendors. Most of the vendors in this research have enough functionality in T&A and scheduling, in particular, to support many of the requirements of large retailers.

We added vendor labor standards process capability in this analysis to highlight this critical capability, which is sometimes overlooked in the planning process. Accurate labor standards are necessary if retailers expect to optimize their scheduling process. The majority of vendors in this research do not provide services or have the expertise to help retailers that don't have existing labor standards; however, all can incorporate labor standards that are developed by the retailer or other companies, such as H.B. Maynard (now part of Accenture's Operations Workforce Optimization Group). Labor standards should be part of defining T&L project requirements.

Nearly all retailers are seeking guidance about single-vendor T&L management solutions, but only a few vendors (Dayforce, JDA, RedPrairie and Reflexis) have clients contracted to use their solutions to support the end-to-end T&L process. Most of the largest vendors do not provide complete T&L capabilities in their software suites, yet most retailers with whom we speak request details about vendor capabilities, including task management as part of their RFPs. Dayforce, JDA, RedPrairie, Reflexis, Tomax and WorkPlace Systems include capabilities such as task management as part of their software suites. Gartner defines a task management application as a solution that is deployed to bridge the gap between retailers' sales-planning strategies and operational execution in stores. Web-based and highly configurable, these off-the-shelf applications have helped many large retailers improve the design, planning, execution and monitoring of processes executed in stores. It allows retail management, at corporate offices and in stores, to balance the workload sent to stores. Such applications also provide real-time visibility to estate compliance of key store initiatives, and collect and analyze store feedback quickly via exception reporting and alerts.

Kronos has the highest number of retail T&L deployments (including customers acquired from the 2009 Stromberg acquisition) across a number of their capabilities, with a strong presence in North America and Western Europe. Reflexis and RedPrairie follow, with more than 50 retail customers each; however, only some of their respective customers are contracted for multiple modules/T&L capabilities, and neither has a referenceable customer that is live on its entire T&L suite. Retailers should also note that the complexity of a client's T&L project and the degree of change management associated with it can impact how smoothly deployment goes. Even the more dominant T&L vendors have experienced their share of deployment challenges. Spending time upfront defining the business and project requirements will minimize the chance of missing something important to test or evaluate during the proof of concept or pilot stage.

Oracle and SAP are two of the largest enterprise software vendors by company revenue (see Figure 2), with a significant presence in retail and regions worldwide across their broad solution portfolios. However, the functionality and adoption of their T&L solutions lag in adoption when compared with the best-of-breed vendors, and Kronos and RedPrairie in particular.

Oracle has numerous large retailers implemented on T&A across their T&A solutions (Oracle E-Business Suite Time and Labor, and PeopleSoft Enterprise Time and Labor), and a few known contractual commitments for its scheduling application (Oracle Workforce Scheduling). To date, Gartner is only aware of two retailers that are live on Oracle Workforce Scheduling, which became commercially available in 2006. The Oracle Workforce Scheduling product and Oracle's T&L solutions are marketed as separate products; however, Gartner is aware that Oracle has delivered two-way integration out-of-the-box between Oracle Workforce Scheduling and PeopleSoft Time and Labor for one customer, which the retailer configures to provide an integrated T&L suite. This is different than the approach taken by all other vendors in this market segment.

SAP has an integrated T&L solution with a growing number of contractual commitments; however, only a small number of SAP Workforce Management (WFM) implementations are completed on version 3.0.

Several vendors offer task management, but not all vendors have comparable capabilities. As more retailers become interested in improving their store-level execution, understanding how a particular vendor's solution is used or positioned to support task management is important when evaluating vendors. RedPrairie and Reflexis have many large retail clients that are using their respective task management solutions to improve store-level execution and visibility of major corporate-level initiatives. These solutions have been proved to streamline communication and workflow prioritization central to the store execution process, whereas other vendor solutions have not yet proved that they are comparable to or capable of managing corporatewide initiatives or tasks in this way.

For example, JDA has included task management as part of its WFM solution for the past couple of years, and Gartner is aware of two customers (Dollar Tree and a specialty retailer) that are using all of JDA's T&L capabilities. In a discussion with one of the task management users, Gartner determined that JDA's functionality is being used as a tactical checklist for stores, rather than to manage or provide chainwide visibility of critical tasks or corporate initiatives.

Dayforce also has task management capability. Gartner is aware of two customers — Longo's and Golfsmith — that are using task management to generate and assign tasks, as well as compliance tracking, though we have not spoken with a referenceable customer to confirm use.

WorkPlace Systems has developed task management capabilities and has also partnered with Infor Workbrain to sell task management into the North American market. Gartner is unaware of any WorkPlace customer, or customers from the Infor Workbrain partnership, using the WorkPlace task management functionality.

Retailers should understand a vendor's task management capabilities and determine if this capability is necessary for and suitable to their business requirements. Gartner is not aware of any retail customer that has successfully deployed only one vendor's solution for T&A, scheduling and task management, or has successfully delivered integration between different vendors for task management and/or scheduling and/or T&A.

SaaS solutions are gaining noticeable adoption from smaller box, Tier 1 and Tier 2 specialty retailers that want alternative T&L delivery models suitable to their operational environments. Two years ago, CyberShift had only a couple of specialty retailers that deployed on perpetual software licenses, while Dayforce was just starting up its company and marketing. Today, both vendors join RedPrairie, Reflexis, Tomax and WorkPlace Systems, which provide SaaS delivery models for T&L management. Gartner is aware of a few dozen Tier 1 and Tier 2 retailers that have completed SaaS deployments or are in active rollout.

Gartner defines SaaS as software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers an application based on a single set of common code and data definitions, which are consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers anytime on a pay-for-use basis, or as a subscription based on use metrics. The core proposition behind SaaS/on-demand is the delivery of a multitenant service from a remote location over an Internet Protocol (IP) network via a subscription-based outsourcing contract. This type of delivery model is based on payment for a service, rather than for software products and professional services.

T&L SaaS solutions are emerging as attractive alternatives for smaller footprint retailers, particularly specialty Tier 1 or Tier 2 retailers that have fewer employees per site than big box retailers, as well as a lean IT staff to help them support the deployment. Gartner has seen retailers adopt SaaS models for a variety of reasons, often because they can deploy these solutions faster and with less upfront capital investment in infrastructure and system support and implementation than traditional perpetual licensed software. Retailers should be aware of the longer-term costs associated with SaaS deployments. SaaS is especially attractive in the current economic climate; however, over time, SaaS will likely cost a Tier 1 large-scale retailer more than Perpetual License models.

Retailers should be aware of other challenges associated with this model. For example, challenges include governance, data security, customization, architecture, agility, scale and integration issues, as well as developing the skills of IT and business managers' skills to manage the relationship effectively with the SaaS provider.

Retailers considering T&L SaaS solutions should understand how a vendor positions its SaaS solution. For example, Kronos positions a fully hosted SaaS model, but it is not a Gartner-defined SaaS solution, because Kronos has not rearchitected its core solution to support multitenant one-to-many consumption.

In addition, retailers should understand the pros and cons of SaaS and other deployment models in the T&L space (see Figure 3). For retailers that already pay for Perpetual Licenses, hosting and application maintenance may be useful services.

Vendors that have completed more than 50 retail T&L implementations may not always be the best partner, because known deployments vary widely by vendor. Figure 4 provides a summary of known retail customers and demographics, including retailer revenue, number of employees, retail segment and number of regional deployments completed by vendor. Table 1 provides details of referenceable customers. The key point is that not all of a vendor's retail customers are necessarily contracted to use multiple T&L capabilities. When evaluating vendors, it's important to find similar types of references based on requirements.

Nearly all of Reflexis' several dozen large retail customers are using the vendor's task management solutions. While there are several retailers contracted to implement their scheduling and/or T&A solutions, Gartner is aware of only one major U.S.-based specialty chain that has completed a rollout of task management and scheduling across all its U.S. stores (though not delivered as an integrated solution), and T&A only in international stores.

Gartner receives many questions about vendors, particularly centered on the capabilities of Infor Workbrain, Kronos, RedPrairie and Reflexis. Each of the vendors we track has potential functionality that can support a wide variety of a retailer's T&L requirements, typically with solution configuration versus customization. Retailers should use this analysis to pursue relevant customer references as part of due diligence and the vendor selection process, because not all customers are necessarily using functionality that you may be interested in deploying. Retailers should talk to at least a few customers that are using similar functionality, to ensure the vendor can meet most, if not all, of your project requirements.

Ease of use has pushed dominant vendors, such as Kronos and RedPrairie, to invest in improving their user interfaces and enable application access via consumer mobile devices. Pressure from retail customers to improve functionality has pushed some vendors to invest here. Earlier in 2010, RedPrairie announced its enhancement as part of Site Manager, and Kronos launched its Next Generation User Interface (NGUI), a new user interface that can be delivered to users as part of Kronos' v.6.1 and v.6.2 product releases.

Extreme hype around consumer-enabled mobile shopping applications delivered on consumer devices, such as the iPad or smartphones, has put pressure on retailers to provide better access and tools that will enable associates to serve more informed customers. As a result, Gartner expects retailers to elevate associate self-service as a more prominent capability that vendors' applications will need to support.

Creating access to T&L solutions via any of a retailer's store-level devices — or perhaps, more critically enabled access to sales associates' mobile devices (as defined by the associate's role and business rules) — will emerge as a key requirement in the near term. Gartner expects the National Retail Federation show to be flooded with vendors pushing the ability to access a wide variety of enterprise applications on any type of mobile client, tablet or consumer smartphone. Retailers should anticipate this shift and the need, and define the process and policy changes that apply from a T&L perspective to guide associates.

• Do not pursue a T&L initiative or RFP if you have not first defined the business needs, labor models and project requirements. While this sounds like an obvious statement, it bears repeating, because Gartner has spoken to more than a few retailers that pursued the business case for funding a project from an RFP, but did not have well-defined project requirements and/or mapped the associated process change required to support a successful business initiative. Defining requirements and understanding how a solution will be used to improve your "as is" T&L management process, and gaining organizational commitment to embrace and use the solution is critical.

• Consider a SaaS deployment option if the solution suits your business requirements, your need is urgent and your IT resources are limited. Do due diligence in modeling the business case, as well as addressing other challenges with SaaS and alternative deployment models, including governance, data security, customization, architecture, agility, scale and integration issues. Develop the skills of IT and business managers to effectively manage the relationship with the T&L provider.

• Do not underestimate the impact consumer-based technology adoption and ease of use will have on the T&L management solution's user interface. T&L solutions potentially touch all store-based users, compared with most other types of store technologies. Therefore, evaluating vendors for providing a good user experience should be part of the vendor evaluation and selection process. Ensure that store-based users, as well as field management, have input in the evaluation and decision process. Whether associate self-service is in scope now, or will be in a future phase, it's important that retailers spend time to identify the process change now to avoid one of the most common pitfalls — skipping upfront vendor/product evaluations.