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Neiman Marcus deepens customer relationships using Office 365

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Today’s post was written by Sarah Miller, CIO at Neiman Marcus Group.

Image of Sarah Miller, CIO at Neiman Marcus Group.Neiman Marcus Group (Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Last Call, Horchow, mytheresa) finds success by capturing the hearts of our customers. From the lavish fashion shows in the 1920s to the iconic fantasy gift catalogues in the 1950s to the personalized digital styling program we launched last year, Neiman Marcus’s history of innovation builds lasting relationships. I love fashion, and as CIO of Neiman Marcus Group I am proud to be part of a strategy of transformation that will use leading-edge technology to continue our history of insight-driven customer service. In the world of luxury retail, it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve. With Office 365, we are embracing modern collaboration and communication technology to deepen customer relationships and increase our market share.

Transformation at Neiman Marcus Group comes down to modernizing communication across the entire organization. With collaboration tools from Microsoft, I envision sales Associates connecting with each other across stores and providing feedback to the executive team. Our Firstline Associates, who engage directly with customers, are an incredible source of insight and feedback. Drawing on their knowledge will spark new initiatives to drive innovation and improve service. Sales Associates and Stylists can look forward to using Microsoft Teams and Yammer to share information to build better connections with our customers, for instance by using insights gained through social media to recognize and share trends.

Additionally, our merchandising organization will be empowered to make more informed buying choices with the help of collaboration tools from Office 365. We are working with Microsoft partner Quisitive to implement our collaboration strategy and soon a range of Office 365 communication and collaboration tools will be available on Associates’ mobile devices, meaning that team members in the field working with brand partners will have real-time access to company knowledge. And behind the scenes, our product teams who build the technology supporting the customer experience will use Office 365 to share designs with team members in real-time and track the execution of a project. Our brand partners and supply chain are also positioned to benefit from the implementation of Office 365; the plan is to enhance our internal processes by turning insights about what our customers are buying into optimized product assortments and more efficient supply chain networks.

We are looking forward to using leading-edge, predictive machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) from the Microsoft cloud, and manipulating that real-time data using Office 365 to stay one step ahead of our customers’ expectations. Intelligent analytics represents an opportunity for us to use data to make astute styling and product recommendations and increase our understanding of how to serve our customers in the best way possible. It’s all about harnessing the talent within our organization and the data at our fingertips to make discerning choices that deepen indelible customer relationships.

While it didn’t take long for me to see the passion my colleagues bring to their work, I’m looking forward to using enterprise-level communication and collaboration tools from Office 365 to take our existing culture of collaboration and dedication to the next level. Going forward, it is imperative that we continue to recruit the brightest talent; in addition to our iconic heritage and solid brand foundation, a critical piece of being an attractive employer is being technologically empowered and having mobile-friendly technology on hand. With Office 365, we gain the level of security and scalability that we need to continue to transform our business.

We chose Office 365 because we were searching for technology that can help us take advantage of our wealth of knowledge of the customer and create an experience like no other. I’m excited about using Microsoft cloud technology to build on our history of great customer relationships and take our competitive advantage even further.

Read our Q&A with Sarah Miller on Transform.