By Kris Merz, Partner, Columbus Consulting International
Having served as an interim CIO in independent grocery, my first few weeks were spent taking a hard look at its technology; the most important conversations are rarely about new technology.
They’re about answering some basic questions.
- What do we have?
- Where are we exposed?
- What are we spending?
- What are we getting for it?
- Who is keeping all of this running?
- And is technology helping the business move forward, or holding it back?
“Independent grocers face the same pressures as the national chains: tight margins, rising costs and changing customer expectations. However, they usually face them without the same budgets, staff or depth of technology talent. That makes getting technology right more important, not less, and it makes technology a leadership issue, not just an IT issue.”
THE FIVE KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
Across independent grocers of every size and format, most technology challenges come back to five questions. None of them are unique to one company, and none of them belong to IT alone. Whether or not you have a CIO, your executive leadership team should be asking these questions together.
1. Are We Protecting the Business?
Cybersecurity is an obvious priority, but operational risk goes well beyond cyber threats.
Many independents operate with aging infrastructure, outdated systems, backup and recovery that haven’t been tested, and critical processes that depend on one or two people who know how everything works. These environments usually evolved over many years. The systems keep running, so the risk isn’t visible to the leadership team. Until something fails.
A POS outage, a network failure, or a down back-office system hits stores, associates, and customers immediately.
The priority for any leadership team is understanding where the business is vulnerable. Which systems are critical? What happens if they fail? How quickly can we recover, and has anyone actually tested that? Do we have the right support and procedures in place?
It’s not the most exciting work, but protecting the business has to come first.
2. Are We Spending Our Technology Dollars Wisely?
Every technology dollar at an independent grocer competes with other business priorities, so you need to know where the money is going and what it’s delivering.
Some of the quickest wins come from simply reviewing what the business is already paying for. Going through telecom, internet, software and support contracts line by line routinely turns up lines and services that are no longer in use but are still being billed every month. No new technology, no project, just someone taking the time to look.
But spending wisely doesn’t always mean spending less. Keeping aging infrastructure or heavily customized systems alive can look cheaper than replacing them, until you count the support costs, the operational risk and what they keep you from doing.
The goal is to make informed decisions based on business value, not to minimize the IT budget. The most successful independents invest in technology deliberately, and their leadership teams own those investment decisions together.
3. Do We Have the Right IT Organization?
A common pattern at independent grocers is a small, dedicated IT team spending nearly all its time keeping the business running. The same people supporting stores and fixing daily issues are also expected to manage infrastructure, cybersecurity, day-to-day operations, and vendors while also delivering major projects.
These teams are often stretched thin, yet there is a reluctance to expand the team or bring in outside help. The result: an ever-expanding list of projects that keeps growing but little gets delivered because the people who should be moving the business forward are tied up in just keeping the business operational. Even a skilled, dedicated team can’t create capacity that isn’t there.
The answer isn’t always more people. It’s deciding which capabilities need to be in-house, where outside partners make sense, and how to organize the team to handle both daily operations and the work that moves the business forward.
There’s also a difference between managing an IT department and leading technology as part of the business. Strong technical managers are essential, but they can’t run daily operations and deliver key projects while also carrying full responsibility for aligning technology with business strategy. That responsibility has to be shared with the executive team.
4. Do We Have a Technology Strategy or Just a List of Projects?
Most independent grocers have a long list of technology initiatives. Some come from aging systems, others from business requests, vendor or wholesaler requirements, or new opportunities. Each may make sense on its own. Together they can overwhelm a small organization.
It’s common to find no roadmap and no real prioritization. Every request goes on the list, and everything is a priority, which means nothing is. Projects get started, stall and wait for resources that never free up.
A list of projects isn’t a strategy. A real roadmap connects business priorities, operational risk, system dependencies, available resources and investment. It says what needs to happen, why, and in what order. Just as important, it makes clear what isn’t going to happen right now.
How priorities are managed and set matters too. Too often, IT gets involved after a business area has already picked a solution, and the expectation is that IT will simply implement it. Only then do the questions come up about integration, data, security and whether the solution fits the existing environment. What looked simple becomes more complicated, more expensive and harder to support.
IT shouldn’t make business decisions in isolation, and the business shouldn’t make technology decisions without IT. The best outcomes come when both sides define the problem and evaluate the options together from the start.
5. Are We Ready for What’s Next?
AI, ESL, automation and advanced analytics offer real opportunities for independent grocers, and there’s no shortage of vendors promising quick results. But there’s a practical reality that gets lost in the excitement.
If product and pricing data is inconsistent, inventory isn’t reliable, systems aren’t integrated, or processes depend on spreadsheets and manual workarounds, new technology won’t fix that. It will sit on top of it.
Many independents see significant gains from simply improving how information moves between existing systems. Better integration, more reliable data and cleaner processes pay off now and build the foundation for what comes next.
That doesn’t mean waiting until everything is modernized to explore new technology such as AI. It means starting with business problems worth solving, understanding the data and process requirements behind them, and going after opportunities that deliver measurable results. The point isn’t to adopt technology because it’s new. It’s to invest in what helps you run better, sell more, protect margin and compete.
IT Leadership Is Business Leadership—Ask Yourself The 5 Questions
For independent grocery leadership teams, the takeaway is that technology can’t operate as a separate function focused only on keeping systems running. Nearly every major initiative, whether it’s store operations, inventory, cost control, growth or the customer experience, depends on technology.
Independent grocers don’t need to copy the technology organizations or budgets of national chains. They do need strong technology leadership with a seat at the executive table, the right mix of internal and outside capabilities, and a practical roadmap tied to the business’ strategic priorities.
A good place to start is your next executive leadership meeting: put these five questions on the agenda and work through them together with your IT leader. Where the answers are hard to give is where to begin.
ABOUT KRIS MERTZ
Kris is a Partner at Columbus Consulting and a seasoned global retail technology executive with expertise in driving strategy and executing large-scale technology and business transformations that fuel growth, elevate performance, and enhance profitability. Kris is recognized as a change agent who seamlessly connects people, technology, and processes to execute initiatives effectively. Before joining Columbus in 2023, Kris held leadership positions such as CIO, CTO, and CDO at rue21, La Senza International, York Risk Services, OCLC,, and The Limited.
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