CIO Bulletin

Logile – Optimize customer service, employee satisfaction and boost profitability

Trying to find a solution for the chaos and crowds at retail stores can often be challenging. Finding solutions that organize storewide employee schedules, attendance, time, task execution, inventory, service, and much more can help give a company the competitive edge it needs to remain profitable and deliver the best service possible.

Founded in 2005, Logile is the leading provider of retail labor planning, workforce management (WFM), inventory management (IMS), and store execution solutions. They provide unparalleled customer and employee satisfaction, bringing logic to retail.

With the recent investment of capital from Sixth Street, they are continuing to grow and deliver on their mission to provide retailers with a total store-level ERP solution on one unified platform with all-mobile usability to empower the connected worker.

CIO Bulletin had the opportunity to interview the CEO of Logile, Purna Mishra.

Q. What differentiates Logile’s solutions for retailers?

First, our people—a mix of talented software professionals, seasoned retail veterans, and accomplished engineering consultants—are committed to ensuring customers gain value from our solutions to plan, schedule, execute, and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.

Second, the power of Logile software solutions that combine Workforce Management (WFM), Inventory Management (IMS), task execution, and communications management on a unified platform with consumer-grade UI and UX gives stores a single system to learn and use without conflicting priorities between systems, limitations for data access across systems, or vendor-to-vendor points of failure.

We are bringing the same level of innovation inherent in our leading WFM solution to IMS, including fresh production planning as well as complete computer assisted ordering. Synergies are significant where the same labor standards are used to plan your workload, schedule it, and assign the right work to the right people at the right time to fulfill what needs to be made while reducing shrink and out-of-stocks.

Our technology stack is capable of incredible performance in real time. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) enriches our system and empowers connected workers to be more productive by equipping them with tools to access the data in real time. They are connected to the retailer’s unified sales, merchandising, production, and service plan—a single multi-dimensional plan aligning the workforce with the inventory that needs to be merchandised and managed to fulfill sales.

Q. Many retailers commend your Labor Model. How is it different?

Logile’s Enterprise Labor Model (ELM) is a key component of our solutions. Before we developed our labor model, retailers were faced with the challenge of integrating labor standards developed by one company with systems created by another.

By taking end-to-end ownership of store-specific standards all the way through to how operations are planned, scheduled, and executed, we help retailers put the right people in the right place at the right time, doing the right things in the right way in every store department throughout the entire day.

Q. Can you further describe Logile’s solution architecture, including AI and machine learning?

Logile has embraced the power of AI and has implemented it throughout our platform for several years. AI, machine learning algorithms, and the ability to handle item-level data in real time are key enablers of next-generation capabilities that deliver on our mission of a total store-level ERP solution.

Our Forecasting solution uses AI and proprietary machine learning algorithms to create a unified, multi-dimensional, multi-layered forecast that supports all business needs. Every part of the business is aligned around item-level forecasting, which leverages historical data with real-time weather conditions, pricing, promotions, events, trends, seasonality, and even special orders. It is accurate and reliable, and it is the basis for knowing what to produce and not overproduce, when that next case is needed while avoiding out-of-stock situations, maintaining merchandising minimums, and delivering the products, services, and shopping experience that build customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition to supporting budget planning, we create item-level forecasts beginning 8 weeks in advance and iteratively revise them each day. That supports pre-booking merchandise weeks in advance and allows adjustments as the day approaches. Plans for ads, events, and push merchandising ensure that your forecast is right at the department level but is very accurate right down to the item or production item level.

We use AI in labor modeling to convert the raw hours calculated based on forecast volume into true scheduling requirements. Our scheduling solution is also optimized using AI, not just filling shifts but also placing the right associates at the right time and place to do the right tasks in the best way. We can better utilize the skills of store associates than any other system. Where stores are understaffed, our system identifies shifts for gig-style workers to request. We can even add special incentives for hard-to-cover shifts to get them filled.

AI is equally powerful in our inventory management solution. Fresh Production with IMS is about producing the right product at the right time in the right quantity so it can be merchandised in the right way. Item-level forecasting, developing production planning, reformulating ingredients to create the batch size you need and not more, reordering shelf stock, perishable goods, seasonal items, production ingredients, yield production primal, supplies, and more are all powered by AI to optimize store execution.

Long-Term Staff Planning is driven by AI to optimize staff planning by anticipating attrition and making fact-based decisions about when to hire. And when retailers do hire, it’s about knowing the labor skills they need and the essential availability to cover with enough lead time to hire, onboard, and train associates so they can be successful and productive.

Q. Would you like to highlight anything important happening in your company?

We continue to invest in products and innovate with technology designed for retailers. Logile’s Food Safety Thermal Intelligence solution is industry-leading for maintaining safe food holding temperatures. We measure more than just the ambient air temperatures, and we use labor-saving sensors for monitoring hot and cold foods.

Our gig-style scheduling is helping retailers attract associates who seek flexible options beyond traditional scheduling for reasons such as school schedules, family care obligations, or personal preference. Our retail customers are experiencing fewer unfilled shifts and retaining valuable associates.

Our store-level ERP system is empowering mobile, connected workers to improve customer service and customer satisfaction and run great stores with higher productivity. Our smart systems enable stores to be profitable and grow. Retailers recognize Logile as a critical, strategic partner because our support and solutions deliver a competitive advantage for their future.

A brief biography of the CEO

Purna Mishra is the Founder and CEO of Logile. Purna, a visionary force in enterprise workforce management and store operations optimization, has a long, successful history of technological and entrepreneurial leadership. Following the sale of his first software company in 2004, Purna founded Logile in 2005 and has led the company in pioneering digital innovation and disruptive technologies. Purna was recognized in CDO Magazine’s Global Data Founders List 2022 and holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Oregon and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology.