Macy's Inc.

Laura Miller is a decisive, results-driven executive with 20+ years of demonstrated success in developing and delivering digital strategies that result in significant business value. Distinguished by her authentic leadership, her passion for solving business problems and her ability to deliver large transformational initiatives.

Laura's responsibilities at Macy's include strategy, execution, operations, enterprise data and analytics and cybersecurity for three brands in over 650 locations. In her role in the executive leadership team, Laura helps to define Macy’s overall strategy and roadmap to be a digitally-lead omnichannel retailer.

Cloud computing is increasingly becoming an integral part of businesses around the world. What according to you are some of the major factors that play a key role in the direction cloud computing is heading?

When we talk about cloud computing, It's not just our own data centers in the cloud, but it's also the data from our software vendors. Even if we personally don't have our data centers in the cloud, we are probably going to be in the cloud somehow with these third party vendors that are going with the fast cloud solutions.

The first and foremost reason is the elasticity and scalability of being in the cloud based solutions. It cuts down the cost of buying and maintaining IT infrastructure, therefore it adds a huge benefit for a company especially in retail, where we have huge spikes in the holiday season.

The second is the IT infrastructure modernization that comes with moving to cloud computing. Once we choose the right model for our business the cloud provider does all the upgrades required for maintenance of the infrastructure which reduces the capital expenditure.

Moving our data warehouse to cloud computing unlocks the benefits of processing and accessibility of large quantities of data. The availability of data with user friendly tools eases the extraction of business insights that are needed for decision making.

The last benefit from a technology perspective is the suite of development tools that accelerate the business value of an organization. For example, In Google Cloud, we get inbuilt Google retail search capability. We don't have to build a search engine for ourselves, they're constantly updating and maintaining it for us.

What is your opinion on the impact of technological advancements in the cloud solutions and services space?

Previously, we were at our own discretion as to when to do a software update with the staff solutions, we had to wait for months to get it done. the software is constantly updated now, we don't have to host or maintain the software.

  our biggest asset outside of our colleagues and customers is our ability to leverage the data better to improve the customer experience  

The other aspect is internal cloud solutions, our biggest asset outside of our colleagues and our customers is our data, and our ability to leverage the data better to improve the customer experience. Whether it's for personalized offers, or for us having more information on customer shopping habits and behaviors, so that we have the right merchandise in stores. We use customer propensity to avoid a potential customer to fall off from shopping with us. All these are possible only because we have moved massive amounts of data into the cloud and have access to it.

What according to you are some of the new innovations in the field of cloud computing that can help businesses improve the services, and raise the standard of customer experiences in a hybrid workflow environment?

The combination of using cloud computing technology with business internal work. Taking inventory management for example, we have capabilities to use our RFID tags to leverage bluetooth devices and organize the inventory. It enables an opportunity to immediately get that data into the cloud and have real time inventory management that we weren’t able to do in the past.

We can use 5G technology with geological services to get the information about the packages stored in the yard, who sent it, when and what time was it sent, every detail under one technology to streamline yard inventory.

Another real potential is using geolocation services for our customers in the stores. We can offer value added services for customers by helping to find the location and direction of the product they are looking for. Technology has moved far ahead and we can not only improve our internal operations, but also have a positive impact on the customer.

What are some of your experiences that empowered you to gain deep expertise in strategy planning, program management, process management, as well as in the software development lifecycle.

I was a young girl and my father was in technology. He was good at identifying our potential as a child and always looking to provide exposure to us. I was probably around seven years old when I entered my first data center. I stood in front of a card punch, and started typing a handwritten program which my father gave. When I think back, having that exposure makes me proud, how he helped a young girl fulfill an amazing career. I've come a long way from card punch to cloud computing today.

As for the background, I have been in technology my whole life and bring a cross industry expertise to the table. I take a consulting mindset to figure out what's the best for a particular industry. Being part of an organization that is willing to change and take on big initiatives is something that really excites me and through that I've gained a ton of expertise in change management, program management and transformation management.

I love to take a problem and solve it for business and being in technology gives me that opportunity in ways that other parts of the organization can't.

What would be your piece of advice to other senior leaders and aspiring professionals in this field?

My advice would be—our work in technology should never be for technology's sake, it needs to drive business value. When we talk about cloud solutions, we shouldn't be doing the shift just because it's the greatest technology. We need to think through the value it brings for the business and how it is going to improve it.

When shifting to the cloud, being aware about the security is of paramount importance. We should constantly have an eye on that ball to make sure we have the right tools to manage our cybersecurity.

Last but not the least is proper management of the cost. It is easy for people to use the cloud, get their data and run reports. But this spin up of environments may lead to out-of-control costs therefore, having a strong team to closely monitor the cost and data center is essential.