Retail is an industry that stands to benefit the most from the age of digital transformation on the back of technologies like the Internet of Things. Ahead of many other enterprises, retail has already completed the first phase of digitizing many of its information assets, including transaction data, inventory and supply chain management, customer relations, and videos of customer behavior and store dynamics. This brings us to the store and its role as the physical site where the next phases of digital transformation will play out with real-time information gathering facilitated by the internet of things and integration of that data with other enterprise systems related to customer information to drive new outcomes for the business and provide amazing.
Taking full advantage of the information potential of the retail store physical environment requires a solution that can capture that data and turn it into meaningful information right there on the spot, in real time―and that’s where the internet of things comes in and the need for moving intelligence to the edge, where devices are collecting data that can drive customer interactions, be they digital or personal.
SAP and Red Hat have combined their technologies to develop a solution that takes in data from various in-store collection points, and uses it to to trigger instant rules-based interactions with digital signage, customer mobile devices, kiosk interactions, or point-of-sale cross-sell or loyalty offers. At the same time, that in-store real-time data is being integrated with operational systems for deeper analysis that will drive long-term process improvements.
Some of the technical benefits of this solution are:
- Local gateways reduce latency and enable real-time data processing and actions through the business rules engine at the edge
- Data subsets allow business to synchronize with data platform hosted in the cloud or the data center
- Gateway servers shield enterprise data assets by providing additional validation and security
- Secure data transport reduces exposure to threat
- Communications costs are contained as only relevant data set moves up to center
From a business perspective, this solution allows you to:
- Identify high-value customers in the store
- Influence customer response in real time
- Use real-time data combined with historical customer data to potentially increase revenue/margin from high-value customers
- Get valuable insight in real time and make decisions even when running in disconnected mode from the center
- Maintain low-cost software-defined video storage at the store
Listen in to the SAP Internet of Things keynote delivered by Nayaki Nayyar at the Red Hat Summit 2016 for more soundbites on all things IoT at SAP
(SAP Keynote begins at TimeStamp 59mins 20secs)
(SAP Keynote begins at TimeStamp 59mins 20secs)
Check out SAP and Red Hat moving Intelligence to the Edge of the Internet of Things for some more solution and technical details of this offering from Red Hat and SAP.
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