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Retail Industry

Applying business insight and technological expertise to solve your industry's issues


    
SNOW: Supply-chain Network Optimization Workbench    
SNOW: Supply-chain Network Optimization Workbench
The IBM Supply-chain Network Optimization Workbench (SNOW) helps companies streamline operations.
   


Case studies
A national food wholesaler
To meet its five-year growth and profitability targets, a national food wholesaler needed new strategies for pricing, account management and customer profitability. IBM combined industry experts from IBM Global Business Services, world-class analytic skills from IBM Research and client specialists to do a discovery study identifying initiatives with high potential impact. The in-depth analysis helped the client pinpoint strategies and pricing methods for improved business results and develop a business case for implementing the initiatives.

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Tough problems solved
IBM Customer Equity & Lifetime Management (CELM)
Large companies may not be able to recognize every customer by sight, but the IBM Customer Equity & Lifetime Management solution (CELM) can help them identify their most valuable customers and cater to their long-term needs. This new on demand solution can help reduce marketing costs, increase sales revenues, sharpen accuracy rates for predicting customer value, and improve customer experience and satisfaction.

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Improving Operational Efficiency
To survive in the current competitive environment, companies must improve the efficiency of their operations and reduce costs.

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Inventory optimization with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence
Supply chain design and optimization can be a cost-efficient way to add value across an enterprise, and IBM has developed a solution that can help trim costs, improve customer service and boost cash flow.

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Model Driven Business Transformation
A national retail chain improves consistency and reliability in its inventory flow forecasts through formal operation modeling developed using the IBM Model Driven Business Transformation micropractice.

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Personal Shopping Assistant
IBM Personal Shopping Assistant technology helps retailers attract and retain customers by allowing them to electronically accompany shoppers through their stores, guiding them through the aisles, suggesting items to purchase, pointing out sales and easing (or avoiding) the check-out line.

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ROSS: Retail Optimized Site Solution
A set of cutting-edge technology tools helps retailers optimize their site selection and business development process to improve retailer performance, revenue and ROI while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reducing risk and costs.protect personal identifiable information.

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SPARCLE
IBM's SPARCLE policy management tool is helping organizations create, implement and monitor policies that protect personal identifiable information.

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On the drawing board
Innovation management services
Innovation management services help businesses introduce new strategies for targeted growth.

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Social network analytics and business optimization (SNO)
In a corporate environment where informal social networks often dictate how work is accomplished, IBM's social network optimization tool can assist businesses in optimizing knowledge sharing among employees.

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Transactional multi-site Grids
Grid computing is already successfully being used for scientific applications that require large amounts of processing power as well as computationally intensive financial applications, such as portfolio optimization and risk analysis. Applying that processing power to everyday transactions and core business processes is the next step. Learn how IBM Research is working on many of the key technologies needed to make transactional, multi-site Grids a reality.

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Other
Business optimization
IBM is helping companies stay one step ahead of the competition by using advanced analytics to derive valuable business intelligence from complex data.

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Changrui Ren
Changrui Ren is working to develop process-centric supply chain transformation tools.

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Contact Center of the Future
Smart companies are investing in their contact center operations to strengthen customer relationships, while at the same time using automation technologies to streamline operations.

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Dagan Gilat
In today's hotly competitive global market, Haifa Research Lab senior manager Dagan Gilat is working on cutting edge technologies to help transform business processes and create new business strategy models.

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Impact of Future Technology
IBM's IoFT solution helps businesses better prepare for disruptive change, and more clearly understand how political and economic events and scientific breakthroughs can affect their organizations.

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Information on demand
IBM's Information on Demand solutions help businesses leverage their information assets to better compete in a global market environment.

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Innovation in Customer Relationship Management


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Innovation in identity verification
IBM's groundbreaking work in biometrics, cryptography, workflow management and smart cards has produced a Secure ID solution for governments and businesses around the world.

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Michael Osborne
Operating in an environment that increasingly relies on technology to ensure secure identity verification and authentication, research staff member Michael Osborne is helping develop Secure ID solutions that address governments' and businesses' safety concerns while protecting personal privacy.

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Olaf Zimmermann
As more companies move toward Web-based services as a way to improve customer service and business operations, research staff member and executive IT architect Olaf Zimmermann is lending his expertise to architectural decision modeling and SOA and Web services design.

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Sheng Lu
With network performance a key component of successful e-commerce businesses, HiPODS engineer Sheng Lu is helping develop network performance analysis tools that can pinpoint problems that hamper Web operations and slow down network performance.

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Wenjun Yin
In an era when location can dictate the success or failure of retail ventures, Wenjun Yin is helping clients use technology to find the right location with the right mix of merchandise for the right customer.

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Workforce Analytics
Efficient workforce management is a key strategy in streamlining operations and reducing costs in a highly competitive global market.

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Xing Fang
With user experience a prime differentiator for e-commerce businesses, HiPODS engineer Xing Fang is helping develop performance improvement methodologies that can be shared across industries and platforms.

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On Demand Innovation Services and the retail industry
On Demand Innovation Services and the retail industry
ODIS helps retailers implement on demand processes that provide the speed and flexibility needed to stand out in a crowded retail marketplace. These processes include improving distribution channels with solutions for demand forecasting, pricing and distribution management.
 More on the industry 
In pursuit of a comparative advantage: Retail goes on demand
With increasing competitive pressures, demanding consumers and shrinking profit margins, retailers are embracing on demand processes that provide the speed and flexibility needed to stand out in the marketplace.
 Related research 
IBM Research: Operations research
Operations research's current application areas include: supply chain modeling and optimization, manufacturing planning and scheduling, and forecasting, among others.
 Related research 
Max Bahr
"Do-it-yourself" retailer uses dynamic inventory optimization to automate replenishment and help ensure high shelf availability.



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