Better by Design: Predictix Cloud 2.0 Solutions Help Solve Retail’s Toughest Challenges, Including Big Data Analytics, Omni-Channel Retail and Promotional Forecast Accuracy
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 07:07AM NEW YORK – Jan. 16, 2012 – The cloud in retail was one of the hottest stories in retail technology in 2011 – and Predictix continued to gain momentum with the industry's only Cloud 2.0 merchandising suite designed for demanding retail challenges such as Big Data analytics, omni-channel retail, and rapidly changing forecasting and planning requirements. Predictix enjoyed significant growth in 2011 as it rolled out new clients and additional applications at existing clients, among the largest and most successful retailers, wholesalers and brands across Europe and North America.
"When we designed Predictix to handle Big Data and to leverage the latest science on the cloud, we were confident we would be able to answer retail's toughest questions in a fundamentally better way," said Molham Aref, CEO, Predictix. "At a time when many retail vendors are engaged in 'cloudwashing,' that is, simply cloaking traditional applications in the mantle of the cloud, the Predictix approach – delivering applications that are architected from the ground up to take full advantage of the power and elasticity of the cloud – has clearly resonated with the world’s largest and most successful retailers."
The Predictix suite of applications for Forecasting, Planning, Assortment, Pricing, Promotions and Replenishment will be showcased at Predictix booth #1477 at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show, Jan. 16 and 17, in New York's Javits Center.
Tackling Retail's Forecasting Challenges with Supercomputer-scale Power and Big Data Analytics
Predictix applications enable leading retailers to tackle one of their most difficult and perplexing issues – producing more accurate forecasts in a fast-changing, omni-channel and data-rich world. In a recent Benchmark Report1, RSR Research noted that while retailers have little difficulty with baseline forecasting, they struggle with more challenging forecasts, such as long-term forecasts, new product introductions, and promotions. The report pointed out that “the more you promote, the more difficult it becomes to forecast demand – the forecast error rates on promoted goods are often easily twice that of forecasts for items not on promotion. Retail Winners especially acknowledge this issue.”
Accurate promotional forecasting requires much more computing power, sophisticated science, and data than is available to traditionally architected, hardware-bound software solutions. However, the Predictix approach – taking advantage of the power of the cloud combined with the latest advances in research and science, and rapidly configured, client-specific “fit for purpose, fit for data” forecasting engines – drives significantly more accurate forecasts, while enabling retailers to analyze huge volumes of Big Data that are beyond the scope of conventional software.
This makes Predictix ideally suited to analyzing the huge volumes of Big Data that retailers consume. Predictix deploys 1,600 computing cores simultaneously for a leading Tier 1 retailer, providing supercomputer-scale power with software and Big Data analytics designed expressly for the cloud. This power translates to far more accurate store-level promotional forecasts than were possible with the retailer's previous system. Business users can quickly generate item-store-week promotional forecasts for any of tens of thousands of items across thousands of stores for any imaginable promotion – such as price discount, BOGO, circular, or event, for any timeframe in the future – helping to align inventory with demand and driving increased sales, while reducing overstocks and out-of-stocks.
Breaking Down Silos and Continuously Adapting in an Omni-Channel World
Predictix applications are based on a unified platform that unites previously disconnected merchandising processes and applications. This unified approach, coupled with access to unlimited data, eliminates disparities between different stakeholders within retailers and brands. There is always a single version of the truth, with seamless linkage of processes from financial planning all the way to purchase or production plans. This allows Predictix clients to understand, for example, how the financial plan transitions down to a merchandise plan and then into the corresponding channel and demand plan. This enables companies to sense, predict, and respond to consumer demand with speed and agility that would be otherwise impossible, while driving increased revenue, profitability and customer satisfaction.
Predictix also breaks down the silos between channels, thanks to a Cloud 2.0 architecture that provides access to all of the data at all times, from every channel, so that retailers can see the ripple effect of decisions across all relevant channels. The built-in flexibility of the Predictix platform provides a unique advantage that rigid, “deploy and forget” traditional applications cannot match. As a result, Predictix is ready for what's next, continually enabling its clients to adapt to the unforeseen challenges, touchpoints, channels and data that inevitably emerge: the Facebooks and Twitters of tomorrow that will have disruptive impacts on retail.
About Predictix
Retailers, wholesalers and brands make better forecasting, planning, assortment, pricing, and replenishment decisions with the Predictix merchandising software suite. Our clients get started quickly and see value early, thanks to the only Cloud 2.0 merchandising software suite designed from the ground up to handle the demands of Big Data, omni-channel retail, and our clients' unique forecasting and planning needs. Predictix solves old and new problems in a fundamentally better way, with an agile, flexible approach to delivery and superior predictive technology that drives better decisions in today’s changing environment. With no hardware to buy, software to install, or long-term commitments to make, we are changing the way our clients invest in and get value from technology. Learn more at www.predictix.com.
1 Crystal Ball 2.0: The State of Retail Demand Forecasting, RSR Research, May 2011
Media Contacts
Jeff Ketner or Brittany Johnson
Ketner Group (for Predictix)
512-794-8876
predictixpr@ketnergroup.com