Download PDF
IBM WebSphere messaging backbone quickly delivers transaction data to a central hub
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Inventory Management
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
The company, a large grocery retailer based in the United States, was facing a challenge with its data management. With operations spread out across numerous states, it was essential for the company to collect data in a timely manner from all of its stores to make informed decisions. The company’s application environment had to support the movement of a great deal of information so that more than 2,400 grocery stores could deliver information on sales and operations to a central hub on a daily basis. However, the company managed most of these communications in large batches. Each store transmitted its transaction logs to the corporate data warehouse once a day. These logs were then parsed for analysis. This batch processing method delayed analysis and hampered theft prevention efforts. The company wanted to improve the timeliness of these data transfers to improve access to accurate information for day-to-day operations such as customer service, supply chain management, and monitoring of over-the-counter drug sales.
About The Customer
The customer is a large grocery retailer based in the United States. The company operates more than 2,400 grocery stores across numerous states. Its brands include grocery, multi-department, convenience, and jewelry stores. The company employs more than 339,000 associates. The company's operations are spread out across numerous states, making it essential for the company to collect data in a timely manner from all of its stores to make informed decisions for the company as a whole. The company's application environment must therefore support the movement of a great deal of information so that more than 2,400 grocery stores can deliver information on sales and operations to a central hub on a daily basis.
The Solution
To speed up the flow of information, the company implemented an in-store enterprise service bus (ESB) for each store based on IBM® Integration Bus (formerly known as IBM WebSphere® Message Broker) and IBM WebSphere MQ software. The ESB provides reliable data transformation and delivery to all of the endpoints in the store, which use a variety of protocols. It also enables the company to transform messages and publish them so they get sent to remote endpoint systems that might be interested in them. Stores’ point-of-sale controllers publish messages to the store ESB through WebSphere MQ Telemetry (MQTT), a protocol supported by WebSphere MQ software. The company uses IBM WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition software to transfer files between the central hub and the stores’ ESBs and in turn, to other endpoint applications in the store.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Improving Production Line Efficiency with Ethernet Micro RTU Controller
Moxa was asked to provide a connectivity solution for one of the world's leading cosmetics companies. This multinational corporation, with retail presence in 130 countries, 23 global braches, and over 66,000 employees, sought to improve the efficiency of their production process by migrating from manual monitoring to an automatic productivity monitoring system. The production line was being monitored by ABB Real-TPI, a factory information system that offers data collection and analysis to improve plant efficiency. Due to software limitations, the customer needed an OPC server and a corresponding I/O solution to collect data from additional sensor devices for the Real-TPI system. The goal is to enable the factory information system to more thoroughly collect data from every corner of the production line. This will improve its ability to measure Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and translate into increased production efficiencies. System Requirements • Instant status updates while still consuming minimal bandwidth to relieve strain on limited factory networks • Interoperable with ABB Real-TPI • Small form factor appropriate for deployment where space is scarce • Remote software management and configuration to simplify operations
Case Study
How Sirqul’s IoT Platform is Crafting Carrefour’s New In-Store Experiences
Carrefour Taiwan’s goal is to be completely digital by end of 2018. Out-dated manual methods for analysis and assumptions limited Carrefour’s ability to change the customer experience and were void of real-time decision-making capabilities. Rather than relying solely on sales data, assumptions, and disparate systems, Carrefour Taiwan’s CEO led an initiative to find a connected IoT solution that could give the team the ability to make real-time changes and more informed decisions. Prior to implementing, Carrefour struggled to address their conversion rates and did not have the proper insights into the customer decision-making process nor how to make an immediate impact without losing customer confidence.
Case Study
Digital Retail Security Solutions
Sennco wanted to help its retail customers increase sales and profits by developing an innovative alarm system as opposed to conventional connected alarms that are permanently tethered to display products. These traditional security systems were cumbersome and intrusive to the customer shopping experience. Additionally, they provided no useful data or analytics.
Case Study
Ensures Cold Milk in Your Supermarket
As of 2014, AK-Centralen has over 1,500 Danish supermarkets equipped, and utilizes 16 operators, and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. AK-Centralen needed the ability to monitor the cooling alarms from around the country, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each and every time the door to a milk cooler or a freezer does not close properly, an alarm goes off on a computer screen in a control building in southwestern Odense. This type of alarm will go off approximately 140,000 times per year, equating to roughly 400 alarms in a 24-hour period. Should an alarm go off, then there is only a limited amount of time to act before dairy products or frozen pizza must be disposed of, and this type of waste can quickly start to cost a supermarket a great deal of money.
Case Study
Supermarket Energy Savings
The client had previously deployed a one-meter-per-store monitoring program. Given the manner in which energy consumption changes with external temperature, hour of the day, day of week and month of year, a single meter solution lacked the ability to detect the difference between a true problem and a changing store environment. Most importantly, a single meter solution could never identify root cause of energy consumption changes. This approach never reduced the number of truck-rolls or man-hours required to find and resolve issues.
