WebSphere

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After years of spending their IT dollars to help them cut costs, comply with Y2K requirements, and compete in a world of multiple ways to shop, retail companies are ready to re-invest in their number one channel ­ their stores.

In fact, they must invest in their stores to continue cutting costs and increase revenue in a relentlessly competitive industry grappling with a dizzying number of products and customers who want more convenience, higher quality, and better service, but not necessarily higher prices.

Technology exists, however, for retailers to bring true business-altering capabilities to their stores. In fact, some retailers are already using technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), digital media, transaction log polling (TLOG), and more to improve and update their stores.

These kinds of capabilities can truly transform the shopping experience and are just as important for efficient, cost-effective management of retail companies' processes fully across their businesses, from headquarters to the stores to the Web.

"Retailers must provide a much more dynamic environment for today's customers who expect to have the information and products they want at their fingertips. In a word, they need to Web-ify the store," said Pamela Klym, market manager for the retail industry for IBM Software Group. "In addition, they need to manage processes more at the store level ­ to monitor, update, and act on sales and customer data, and learn about issues early for quick problem solving."

To do so, retailers need an IT infrastructure able to manage new capabilities along with existing systems. IBM's Store Integration Framework provides a structure for deploying customized combinations of middleware solutions, specialized applications from independent software vendors (ISVs), and industry-specific services to allow retailers to be more responsive to business opportunities and customer demands.

"Store Integration Framework is built on open standards for efficient integration with existing systems, multiple platforms, and ISV applications, yet it is configured specifically for retail store operations," said Jerri Traflet, a solutions executive for the IBM retail industry.

A key component of the Store Integration Framework is the IBM WebSphere Remote Server, which leverages the reliable infrastructure IBM delivers at the enterprise, but configures and sizes it specifically to meet the requirements of the store environment. It allows retail customers to extend and integrate their enterprise technology into their stores so they can fully manage retail operations as a single entity.

The IBM WebSphere Remote Server provides the infrastructure that enables retailers to respond as needed to remove cost from their businesses, increase employee productivity, and create a unique shopping experience for their customers based on new technologies. It is built from IBM's Middleware for Retail Solutions, which includes WebSphere, DB2, Tivoli, Lotus, and Rational components plus a J2EE-compliant application server, an assured message delivery component, a standard relational database management system, and management and monitoring agents.

This infrastructure, coupled with IBM enterprise solutions, can provide retailers with real-time access to customer, product, and sales information, standard access to applications from anywhere, and improved deployment and management of resources. "It puts critical information where it is needed most ­ in the store ­ so that employees can respond more efficiently to customers' and suppliers' needs," said Klym. "Getting the customer information on products, pricing, and promotions right then and there encourages purchasing and increases loyalty."

The IBM WebSphere Remote Server also enables the use of ISV solutions in stores, including:

• Mobile shopping devices that deliver personalized information to customers
• RFID technology to speed the checkout process and locate merchandise in the store and elsewhere in the supply chain
• Digital merchandising that provides dynamic product information and comparisons on demand
• Up-to-date inventory information to help prevent erroneous reordering of merchandise

"The IBM WebSphere Remote Server delivers a standards-based platform for integrating current store systems, such as existing IBM point-of-sale (POS) applications, new POS solutions provided by IBM Business Partners, and the infrastructure to deploy new technologies," said Traflet. "It links the Web, the store, and the retail enterprise together to help the retailer determine whether it has the right goods, in the right location, at the right price with the level of service and the unique shopping experience consumers demand," added Klym.

Many retailers begin implementation by updating their POS systems. Since the server is based on Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), there is flexibility in choice of operating system. "Currently, most retail companies' enterprise-level operations have all the data and the store doesn't," said Traflet. "They can now update to link all operations, so they can act on data and add solutions. It's like they are extending electricity throughout the house and will then plug in a television, lights, computer, etc."

Typical users of the IBM WebSphere Remote Server are retailers who are often global in size with hundreds, or even thousands, of remote retail stores. Because the solution can run unattended in a store, it can also be used by innovative service message block (SMB) retail clients who are positioning themselves for growth in the industry.

The second package in the Store Integration Framework is the IBM WebSphere Systems Management Accelerators for Retail. This package includes sample files and examples for remotely deploying, managing, and monitoring applications that will run on the remote retail servers installed in the stores. Before its planned availability in the fourth quarter of 2004, IBM is making the solution available to ISVs and IBM Business Partners.

There is also a variety of extensions for specific solution implementations available separately through services engagements. They include the RFID extension for managing RFID readers and RFID tags; the J2EE extension, which provides for management of business objects and application interaction within the store; the retail extension package, which delivers WebSphere Business Integration adapters for TLOG and bulk data transfer; and the digital media extension, which supplies tools to provide dynamic digital merchandising and digital surveillance solutions.

In addition, if a customer runs an IBM 4690 application such as General Sales Application, Supermarket Application, or IBM SurePOS Application Client Environment, the 4690 extension product delivers IBM Store Integrator and Data Integration Facility products for extending the POS environment. These solutions help integrate IBM POS applications with a standard API interface for other POS providers to access data and business logic. They can enable transaction integration at the fuel pump, kiosks, mobile POS, and consumer shopping solutions.

This year, IBM has worked with more than 20 retail customers who are piloting the retail solutions. Klym described these customers as "innovators ­ visionary customers who want to make the most of the Web and want to deliver the store of the future." Those customers include entities in Europe and Asia, as well as the Americas. "According to our customers and the key analysts, investments in the retail store will increase significantly over the next 10 years. The middleware we are delivering will enable our customers to do more, faster," said Traflet. "Many customers have had this vision of middleware in the store, but because they were going to have to integrate all of the various products together (application server, messaging, database, systems management) and then integrate it into their enterprise, it was going to be a challenge. Often their architectural vision matches the architecture we are delivering with this Store Integration Framework."