Martha Department Store BYOD New Concept First Big Data

Darrell Stan (Darrell Stein) is the CIO of Martha store in England. He is a frequent visitor to Twitter. He has been working on memory computing and other technologies. Two years ago, he said he was "an administrative staff who did not know new technology", and he helped Martha department deal with the special period of financial market fluctuations.

"If we want to achieve multi-channel sales, it is impossible for a company without a strong IT system to succeed. This idea has fundamentally changed Martha's department store." To bring Martha Street's high street retailer into a multi-channel retailing world, Stan and his team are promoting multiple projects focusing on innovation and profitability.

We have brought the BYOD concept to a whole new level, in addition to enabling Martha's department store staff to realize mobile office, enabling customers to realize mobile shopping, which gives customers and employees more rights and interests.

CIO Darrell Stan, Martha, UK

New concept of BYOD

Martha's department store has 126 years of history and is the largest multinational business retail group in the UK. Martha stores have 600 branches in the UK and 285 branches in 40 countries and regions around the world. During the past 100 years, it has triggered many revolutionary changes in the department store industry.

In improving its competitiveness, Martha's Department relies on the rapid growth of IT development team. Stan has recruited 60 employees, and this powerful IT team continues to deliver distinctive innovative projects. The new delivery project is widely used in interactive shopping technology. In the newly opened branches, there are 156 screens of "browse and order" center. The huge touch screen allows customers to make virtual fitting. There is also the application of "inspiration screen". At the end of each store, customers can browse the latest 63 stores. clothing And home fashion trends.

Martha also has iPad for 1500 customer service. In addition to trying thousands of pieces on hangers. clothes Customers can also get massive product information from the Internet. In March this year, Martha department store and the United States online makeup platform TAAZ company to provide customers with the industry's most comprehensive solution of virtual cosmetics. The application set up the "virtual makeup effect counter", and customers can see their effect after using a beauty product.

"It turns out that customers like this high-tech consumption very much." Stan said, "we are trying more." Stan hints that he is planning to bring BYOD applications to a whole new level - in addition to letting Martha's staff realize mobile office, and customers can also achieve mobile shopping, which gives customers and employees more rights and interests.

"For example, when sandwiches are sold, if customers leave directly after buying something, they may not have to go to the cashier's desk to check out, and then settle the bill on the way or home, which is the best thing to do." Stan said. It is understood that Martha department store mobile payment application named Paddle, consumers as long as the APP installed on the phone, shopping, you can use the camera to scan the code of goods to complete the payment.

"We are working hard to develop a new management system that allows Martha department store to streamline its workflow and allow customers to enjoy efficient shopping with mobile devices. This is a cultural change and great transformation for IT departments.

Big data first

What can Martha's department store collect data on user purchase behavior? Like many other large retailers, Stan is also very concerned about this area.

Martha's technology team is deploying big data strategy with other business organizations, hoping to find out which items the customers will pay attention to first. "To reveal the essence of data more intelligently, we can increase profits and promote sales." He said.

"You shouldn't email every day to harass all your customers: a product 10 percent off. Instead, we should send the mail in stages: "we understand that you bought two products of this kind 2 months ago, because you usually purchase it every two months, so if you consider buying this product now, we will give you a discount." Stan said.

"This is a good marketing decision. The closer you get to customers, the more valuable you will be. That's what we do. At the moment, we may be able to do better. "

To harness big data, we must first consolidate our expertise. Employees of Martha department store come from different IT teams of different types of companies, and bring high-quality overseas resources, including the fresh blood of big data applications, such as data cleaning.

The commercial project of Martha's department store is based on IBM's enterprise data warehouse. In early March 2012, Stan visited San Francisco, eBay, Sears, William Sonoma and Safeway and other retail businesses. He thinks these companies are ahead of British companies in big data technology applications. At the same time, he also visited several suppliers of big data and quality business team, such as Horton Works.

Stan went to San Francisco to find some solutions. Is Britain's big data technology unable to meet the needs of Martha's department store? Stan said that the US trip benefited from two aspects: first, to understand how companies like Martha led by eBay used big data; two, to absorb advanced technology, such as Hadoop, and few companies in the UK used the technology.

At present, Martha stores have mastered the ability of using different tools to process data jointly, and most of the data management work is done by a special team. "Of course, all technologies cannot be cut across the board." Stan stressed.

Multi channel platform "go to Amazon"

Recently, an important backstage project that directly affected the profit and loss of Martha's department store is to transform Martha's Department's multi-channel system from AWS Amazon Web Services to a new independent R & D platform. The project consists of two parts: the basic parts such as product information management, image peripheral data processing, order management and so on have been officially launched. The new front-end system will run in the first half of 2014.

The decision was made not only because Amazon was a competitor to Martha department store, but also because Amazon cloud computing service wanted to standardize its cloud service and package it to other retailers.

"This is a great change. As a highly well-known company, the transformation of its background is carried out under the concern of the industry. We can not afford to stop the website for two weeks, two days, even if the cost of two hours - must ensure the normal operation of the website. Stan said.

Therefore, with the development of business, Martha department store has been trying to improve the technical level of IT department and do the work that Amazon has done for it, such as safety work and IT operation. At the same time, Martha's new employees need more professional knowledge.

Then, Martha's department store outsourcing of multi-channel platform in 2004 is not a wrong decision?

"This is a good deal. In 2004, our financial strength was very weak, and we lacked the experience of e-commerce. AWS made our business safer and smarter. Compared with 2004, the volume of business has increased by about 10 times. Stan said, "and now is the best time to leave AWS. The contract will expire in 2014, and I believe we can face it all alone and there will be no default. "

Another important achievement of Martha's IT team is the new warehouse management system originating from the red grassland company. This is an important milestone in the construction of Department logistics system. It integrates the logistics warehouses that are now located in the north of the United Kingdom, and a 90 thousand square foot (1 square foot, 929.0304 square centimeter) central distribution center will rise on Castle Donington.

"A reasonable business strategy is to do the right thing at the right time and at the right place, and the three are indispensable." Stan summed up his experience as a CIO at Martha stores.