14 EVENTSNEWS


BI EVENT EMBRACES HOTTEST TRENDS T


he European customer conference of business intelligence (BI) software


provider MicroStrategy recently attracted a number of well-known retailers to discuss the latest technology trends.


The Coca-Cola Company, Danone,


Douglas, eBay, Gucci, Guess, Loewe, McDonald’s, Metro, Printemps, Starbucks and Tesco were all among those attending this year’s annual conference held in Monte Carlo recently.


Attendees gathered to discuss


how to maximise the use of BI systems to capitalise on the major trends of social media, mobile, cloud and big data to work more effi ciently and gain competitive advantage – all of which have particular signifi cance for retail according to Paul Devlin, MicroStrategy UK country manager. “Consumers are more educated


and comfortable with technology,” Devlin told Retail Technology. “They are also aware if the power of their personal data and what can be done with it. This is why building a multichannel experience is so important, offering more opportunities to interact with customers.” At the event MicroStrategy


unveiled Gateway for Facebook, a new cloud-based service that


2011 EVENTS IFA 2011


2 September 2011 Messe Berlin, Germany www.ifa-berlin.com


The Next Generation Retail Summit 2011 13 September 2011 The Oitavos, Lisbon, Portugal www.ngretailsummit.com


Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference 14 September 2011 Lancaster London Hotel, Hyde Park, London www.gartner.com/technology/summits/emea/supply-chain/index.jsp


Internet Retailing 2011 4 October 2011 Novotel London West, London www.screenevents.co.uk/IR2011/index.html


TiE (Tablet in Enterprise) – London 12 October 2011


The Business Design Centre, Islington, London www.iteuropa.com/tie


Cards and Payments Innovation Europe 17 October 2011 Maritim proArte Hotel, Berlin, Germany www.marketforce.eu.com/Conferences/eucards11


integrates Facebook social graph data with applications like customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, service, sales, loyalty, and mobile applications. Devlin pointed out that, from the


experience of one MicroStrategy customer, “every one million ‘friends’ on a brand’s Facebook page creates 20 terabytes of new data”. Ketan Karia, chief marketing


offi cer of database provider Ingres, said partnerships with vendors like MicroStrategy would help companies of every size and sector unlock the value in the data at a speed that maximised competitiveness and agility despite the volumes involved. “A recent McKinsey study suggested there could be as much as $3 trillion (£616.5 billion) locked up in big data warehouses and silos of companies, including retailers,” Karia said.


This explosion in social media


networks and big data available to retailers to target and personalise


products, services and promotions was also fuelling cloud adoption. In response, at the event the


company launched MicroStrategy Cloud, a cloud-based BI platform-as- a-service designed to enable rapid, cost-effective development of BI, mobile and social apps, using hundreds of thousands of terabytes of data and scaling to hundreds of thousands of users.


Devlin contended that mobile technologies were revolutionising enterprise cloud access to BI. “I have found even those who have never interacted with data in spreadsheets before fi nd it easy and intuitive doing so using touch gestures on a mobile device,” he said. As a result, he said mobile intelligence had evolved from basic BI reports and dashboards to interactive apps with embedded transactional capabilities. MicroStrategy showcased how users could connect to operational enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and act on data, such as approve requests, place orders, and make purchases with its mobile BI apps. “Retailers want to take away the pain of coping with the analysis and visualisation of big data,” according to Devlin. “They just want to focus on the richness of that data and how to best exploit the information it holds.”


◆ Wipro, a leading


international IT and business services company, has announced it is taking headline sponsorship of the VIP lounge for the second year running at Retail Business Technology Expo, the


one-stop-shop for end-to-end retail and hospitality solutions, which is taking place from 13 to 14 March 2012 at London’s Earls Court, South Hall.


◆ Following the success of the DNA Conference, which took place in London in July, organisers have reported plans to schedule a US date for the digital out-of- home interactive entertainment (DoE) event. The inaugural UK conference defi ned the scope of the international market and what is needed in the entertainment sector to promote its growth.


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