By Sherry Lautenbach
Hurricane Matthew proved a challenge for many of us living in the path of the storm. As a South Floridian, ensuring we had enough of the basic necessities – batteries, dry goods, water – was of the utmost concern. Matthew certainly wasn’t my first hurricane, but I still found myself at the local grocery store in search of water days before the storm hit.
I had heard from friends that stores in our area were running out of water, I immediately rushed to my local grocery store. I discovered the store manager stocking the shelves as shoppers – myself included – were literally taking the cases of water out of his hands. It struck me that as challenging as storm preparation may be for an individual like me, it’s ten times that for a retailer – unless that retailer has access to weather analytics.
With weather data and analytics, retailers – like my local grocery store – would be able to predict demand before it occurs so they could stock shelves accordingly. Looking beyond weather situations, retailers also could use data to monitor real-time social sentiment across store locations, act early to identify trends and have their supply chain automatically respond and avoid out of stock situations.
One such solution is IBM’s Metro Pulse.
IBM Metro Pulse is a cloud-based service that combines time-sensitive, hyper local data with a company’s data, and then applies cognitive computing. Using Watson APIs such as Personality Insight, Watson Explorer and Tone Analyzer, the solution delivers a heightened understanding of a city’s current and future dynamics. This helps organizations harness the pulse of neighborhoods, unlock pockets of growth, and transform operations.
It looks at weather and much, much more.
IBM Metro Pulse collects data from a variety of sources – including social media, news, traffic, commerce – to create cluster models for individual neighborhoods and other points-of-sale. This generates a holistic view of the needs, preferences and behaviors of consumers in a specific area and provides detailed, actionable recommendations through a user-friendly cloud interface. These insights can help identify emerging opportunities at a granular level and maximize sales.
If this data can be captured and transformed into actionable insights, the result will be an unparalleled understanding of ever-changing urban environments. This will allow retailers and consumer products companies to act with agility and differentiate from competition with truly personalized offers and assortments, more responsive supply chains, and targeted services.
And while Matthew didn't hit Florida quite as hard as expected, it did affect many people in the southeast. With technology solutions like Metro Pulse, retailers can be better prepared for whatever storm comes their way so they can better serve customers, like me.
Sherry Lautenbach is the General Manager of IBM's Distribution Market segment in North America. The content in this post is her own and doesn't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions. You can learn more about cognitive business and IBM's technology solutions like Watson and the IBM Cloud platform at: ibm.com/cognitive
