2016 Global Big Data Analytics for Retail Technology Innovation … · 2016. 7. 1. · With its explosive growth and achievements in demystifying big data in retail, DynamicAction

2016 Global Big Data Analytics for Retail Technology Innovation Award

2016

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2015 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents Background and Company Performance ...................................................................... 3

Industry Challenges............................................................................................ 3

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value of DynamicAction Inc. .................... 4

Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 7

Significance of Technology Innovation ......................................................................... 8

Understanding Technology Innovation ......................................................................... 8

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 9

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ...................... 9

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 9

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices .............................................................................................................. 10

About Frost & Sullivan ............................................................................................ 11



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges Merits of the Big Data Analytics Revolution

Various industries are still trying to understand how to best leverage the copious amounts of data that they have acquired over time into actionable business intelligence. Decision-makers are staring down endless reports of business outputs and only able to make their best attempts at addressing operational issues. Big data analytics allow retailers to properly stock merchandise and prevent empty shelves and overstocking that lead to poor inventory management and lost revenue opportunity. Big data analytics in retail also allow businesses to rapidly identify operational issues and nimbly address them more intelligently.

Frost & Sullivan forecasts that the technological advancement of big data analytics will continue to be immensely disruptive over the next several years. It is expected to be as impactful as the personal computer in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s and social media over the next 10 to 15 years. Processing complex business scenarios that are either highly impossible—or at the very least impractical—for the human brain, big data analytics currently uses key performance indicators to measure the success of business operations. While retail businesses are often capable of making better future judgments based on outputs, it is often the inputs that can prevent the revenue-fouling scenarios in the first place.

The main value proposition of big data analytics that is attracting forward thinking leaders in the retail industry is the ability to discover hidden profits within their businesses. Instead of uncertainty and compartmentalization, big data analytics helps retailers make more profitable decisions with a holistic view of the business, offering “a single source of truth.”

Key Challenges that Impact Retailers in the Big Data Analytics Industry

Retail is an ultra-competitive environment that has become more complex with the need to maintain an online presence. Thanks to trailblazers in the eTail industry, with online presence comes rising customer expectations for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to perform. This has turned merchandisers and business executives toward utilizing big data to address these operational deficiencies. Despite the merits of big data analytics, certain key challenges continue to impact retailers:

Channel fixation: Big data solutions need to cover metrics from all areas of business—marketing, pricing, merchandising and inventory—into a channel agnostic product without overwhelming the customers, allowing them to track the selling brand and products instead of individual channels.

Customer expectations: Few solutions can tell a person what action to take or monitor implementation in near real-time. Nonetheless, retailers need actionable business intelligence they can use immediately to keep pace with changing customer expectations and purchasing trends.



Innovation: Though big data analytics is a huge market, it is difficult for participants to differentiate themselves from each other. Innovations are necessary to attract market attention and build customer rapport. Existing tech giants have the huge pools of analysts to digest and interpret retail data for clients, but they lack the ability to prescribe retail-specific guidance that enables swift decision-making at the moment.

Inventory optimization: Retailers and brands have found themselves in a profit-draining scenario of constantly discounting products in a desperate attempt to increase sales. They need better information and more connected data to address the cause of their inventory issues, to compete in today's fast-moving retail marketplace. As consumers increasingly interact with retailers and brands online and through mobile, and the internal groups supporting those transactions are asked to deliver double-digit revenue growth, they need a way to add product assortment, distribution options, and increased functionality like personalization, without adding to their internal cost and organizational structure.

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value of DynamicAction Inc. DynamicAction Inc. is a creator of decisive, dynamic, actionable business intelligence solutions for retail big data analytics. DynamicAction Inc., now an independent company, has developed a solution that has allowed its leading retail customer base to crack the code of big data and become action-focused retail champions. It is a purpose-built, software-as-a-service solution designed by retailers for retailers. It provides retailers with out-of-the-box metrics, connected data across their enterprise, prioritized actions and workflow. This allows business executives and merchandising practitioners to not only know the questions to ask but the answers to those questions, so they can get to the correct action faster. It’s an application that starts with an action backwards approach to ensure collection of the right data and asks the right questions to produce tangible actions.

The DynamicAction solution allows business executives to gain a holistic view of their retail organizations and enables merchants the operational intelligence they desperately need to make swifter and more profitable decisions. Instead of reacting to the outcome of retail operations, DynamicAction places decision-makers in merchandising and throughout the executive suite at a competitive advantage, with a true understanding and actionable solutions to the business problems directly affecting profitability.

Retail Action-as-a-Service: Product Impact on the Retail Ecosystem



Source: DynamicAction.com

DynamicAction is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that aggregates various business data points into a powerful picture that conveys to decision-makers exactly how to course-correct their business operations to uncover lost revenue opportunities. DynamicAction is a cloud-based retail solution that leverages the power of big data analytics to allow decision makers to thrive in a rapidly changing environment, to think about channels agnostically and view operations more holistically.

DynamicAction is a flexible and scalable cloud-based platform that empowers retailers of any size, model and vertical (even specialty retailers) to garner deep market insight into their operations. With “a single source of truth,” decision-makers can confidently identify operational issues and recapture lost revenue opportunities. Leveraging big data analytics in retail is a disruptive capability that DynamicAction continues to pioneer, creating a significant industry impact.

FORWARD by Elyse Walker1

FORWARD by Elyse Walker, a pure online retailer of elite designer apparel, footwear and accessories brands, was growing concerned with their merchandising strategy. Managing the product life-cycle and ensuring products were properly categorized and positioned effectively became a priority. DynamicAction allowed the merchandising teams to connect across the organization to gain a clearer view of its inventory and operate a more profitable business. With DynamicAction, FORWARD identified $950,000 worth of inventory that was under-marketed and improved the retailer’s sell-through rate by 65%.

REVOLVE2

With a constantly evolving portfolio of established and emerging styles, brands, products and customers to satisfy, REVOLVE felt challenged to maintain its entire portfolio. Understanding the value of its data and acknowledging that its value was not being fully leveraged, REVOLVE partnered with DynamicAction to increase its sell-through rate by 20% and re-position over $2 million worth of inventory. DynamicAction contextualizes data from disparate silos and enables retailers to discover hidden profits that are under their control—an extreme value in such a competitive, operations-driven environment.

1 DynamicAction Inc. How FORWARD by Elyse Walker improved inventory sell-through by 65% with DynamicAction: http://engage.dynamicaction.com/WS-2015-03-FORWARD-CS_LP.html 2 Dynamic Action Inc. REVOLVE improves return on capital on overstocked goods with DynamicAction: http://engage.dynamicaction.com/WS-2015-03-REVOLVE-CS_LP.html



Visionary Innovation: A Modern Story of Digital Transformation

DynamicAction has come a long way on its journey to become a market leader in the area of big data analytics for retailers. The concept of DynamicAction came from the 2008 vision of a former chief strategy officer from IBM’s Smarter Commerce division, a former retail CEO who served as a McKinsey Retail principle, the former chief scientist from Amazon, and a group of the most senior retail executives, who were desperate for a better, more holisitic way to view and run their businesses. DynamicAction was ignited with the innovative vision to turn disparate data sources into prescribed actions across the organization and transform cross-organization reports into a directional, cloud-based solution that maximizes retailer profit.

After its 2012 launch, DynamicAction quickly established itself as a David amongst Goliaths. Competing with major players such as SAS, Oracle and IBM, DynamicAction positioned itself as the solution that retailers desperately need that would allow them to keep up with rapidly changing consumer expectations and minimize operational deficiencies. Since January 2016, DynamicAction Inc. is now an independently operated corporation.

The Bottom Line: Brand Loyalty Drives Customer Acquisition

As an independent corporation, DynamicAction focuses more on its value proposition and its exponentially expanding customer base. While it initially relied on early adopters of big data analytics solutions, DynamicAction now sustains growth by acquiring tech leaders and fast followers from a range of retail verticals—those who wish to achieve the same level of digital transformation that the company’s initial customers have benefited from. The company reports that its customers experience, on average, a 21% increase in year-to-year profit growth. Through new customer acquisitions, DynamicAction itself has doubled its operating revenue each year since 2013 as the total revenue that it manages for customers increases by more than 250% annually.

The bottom line is that DynamicAction has Moneyballed retail. There’s a new way to run retail organizations—with a clear understanding of data and immediate actions to improve performance. DynamicAction is not only a powerful tool for retailers in its ability to provide a holistic view of business operations, but an essential instrument for digital transformation in an age of retail and technology disruptions.

"Having DynamicAction is like having an additional 140 hours of analytics and reporting work that your team doesn't have to address each week. Rather than skimming through

numbers and looking for the 'a-ha,' we could just get straight to action.”

-Cindy Lincks, former VP of Direct, Brooks Brothers



Conclusion Solving the data problem is an overarching problem in big data analytics that retailers are desperately looking to solve. How can data be used to improve operational efficiency? This software provider has cracked the big data enigma to enable retailers to gain organizational omnipresence, recapture profits hidden behind operational deficiencies and get to action faster.

DynamicAction is a high growth provider of digital transformation solutions that allows retailers to gather deep, vertical market insight into their operations.

With its explosive growth and achievements in demystifying big data in retail, DynamicAction Inc. earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Global Technology Innovation Award for the second consecutive year in the big data analytics for retail market.



Significance of Technology Innovation Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon finding new ways to excite the market, and upon maintaining a long-term commitment to innovation. At its core, technology innovation or any other type of innovation can only be sustained with leadership in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition.

Understanding Technology Innovation Technology innovation begins with a spark of creativity that is systematically pursued, developed, and commercialized. That spark can result from a successful partnership, a productive in-house innovation group, or the mind of a singular individual. Regardless of the source, the success of any new technology is ultimately determined by its innovativeness and its impact on the business as a whole.



Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Technology Innovation Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two key factors—Technology Attributes and Future Business Value—according to the criteria identified below.

Technology Attributes Criterion 1: Industry Impact Criterion 2: Product Impact Criterion 3: Scalability Criterion 4: Visionary Innovation

Criterion 5: Application Diversity Future Business Value Criterion 1: Financial Performance Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition Criterion 3: Technology Licensing Criterion 4: Brand Loyalty Criterion 5: Human Capital

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards

Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS

TechnologyObsolescence

DisruptiveTechnologies

NewApplications

CEO

Demographics

Needsand

PerceptionsSegmentation

BuyingBehavior

Brandingand

Positioning

CompetitiveBenchmarking

EmergingCompetition

CompetitiveStrategy

CapitalInvestments

Availabilityof

Capital

CountryRisk

EconomicTrends

CrowdSourcing

GrowthStrategies

CareerDevelopment

GrowthImplementation

IndustryEvolution

New VerticalMarkets

IndustryExpansion

IndustryConvergence

EmergingTechnologies

Smart Cities

Sustainability

New BusinessCultures

GeoPoliticalStability



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4 Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5 Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized award candidates

6 Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform award recipient of award recognition

Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

2016 Global Big Data Analytics for Retail Technology Innovation … · 2016. 7. 1. · With its explosive growth and achievements in demystifying big data in retail, DynamicAction

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