- GK extends its partnership with the food akademie in Neuwied by providing retail technology in the new teaching supermarket for students
At the Federal College of Food Trade, also known as the food akademie Neuwied, students have been taught relevant skills for the food trade since 1936. GK has been a cooperating partner of the food akademie for several years and holds lectures focusing on AI solutions for food retail.
In the newly opened "Supermarket Competence Center", students can now work directly with GK’s POS solutions. In this Germany-wide unique teaching supermarket, the prospective specialists and managers learn more about the practical workflows and processes in food retail.
On Friday, September 2, 2022, the supermarket competence center opened on the food akademie campus. The visitors were enthusiastic about the digital innovations at the in-house exhibition.
Thorsten Fuchs, Managing Director, the food akademie, was delighted by the student’s response. "The Supermarket Competence Center represents an important milestone for our training and study programs in food retailing,” said Fuchs. “This new building enables us to offer students a comprehensive practical experience tool. This is where we use leading industry technologies, such as those from GK."
Herbert Zinn, Member of the Supervisory Board, GK SE, and Daniel Aurich, Director Presales, GK, were on hand for the opening. "We are pleased to expand our partnership with the food akademie in Neuwied,” said Zinn. “The completion of the Supermarket Competence Center means a great gain for students. We are happy to provide POS solutions to support retailers' daily supermarket operations."
The partnership aims to provide junior staff in the food retail sector with in-depth insights into the application and function of retail solutions.
At GK, we take feedback very seriously. As a solution provider, we must remain agile and innovative, and that requires a close finger on the pulse of what our customers need. This connection with our customers has led to long-term relationships, great referrals and exciting industry recognitions.
But you don’t have to take our word for it – keep reading to see what our customers and recent analyst reports have said about GK!
GK Is an Acclaimed POS Leader
Every year, IDC publishes a report known as “MarketScape” that compares active world-wide POS vendors in various industries including the Grocery and Food Retail sector. In the 2022 edition, GK was included as a leading vendor based on GK’s innovative solutions and services, and how well these tools are aligned to the needs of the grocers and food retailers.
IDC called out GK’s commitment to introducing “a steady stream of new features and functions in the past few years” to help retailers remain flexible and competitive.
The report featured four of GK’s core solutions, including:
- GK CLOUD4RETAIL – GK’s comprehensive retail platform that supports all aspects of unified commerce, including POS.
- GK AIR – GK’s cloud- and AI-based solution designed to help retailers achieve their personalization, dynamic pricing and fraud detection goals.
- GK GO – GK’s fully-integrated scanless solution for attended and unattended retail stores.
- GK OmniScale – GK’s platform-independent solution created to improve agility and integration for stores that use scales for dynamic pricing and inventory control.
GK’s Expertise Encompasses Retail Industries Worldwide
GK’s exceptional POS solutions are not restricted to grocery and food retailers. Globally, GK has achieved over 500,000 POS installations across the retail industry, representing over 65 countries. What’s more, 22% of the top 50 global retailers rely on GK solutions sold under the SAP brand.
In fact, RBR, a strategic research and consulting firm with three decades of experience in banking, retail automation, cards and payments, ranked GK as the number one provider for new retail POS installations in Germany and Eastern Europe in their 2021 Global POS Software report.
The report takes into account all new installations across the retail, hospitality and forecourt sectors. In doing so, RBR found that GK is also a top three provider for all new POS installations in these sectors worldwide during the period of the study.
Recommendations From Leading GK Customers
With so many retailers installing GK solutions worldwide, customer service is a critical part of what we do. Take a look at what some of our customers had to say about their ongoing partnerships with GK.
“The satisfaction of customers and employees worldwide is Adidas’ highest priority. Future-proof and flexible technologies ensure the best possible customer service in the store and webshop. With OmniPOS, we are able to implement new trends quickly.” – Andreas Bierlmeier, senior director of digital store solutions, Adidas.
“We’re still a relatively young retailer and our partnership with GK has been instrumental in helping us execute in the present and prepare for the future. It’s highly responsive solutions and team have made it easy for us to meet our customer’s exact needs.” – Ignacio Ibarguen, director, business analysis and IT development, PGA TOUR Superstore
“GK is our reliable technology partner for the store. It has accompanied our expansion into more than 30 countries and our efforts to provide the best customer service, a modern shopper approach, and efficient processes, with high innovative power, comprehensive know-how, and competent project teams.” – Lidl Enterprise Management
Learn More About GK’s Industry Influence
Review more of our exciting industry recognitions and customer references on our website today! To see how GK can help you advance your digital transformation, contact us today.
- The annual general meeting of prudsys AG has resolved to change the company’s name to GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG as of September 1, 2022.
- Presentation of the new brand identity will occur at the DMEXCO trade fair in Cologne on September 21.
At its annual general meeting on August 29, 2022, prudsys AG resolved to change its name to GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG. The change of name will take effect on September 1, 2022, with the entry in the commercial register expected in mid-September.
Since 2017, GK Software SE has held the majority shares of prudsys AG, and the two companies have worked together in a close strategic partnership. The AI solutions of prudsys AG are an integral part of GK's CLOUD4RETAIL platform. CLOUD4RETAIL offers cloud-based solutions to retailers to achieve sales, efficiency, and sustainability targets using artificial intelligence.
After the name change of prudsys AG, both companies will work even more closely together on solutions for retail and eCommerce companies. Joint developments in the areas of hyper-personalization and dynamic pricing are already off to a great start.
"With the renaming, we underline the vision we share with GK to develop innovative AI solutions for retail that increase the sustainability and profitability of retail strategies," comments Jens Scholz, CEO of GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG.
The updated visual identity for GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG will be available at www.gk-software.com/air on September 1. The company will present the new brand identity, closely aligned with the GK Group, to existing and new customers and partners for the first time at this year's DMEXCO trade fair on September 21 in Cologne.
About GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG (formerly prudsys AG)
GK Artificial Intelligence for Retail AG was founded in 1998 under prudsys as a spin-off of the Chemnitz University of Technology. It was the first company in Germany to develop deployable AI applications in eCommerce. Today, the product portfolio covers strategic core topics of the retail industry, including personalization, dynamic pricing, and real-time prediction.
- Approx. 17% revenue increase according to preliminary figures
- Profitability solidifies – EBIT margin grows to 15%
Despite substantial market challenges, GK Software SE continues its growth trajectory during the first half of 2022. In comparison to last year’s figures (64.36M Euro), the company was able to increase revenues by 16.7 percent to 75.12M Euro. An EBITDA of 14.65M Euro was accomplished (previous year’s figure excluding special effects = 12.88M Euro). EBIT reached 11.28M Euro in H1 2022 (H1 2021 excluding special effects = 9.04M Euro). EBIT margin is now at 15.0 percent.
The revenue increase is driven by growing sales in cloud contracts, excellent business with customers as well as a large international retailer’s decision to use CLOUD4RETAIL.
Based on the ongoing developments and the future sales outlook for the 2nd half of the year, the Executive Board confirms its forecast for 2022 as well as its medium-term forecast up to 2023.
The semi-annual report is expected to be published on August 30, 2022.
It's cliché but it's true – our people are our greatest assets. No matter how much emphasis we put on our advanced technology, our customers, employees and partners will always come first.
That's why this summer was so important to us. We finally got to meet up in person again and we loved every second of it.
This summer was filled with customer events, in-person meetings, team reunions, and conferences. Getting to know one another, even those of us that joined the GK family during the pandemic, was fantastic and the bonds formed will benefit us, as an organization, for years to come.
For those of you that couldn't visit with us in person, this blog will showcase some of the summer's biggest highlights for GK.
Beating the Heat at the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race
In late July, the GK Americas team went to the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race in Newton, Iowa. Hy-Vee is a long-term customer for GK. The grocery and convenience store retailer currently utilizes GK's GK's OmniPOS, TransAction+ Payments and GK Drive forecourt solutions.
Several GK customers attended and first met at Hy-Vee's beautiful "Helpful Smiles Technology" center. After a tour and presentations by Hy-Vee, Discount Tire and Dunn Edwards Paints, they visited a store running the GK solutions and then they were off to the races. But the fun didn't end there, the event included numerous car races and musical performances from Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Florida Georgie Line!
This event allowed GK to reconnect with our customers and have some fun. We look forward to many more customer events in our future.
Coming Together In North Carolina
In May 2022, GK hosted its first get-together since the pandemic began. The entire GK Americas team was invited to Raleigh, North Carolina to celebrate recent successes and get reacquainted.
During the week, individual teams were able to meet in-person for the first time in two years. In just a few short days, we saw our teams grow closer and we're excited to see the exceptional new innovations that will arise from these conversations.
We were also able to introduce our teams to upcoming product developments. The excitement over what's to come was clear, and we can't wait to announce these new developments to our wider GK community in the months to come.
After the work was done, the team gathered at the beautiful Angus Barn to enjoy food, music and the well-loved photo booth shown below. It was great to be able to laugh together and spend time outside of the (virtual) office.
Showcasing GK GO and Making New Connections at EuroCIS
The GK Americas team wasn't the only team in on the summer fun. GK also attended EuroCIS, the leading retail technology trade fair in Germany in May. The team proudly showed off GK GO, our "grab & go" scanless technology shopping format. The pop-up store is designed to showcase GK's unique technology which makes scanless technology a tangible, easy-to-understand experience.
In addition, GK's client solutions executive, Markus Elbers presented on "Success factors for personalization in food retail," alongside GK customer, the Coop Group. The team also hosted three lunch and learn sessions highlighting GK GO.
Conferences like EuroCIS give us the opportunity to connect with our peers, partners and potential customers, to build stronger, more mutually beneficial relationships. And, since GK is committed to continually advancing our solutions, we also enjoy viewing presentations from other leading retail technology vendors. These timely conversations often fuel further curiosity and help inform our next big solutions.
Continuing the Summer Fun Year Round
The summer may be coming to an end, but our in-person events are just beginning. We’re looking forward to more opportunities to meet with our teams and customers in person in the future.
To see if you can join us at an upcoming event, visit our Events page. In the meantime, you can contact us to set up a meeting – we love to add more innovative minds to our exceptional community.
Or, if you’re looking to join a team that’s people-oriented and knows how to have fun? Visit our careers page today.
In this series, we sit down with members of the GK team to learn more about their experience with our company.
Tell us a little about your career journey. How did you end up at GK?
I am part of the generation between Millennials and Gen Xers: I grew up off the grid, but as a teenager I had a (pretty embarrassing) MySpace profile and did my homework with the help of the always reliable Encarta. In today's world, having software doing something for you is part of our day-to-day lives, but back then, it was only part of the science fiction stories I loved to read as a teenager.
My love for literature drove me to study a B.A. in Translation just a few years before Google Translate or Deepl existed. Sadly, translation is becoming increasingly underrated, so I decided to take a chance working in editing, writing, marketing and photography production for magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as well as publishing houses.
But my curiosity about software and AI kept my brain awake at night. I had always been intrigued by this world, so when a friend who worked at SAP told me about GK, I could not resist. Fortunately, I got a job as a Go-to-Market and Partner Alliances Manager at GK. Now I am a proud Latin woman working in a global tech position.
Is there a project or accomplishment that you're most proud of during your time at GK?
In my day-to-day, I work with partners around the world. I'm honored to learn about their unique objectives, teams, workflows, languages and cultures. I feel very proud when we successfully open a new market or secure a new client because I understand the complex teamwork required to do so. I am motivated by how much I learn from my team every day.
We recently had the first of the GK Bar Experience series, an event I conceptualized to work even closer with our partner SAP, turning our solutions into cocktails. I have been working with GK for over a year, and it took me a while to get to know the team in person. That made me realize how important it is to see your colleagues face to face. To read their body language, listen to their life stories, learn about their passions; to connect. It was clear to me we needed to sit our teams down and spend quality time together. It was a great success; how could it not be? Giving people the attention and care they deserve cannot have another outcome. We will replicate this concept all around the world. The most exciting part is getting to work with the professional team that helped me put this together, and to meet our talented SAP colleagues in person. I treasure these moments.
Also, my team and I are responsible for launching social media for the Latin-American market which has been a great challenge.
What do you think makes GK unique?
My favorite part of working at GK is the people, inside and out. GK conducts business in around 70 countries. Learning about every culture, every market, and solution is a journey that never ends because the needs of our retailers and their customers never stop changing. I feel proud to be part of the retail innovators. There is never a dull day here; GK and our products are transforming the retail industry.
What is your favorite memory from your time at GK so far?
This might sound strange, but, apart from the time I met my colleagues in person,my favorite memory at GK was when I got sick with coronavirus. I was feeling terrible and had lots of urgent work to do. I was concerned about my inability to work, but my team showed up for me. They did not let me do anything but rest and recover.
That's when I realized I was working not only with highly efficient, professional, and talented people but with a team of empathic, caring human beings who take the extra load without hesitating when someone needs it. That is something exceptional, and I cherish it.
What is your favorite vacation spot or the coolest place you've visited?
Whenever someone says go to your happy place, my mind flies to Punta Cometa, in Mazunte, Oaxaca, at sunset. But my favorite vacation spot is Barcelona, where I moved during the pandemic, which has the fascinating Costa Brava a few minutes up North.
This summer I visited Cap de Creus (Girona), which has a restaurant up in the hills where you get a full view of the Mediterranean with wine and paella on the side. Afterwards, you can take a hike that leads you to a cove with turquoise water. It's dreamy.
If you're invited to a dinner party or potluck, what dish are you bringing?
I am Mexican, so bringing a dish to a party is part of my DNA. It comes in very different sizes, shapes, and flavors, from micheladas and mezcal to guacamole, tacos, salsas... the amount of spiciness my crowd can take is the limit.
To keep up with Daniela's recent projects, be sure to follow GK Latin America's social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
The cloud is a trending topic of conversation among retail IT teams worldwide – but many don't understand its full potential. McKinsey reported that the value in switching to cloud-based commerce was as high as $1 trillion in 2021 if retail IT teams take the full suite of benefits in stride.
With enterprise businesses dedicating as much as 80% of their IT budgets to cloud-supported infrastructure and the number of stores utilizing SAP's Commerce Cloud increasing by 7% year-over-year, it's never been more important for retailers to grasp the full potential of the cloud.
So what cloud benefits are retailers missing? And how can they make the most of the transition to the cloud? Let's dive in.
The Benefits of Switching to the Cloud
Retailers have a lot on their plates--whether it's restructuring their supply chain around the latest material shortage, implementing dynamic pricing to offset inflation or updating hiring processes to combat the labor shortage. They don't have time to waste on making sure new solutions are compatible with existing data or storage capabilities.
Prior to transitioning to the cloud, retailers had to host all relevant information on site, but it was expensive to store all the data needed to run a successful retail business. Now, the cloud can take care of that and bring every solution, every spreadsheet and every vendor together without the need for physical servers, and without threatening privacy.
This IT consolidation also enhances control and flexibility. By improving access to all retail functionalities, the cloud reduces operational, labor and hardware costs. It also reduces the risk of data loss thanks to high-end backup and recovery mechanisms.
With cloud-based infrastructure, retailers also benefit from improved time-to-market for new concepts, enhancements and functionalities. This gives retailers unprecedented flexibility when it comes to testing and implementing new solutions that meet today's industry challenges. By eliminating the need to monitor data storage and manually engage new solutions with old, IT teams can refocus their energy on how the new solutions will help achieve business goals.
In short, the cloud allows retail IT teams to enjoy greater flexibility and responsiveness without wasting time and resources scaling solutions.
Why CLOUD4RETAIL is the Best Choice for Cloud-Based Commerce
GK is proud to help retailers transition to the cloud and take advantage of all the benefits associated with cloud-based architecture through CLOUD4RETAIL by GK. In fact, GK's CLOUD4RETAIL solution was the first fully managed service designed to provide enterprise-class omni-channel POS capabilities through the cloud.
Now, GK customers can deploy CLOUD4RETAIL with any combination of GK's leading omni-channel applications while a reducing time and cost burdens for the retailer's IT infrastructure and staff. The platform delivers full unified commerce capabilities, including personalized recommendations, marketing automation, store merchandise management and dynamic pricing through a robust mobile architecture.
How CLOUD4RETAIL Engages GK's Other Award-Winning Solutions
The cloud produces cost-saving opportunities that greatly benefit a retailer's bottom line, but at the end of the day the cloud is only as great as the sum of its parts. Meaning that the solutions within the cloud must be optimized to achieve the full potential of transitioning to cloud-based architecture.
That's why GK offers a full suite of unified commerce solutions designed to optimize every aspect of a retail business from point-of-sale and merchandising to marketing and customer engagement.
These are just a few of GK's award-winning solutions that can be powered by CLOUD4RETAIL:
- OmniPOS® – This solution helps retailers manage all processes for omnichannel retailing in one platform, optimizing uniform data management and consistent communication structures across the business.
- OmniScale – This solution transforms scales for maximum agility and seamless integration with other enterprise applications, ensuring flexible and accurate pricing and inventory control.
- Artificial Intelligence for Retail (AIR)– AIR utilizes machine learning and visual computing to power dynamic pricing, real-time prediction modules, personalization and fraud detection.
- Store Inventory Management - The services package bridges the gap between the ERP system in the retail headquarters and store-level processes, enabling employees to handle all merchandising needs effectively and efficiently.
- Mobile Consumer Assistant (MCA) – This solution turns a shopper's smartphone into a personalized mobile engagement tool that improves long-term customer loyalty.
- MobilePOS – With MobilePOS, shoppers access the high-quality checkout experience they desire from anywhere with improved speed and security.
GK's CLOUD4RETAIL Gives Retailers Wings
It's time that retailers take full advantage of the cloud and GK is here to help. Reach out to us today to learn more about how CLOUD4RETAIL and GK's suite of unified commerce solutions can take your business to the next level.
With supply chain disruptions impacting available inventory and inflation threatening customer demand, retailers must be more agile than ever. With agility comes control, and more control means more profit for retailers facing adversity.
While agility is important for any retail strategy, flexibility in pricing and inventory management can lead to major improvements in profitability. Just ask companies like Uber and Airbnb. These companies, along with major airlines and hospitality companies, have been using dynamic pricing to manage supply and demand for years. In addition, grocers leverage dynamic pricing to manage perishable inventory and decrease food waste.
All retailers and hospitality companies of any size or specialty can benefit from closely managing their inventory and pricing capabilities with GK. GK’s AIR Dynamic Pricing and Store Inventory Management solutions are designed to improve agility and strengthen margins.
Keep reading to learn more about how these solutions work in today’s tumultuous retail environment.
GK’s Store Inventory Management Solution Minimizes Supply Chain Disruptions
GK’s Retail Store Inventory Management solution bridges the gap between a retailer’s enterprise planning system and its store-level processes. With this solution in place, retail employees can effectively and efficiently coordinate all merchandising needs in store, online and throughout the supply chain.
This solution records all inventory changes in real time. The AI-driven data exchange ensures that the latest data is made available to all stakeholders online and offline on any mobile device.
With inventory changes quickly available, decisions regarding promotions, displays and pricing can be determined quickly. Insights into current supply and demand enhance the retail strategy.
GK AIR Dynamic Pricing Calculates Ideal Prices Automatically
Meanwhile, AIR Dynamic Pricing by GK can partially or fully automate price adjustments to optimize inventory management. Based on defined pricing rules and market and internal factors, the AI-driven algorithms determine regular and markdown pricing to power the ideal combination of sales volume, revenue and margin.
Regardless of complex pricing factors like material costs, competition, price sensitives and even the weather, dynamic pricing will always find the best price to achieve a retailer’s goal. Today, that’s more important than ever. By finding the ideal price, retailers can retain loyal customers without risking the bottom line or selling through inventory too quickly.
Retailers can also invest in GK’s mobile pricing client app add-on. With this functionality, pricing specialists can interact with a price change dashboard on their mobile device. This includes access to simulations designed to calculate how a proposed price change would impact sales, turnover, margins and profit.
The Power of Combining GK’s Store Inventory Management and AIR Dynamic Pricing
When paired together, GK’s Store Inventory Management and AIR Dynamic Pricing by GK provide the tools necessary to master supply and demand regardless of extenuating factors.
The advanced insights and agility give retailers more control over their strategies. With better controlled inventory management, retailers won’t need to rely on markdowns and can sell more products at full price.
For example, if a retailer orders the right amount of holiday decorations based on pre-holiday demand, they can avoid selling the decorations at reduced prices after the big day.
Ultimately, better inventory management control leads to less stress and better margins.
Are you looking to optimize your store and improve flexibility to better withstand unexpected events in the future? Contact us today and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
In this series, we sit down with members of the GK team to learn more about their experience with the company.
Tell us a little about your career journey. How did you end up at GK?
I began my career at a large retail and financial software company, where I held a variety of highly technical roles writing operating systems and communication drivers. Because I loved working with customers, I gradually moved to more customer-facing functions. I found the perfect mix of customer communication and technical skills in Solution Consulting/ Sales Engineering, and that is where I’ve focused my career in recent years.
Is there a project or accomplishment that you're most proud of during your time at GK?
When working directly with customers and potential customers, every contact is unique – whether it’s a meeting, a proposal or a demo. The greatest sense of satisfaction comes when a customer says, “You nailed it.”
What do you think makes GK unique?
GK has a unique focus on enabling flexibility and agility for our customers. Twenty years ago, retail was noted for being slow to change – big changes came every five or 10 years. Now, it’s more like every three months. Buying a solution that meets the needs of today is no longer sufficient. At GK, we offer solutions that move the industry forward and allow retailers to incorporate any feature or technology needed to meet their present and future business demands. In my opinion, no other vendor comes close to GK in terms of flexibility and agility.
What is your favorite memory from your time at GK so far?
As a remote employee, my favorite memories at GK are the team outings. At these events, I get to meet all the people who are otherwise voices on the phone the rest of the year. Getting to know them, as well as their significant others, has created great memories for me.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love working on cars – rebuilding engines and transmissions, doing body work, painting them, or whatever else feels interesting at the time.
What is your favorite vacation spot or the coolest place you've visited?
I am incredibly lucky because I live in my favorite vacation spot. I grew up in Savannah, GA, but I didn’t really appreciate it until I moved away. Over time, Savannah became my favorite vacation spot, then my favorite getaway on the weekends, and finally, home again. So now, every day is a vacation!
- New platform for one of the largest point-of-sale (POS) installations in the food retail sector in Europe
- Successful collaboration lasting more than 20 years
GK Software will continue its collaboration with the Schwarz Group in the future, over the coming years working with the group to convert its POS software to the CLOUD4RETAIL open platform. The new system enables the seamless integration of mobile in-store services for customers, a close dovetailing with digital offers and the use of modern cloud technologies.
The digitalisation of the group’s stores has accelerated massively in recent years. GK has been a Lidl technology partner since as far back as 1999, providing the POS solution for all Lidl stores in over 30 countries worldwide, among other products. By switching to the latest solution, Lidl will be able to benefit from modern cloud technology, an open expansion concept and unified platform support for mobile solutions.
Rocco Gehring, Director of Customer Systems at Schwarz IT, explains: “The Schwarz Group wants to continue setting the benchmark for the digitalisation of the retail sector, offering its customers innovative services across all channels. To achieve this, we were looking for a technology partner whose solutions meet the latest standards. Combined with our in-house developments and our next-generation cloud-based IT platforms, it puts us in a position to implement innovations and requirements quickly. GK is a long-standing partner with whom we also aim to undertake joint activities to facilitate modern cloud operations with STACKIT and IT security activities with XM Cyber.”
Rainer Gläß, CEO of GK Software, comments: “It was crucial to our growth en route to becoming one of the leading providers on the market that a company like Lidl has given us the opportunity since 1999 to prove ourselves on major and complex international projects. This is why I’m particularly pleased that we have been able to convince the Schwarz Group with our solutions time and again and help implement joint IT projects that are among the biggest in this sector worldwide.”
