At EuroCIS in Düsseldorf, GK Software AG is revealing new and improved solutions, innovative concepts and responses to retailers' latest needs. The main theme of the company's presence at this year's event is the Unified Omni-Commerce Platform as the basis for increasingly integrated sales channels.
At Europe's largest trade fair for the retail-IT sector, taking place from 24-26 February 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany, GK Software AG will be displaying its comprehensive product portfolio. At stand D49 in Hall 9 of EuroCIS, the German market leader is presenting new store solutions which will enable retailers to implement complete omni-channel concepts. It will also be demonstrating how it is blurring the distinction between traditional branch-level applications and solutions for other areas − such as e-commerce − in order to offer end-to-end enterprise applications which enable all sales channels to be connected together seamlessly.
From Enterprise POS to X-POS − A New Generation of Retail Applications
With its new solutions, GK Software is responding to the current trend towards cross-point-of-sale (X-POS) systems within retail solutions, which represents a paradigm shift. Since the mid-90s, retailers have increasingly been replacing the simple, PC-based checkout solutions in their stores with online-compatible applications extended with countless additional functionalities; these are known as "enterprise POS" solutions. X-POS solutions are taking that development to the next level, removing the barriers that have up until now existed between physical stores, the webshop and other sales channels. In GK Software's new world of solutions, the in-store functionalities which are also required with the same level of quality in other channels are available as open services. These include, for example, fundamental business processes such as price calculation, shopping basket and stock-, product- or customer-related data. As a result, identical processes are performed transparently and without redundancies by a single system in an omni-channel environment.
Newly Designed Solutions for Omni-Channel Retailing
The solutions by GK Software have been especially designed and/or further developed for use in omni-channel retail environments. EuroCIS marks the launch of a new version of a POS solution specifically for clienteling. Clienteling represents the new standard in the relationship between retailer and customer whereby all the available information relating to customers themselves, to their activities in the various channels, to the stock levels in store or in the webshop, to current promotions, etc., is provided in real time, e.g. via a mobile device. The clienteling solution utilizes the innovative GK/Retail app-enablement concept which allows external applications to be connected through seamlessly integrated apps without the standard software having to be changed. The apps even automatically react to events such as item registrations or customer logins. Hence the webshop or the CRM system, for example, immediately also becomes part of the clienteling POS. A ready-made connection is in place thanks to the Omni-Channel Store Connector by GK, which is available in the hybris Extend & SAP CEC Marketplace. One of GK Software's partners, prudsys, provides an app for displaying real-time product recommendations at the POS − which is already common practice in online shopping − in the form of its Realtime Decisioning Engine. This prudsys solution is one of the world's most successful personalization tools for webshops. With the further addition of enterprise-wide master data and customer data as well as extra information (e.g. from social media channels), the clienteling version of GK/Retail POS represents an innovative sales instrument for retailers.
Unified Omni-Commerce Platform
The backend systems by SAP and the online business solutions by hybris combined with the GK/Retail Business Suite applications form a Unified Omni-Commerce Platform which offers a complete solution. This is founded on the SAP HANA®-based Customer Activity Repository (SAP CAR®), which has enabled SAP to create a unified data pool enriched with cross-channel services for all master data and transaction data in the omni-channel environment. For that purpose, GK Software makes key data elements from the GK/Retail portfolio of solutions available as services in CAR for subsequent use by any of the other components. As a result, a consistent price calculation can be made or returns can be handled accurately and securely across all channels, for instance, thus avoiding redundancies and eliminating sources of errors.
New and Further-Developed Solutions
Within the framework of continual further developments to the GK/Retail Business Suite, the underlying architecture concept has been developed and new solutions have been made ready for market. These activities have helped to enable all centralized solutions and services to also be used on SAP HANA or in the cloud. One new version of the store solution is based on SAP Fiori and offers a wide variety of applications in combination with a web platform (UI5). Hence GK/Retail covers the entire spectrum, from classic fat clients to very thin clients with online connections as well as hybrid variations on all types and classes of devices. These flexible deployment options plus the use of modern enterprise servers enable a lean branch-level IT set-up with a small footprint and optimal total cost of ownership. In the area of mobility the company's EuroCIS highlights will include, in addition to POS and consumer-related solutions, the new version of Mobile Merchandise Management for the first time, which is now also available for Android in addition to iOS.
A Peek inside the GK FutureLab − Retail Apps for Wearables
The GK FutureLab is continually focused on new technologies and devices, and explores how they could benefit retailers. One such technology is 'wearable' devices of all kinds, such as 'smart' watches, glasses and clothing. At EuroCIS, to illustrate the potential of such advancements, GK Software is demonstrating a retail app for Google Glass. The app enables consumers to fill their basket based on a shopping list, to scan their items in store, to call up additional information and to subsequently pay for their purchases. Wearables will undoubtedly play a growing role in retail in the future, and this concept shows one way in which they could be used.
