Posts

Posted on

Is Video Analytics an answer to Google Analytics for retail stores?

By Kishore Jethanandani

The competitive battle between brick-and-mortar stores and on-line stores seemed like a no contest. E-commerce stores have the clinching advantage in analytics. Video analytics may well help stores disprove that presumption.

E-commerce sites learn so much from the footprints of visitors on their sites with the analytics tools. Video analytics will potentially capture not only the quantitative data on shoppers but also the demographics such as ethnicity and even suggestive psychographic data, from the unguarded expressions of shoppers engaging with products and services, advertising and content, for better targeting.

Accepted notions of display, store planning and merchandising begin to change with the insights received from the analysis of video and related data. Tim Callan, the CMO of RetailNext, a leading video analytics company based in San Francisco, related the story of a retail store that wanted to position its signature products so that they would be conspicuous to shoppers. The conventional wisdom was that those products should be placed at the entry of the store. “Video analytics revealed that there are dead zones near the door entry where shoppers make way for people so they have enough space to enter the shop and miss the products placed there,” Mr. Tim Callan recounted.

Another case led to a substantial redesign of the store as a result of findings from video analytics. Like most lifestyle retail stores, it had a section for shoes. Typically, shoes are displayed on walls for customers to scan before they choose. Most stores place benches next to the wall where customers try out the shoes. “Video analytics revealed that the benches discouraged the shoppers from spending enough time looking at shoes on the wall,” Mr. Callan revealed. “The store decided to reserve separate spaces for the wall and the benches and increased the dwell time on shoes by five times,” Mr. Callan added.

Insights on customer behavior revealed by the qualitative data proved to be especially useful for Gordmans (Mr. Callan disputes the name of the store), a mid-western department store, as a guide to customer service decisions according to a report by the Economist. A camera embedded in Mannequins helped to spot a pattern—the tendency of Asian customers to visit at the same hours of the day. The store responded by placing Asian employees to serve them.

Merchandising decisions can be fine-tuned to increase conversions and improve outcomes from cross-selling. Retailers like Urban Outfitters draw on insights uncovered from correlations between the data on time spent eyeing products and sales realized at the counters. Customers, for example, could have entered the store to buy custom jewelry and may well be in the mood to buy perfumes. If they spot perfumes in an adjacent display, they are more likely to buy them. Today’s cameras take a 360 degree view of stores and will capture behavior of this nature to provide pointers to cross-selling opportunities.

The critical advantage of video analytics tools for stores is the ability to use analytical reports in real-time and feed advertisements, content and offers to customers while they are still in the store. Immersive Software’s Cara software, for example, processes data, in real-time, from face detection cameras to determine the gender and age of shoppers and change the advertisements that are more likely to appeal to the observed profile of visitors to the stores. “The data helps to personalize the experience for customers such as by placing customers in the advertisements they see,” said Jason Sosa, the CEO of Immersive Software.

Early adopter American Apparel recovered from a near death experience after it restructured its stores and deployed video analytics among other technologies. A store that faced the prospect of bankruptcy in mid-2012 is now profitable.

Stores have a chance to make shopping fun as they understand the shoppers’ behavior a lot better with video analytics. Shoppers could well end up loving it more than the yawn of executing commands on-line.

A version of this post was published in the now defunct Digital Canvas Retail hosted by UBM Techweb

Posted on

On the M2M road to pervasive intelligence

By Kishore Jethanandani

Machine-to-Machine (M2M), the tiny radio devices, sensors that feed bits of data from activities of objects such as moving trucks, have a whole lot more value when the data from each of them is aggregated to draw intelligence.  This would be performance metrics like the expected time of arrival for trucks or cargo monitoring such as temperatures in cabins of vehicles carrying perishables.

Driving safety performance has improved significantly as accident rates are lowered with detailed monitoring of driver behavior. Risky driving behavior is predicted based on real-time data, aggregated from a variety of sensors, on acceleration, brake use, maneuvers and turns that are most likely to cause accidents. Drivers are cautioned when their behavior risks accidents.  Studies undertaken by Trimble show accident rates were lowered by 45% and corresponding insurance and related costs cut by 50%.

Where multimodal transportation is involved, data aggregated from the gamut of means of transportation uncovers opportunities for business gains that would otherwise be not available. Portvision, for example, gained visibility into the movement of vessels by taking advantage of the AIS (Automated Identification System) which is otherwise used for collision avoidance by the Coast Guard. The data can tell, in real time, when the vessel is close enough to the shore to benefit from switching to cellular communications. Ships tend to spend a great deal of time close to the shore, before the cargo is unloaded, and can significantly lower the use of the more expensive satellite communications.

Telecom carriers, specialist M2M solution providers, strategic alliances and M2M marketplaces are coming together to interconnect sensors, devices and networks so that the data can flow seamlessly to central databases where it can be parsed for information. A global alliance of KPN, NTT DoCoMo, Rogers Communications, SingTel, Telefónica, through its Telefónica Digital unit, Telstra, and Vimpelcom will use a distinctive SIM card, a common web interface and will centrally manage M2M devices. They will all collaborate with Jasper Wireless to manage the M2M network. Verizon acquired Hughes Telematics in June 2012 for its fleet management solutions. Orange acquired Data and Mobile in January 2012 for its fleet management software. Masternaut entered into a strategic alliance with Telefonica for joint marketing of M2M and related fleet management solutions. Deutsche Telecom created a global M2M marketplace where the thousands of vendors could find selling opportunities and for customers to do comparison shopping.

Transportation and Logistics leads as the target market by Communication Service Providers for their M2M services. A survey conducted by Informa found that 52% of the carriers are targeting this industry.

Real-time M2M powered fleet management enables new services, cuts costs and speeds up regulatory compliance. In times of disasters or just adverse weather, vehicles can be tangled in accidents, stranded or rerouted. Software, such as that available from Agile Access Control, provides data on the status of fleets in real-time for contingency planning.

Data for compliance with hours-of-service regulations for drivers is not trustworthy as it was collected manually and was prone to errors and omissions. With M2M enabled fleet management software like Qualcomm’s hours of service application, tracking of hours of service is automated.

FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) governed rules obligate drivers to prepare a daily DVIR (Driver Vehicle Inspection Report) and submit it to headquarters for tracking maintenance or safety issues. With M2M enabled software like Cadec Global, the tedium is cut and processing of the data happens continually in real-time.

In the supply chain, the devil of underperformance is in the details of minute operational data. The data is impossible to track manually with any degree of accuracy. M2M will help to keep the devil at bay.

A version of this article was previously published by Innovation Generation hosted by UBM Techweb

Posted on

MEMS transform Mobile Devices

Mobile device sales have tapered in developed markets. To regenerate demand, vendors are turning to tiny, low-powered MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) devices that enable novel services on smaller energy efficient devices.

Outdoor navigation was one of the first successful mobile applications. MEMS will make indoor navigation possible.  GPS enabled navigation systems are not capable of sensing altitudes whether indoors or outdoors. Inside multi-storied buildings, people could be on any of the floors and they can’t be tracked unless their phones sense their altitude. Samsung has added in its Galaxy 3 and 4 models pressure sensors just for this purpose according to a report by IEEE.

For indoor navigation, pressure sensors work in conjunction with other sensors like the gyroscope and accelerometer that have been available in mobile phones but have barely been used. Individually, these sensors stream only one type of data feed—not enough to spawn very many applications. The accelerometer, for example, senses motion but cannot read direction or orientation.

French company, Movea, has developed, MotionCore, an API for Android ad Windows 8 devices that allows phones to connect with multiple sensors of any make according to another report of IEEE. Once the GPS signal is lost inside the building, users can easily lose their way inside a cavernous commercial building. With sensors, the phone will ask the user to enter data of his or her height. The accelerometer senses motion and calculates from the steps taken the distance covered. The gyroscope reads changes in direction and the pressure sensor the height. The combined data can be represented on the building map in order to direct the user to a meeting room or any other destination within the building.

Samsung’s Galaxy 4 is chockfull of sensors suggesting plans for a varied mixed of services not yet disclosed to the public. According to a report by Analog EE Times , the Samsung Galaxy 4 includes an accelerometer, RGB light, geomagnetic, proximity, gyroscope, barometer, gesture and even temperature and humidity varieties.

Projection of visual content is another area where MEMS has transformed mobile devices. Despite the richness of the visual content on mobile device, their users are stuck with a tiny screen as the only viewing option. Pico projectors, offered by companies like Mezmeriz, are tiny versions of room projectors. They can be embedded into mobile phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Beam and display visual content on any surface or even as a holographic image.  The MEMS device is a collection of microscopic mirrors, all part of a chipset that projects, a pixel at a time, the image.  The MEMS devices, by reducing the power consumption and the heat generation, are able to offer image quality of room projectors with a tiny fraction of their size.

MEMS devices overcome the limits of size, battery life and excessive heat of mobile devices and raise their utility with new services that will sustain and increase interest in mobile devices well into the future. They make mobile devices far more aware of their environment and translate the data into services that come in handy in the daily rhythm of life.

 

Note: This post was earlier contributed to the now defunct “The Mobility Hub” published by UBM Techweb.

Posted on

Global Supply Chains: the connecting tissue for dispersed supply centers

International Procurement Operations (IPOs) are the nerve centers of decision-making for efficient global procurement operations. Expansion into low-cost countries brings within the fold of an extended enterprise a coalition of suppliers, buyers and logistics companies who can be more productive when they work in concert. IPOs forge a network, whose members are initially tenuously tied to each other by their transactions, into an interconnected global procurement network joined together by long-term relationships. The several poles of decision-making local to a department, business unit or geography are merged into a synchronized management process that spans the global procurement network.

Posted on

Hedge Funds: alpha for the masses

The alpha risk for hedge funds
The tsunamis of financial risk Pension funds are facing the prospect of an exponential increase in withdrawals from retiring subscribers -- despite the shrinking value of their asset base. In this scenario, hedge funds provide a powerful tool for effective liability hedging. Pension funds are looking for the last hope to cover for their unfunded liabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The specter of inflation has increased the appetite for capital preservation among endowments and foundations – and these investors have targeted rates of return that can’t be achieved with today’s low-yielding bonds. Alternative investments in global real estate, natural resources have a chance of making up for the low returns.
Posted on

Predictive Analytics: ready for surprises

 

Customers can now see that the early CRM technologies had a modest objective of accumulating transaction data. The truth is that the “irrational optimism” about CRM clouded judgments in the 1990s. The “irrational pessimism” that ensued missed the promise of CRM, i.e., the ground had been prepared for decision support solutions including predictive analytics.

 

 

Customers can now see that the early CRM technologies had a modest objective of accumulating transaction data. The truth is that the “irrational optimism” about CRM clouded judgments in the 1990s. The “irrational pessimism” that ensued missed the promise of CRM, i.e., the ground had been prepared for decision support solutions including predictive analytics.

Posted on

Balanced scorecards: numbered for excellence

The dashboard for performance
Balanced scorecard

Autonomous business units within a larger corporation have a life of their own far removed from the efficiency concerns of headquarters. The balanced scorecard methodology lets enterprises delve deeper into financial numbers to understand the root causes of their performance. Enterprises want to share the information with their employees to pinpoint problems much faster and use actionable intelligence to correct errors.

 

Posted on

Mobile Collaboration in enterprises: Latencies and Real-time Decision-making

Technological barriers to collaboration on the fly are beginning to be broken. On-premise video-conferencing solutions exist in the market today while mobile video-conferencing is in its infancy. Larger teams will need ability for point-to-multi-point video-conferencing solutions. A project manager, for example, will like to share visuals with multiple members of his team executing a task. Video conferencing is now possible with mobile devices and they can handle up to ten participants. Communications with multiple members of a team are likely to result in media clutter which can be reduced with selective role and context-specific distribution of content.

Read the full white paper here

Posted on

Augmented Reality: Where Mind and Matter Meet

Augmented reality is a looking glass into the reified world that it juxtaposes with the living reality as seen and felt. It enables us to superimpose data, imagery and video onto the real world we do see. Like the mythical blind men and the elephant, we misconstrue the world we see only partially from our angle of view. Augmented reality virtually completes the picture in an attempt to see the whole.

Click Here For The Full White Paper

Posted on

Mobile Collaboration in Health Sector

Wider adoption of remote care is now possible with the panoply of technological tools now available such as sensors, medical devices, smart mobile devices and internet video. The sensors let doctors read vital signs from a distance, robots let them do hospital rounds more frequently without being present, video lets them see a patient in another location, smart mobile devices with embedded cameras let them track emergency situations in real time and internet connections let them download images from distant storage devices.

 

Read the full white paper here