I’m at Microsoft for LEAP and we just wrapped up another day of interesting discussions. If you missed my update regarding day 1, make sure to have a look at it here.

Today’s theme was Design for Performance and Scalability. Many legacy applications are being replaced because they are not performance-oriented and scalable at their core. This is something that has to be introduced right from the design stage. Today’s speakers covered many of the core areas which need to be optimized to enable both performance and scalability.

Vamshidhar Kommineni took us right from breakfast to using Azure storage for the data storage needs of Azure applications and how it can be used to enhance performance. Vamshidhar spoke about the innovations in the storage services layer made in the year 2019. He also shared briefly that plans for 2020.

Corey Newton-Smith was next and focused on IoT applications. Corry has been with Microsoft since 2003 and currently functions as the Principal Group PM for IoT Central. She shared the current state of IoT and Microsoft’s plans for the near future highlighting their vision.

Corey explains that Azure IoT represented a new era of digitization amongst industries. It was an innovation that allowed brands the ability to do so much more. The objective behind the production of this platform is enabling a digital feedback loop. She discussed that Microsoft had done so much to make the IoT better. Now, it was capable of bidirectional communication, can be scaled to suit enterprise of any size and provides end-to-end security. Microsoft was planning an improvement that would allow it to support scenarios that are not currently cloud feasible. What’s more? Everything can be tailored specifically to the exact solutions that you need.

The next session began after some light mingling during the coffee break. It was back to business with Jose Contreras and his keynote on decomposing Monoliths into Microservices.

Enterprise applications have made a gradual transition from being monolithic to being Microservice based. Jose explained strategies that can help with this process focussing on Memory, Computing, and Schema. He then discussed migrating existing monolith applications into Microservices without affecting ongoing operations. He focussed on the design, execution, and DevOps aspects.

Jose spoke on a number of factors to really prove the usefulness of transforming monolith to microservices. As part of his talk, he highlighted the factors to consider in making use of this service, differences between private and shared cache and considerations for using cache.

Interestingly, he moved on and started talking about Azure Compute. He listed all of their available services and gave detailed information on its hosting models, DevOps Criteria, Scalability criteria, and other criteria.

Clemens Vasters’s keynote focussed on how messaging is shaping enterprise applications. Importantly, he spoke on how Microsoft Azure could make all of it better.
He is a Product Architect at Microsoft and highlighted how open standards and messaging can be used to move applications to the cloud. Some of the areas he touched on were Event Hubs, Service Bus, Event Grid, and CNCF Cloud Events, and Relay with web sockets.

According to him, users can use a series of options to connect a range of devices. Ease of connectivity is guaranteed by the use of intelligent edge or intelligent cloud. Basically, it can be applied to varying scales and still work well with Telco 4G/5G. Despite all of this, cloud services can be applied to create automotive and smart cities, support industrial automation and speed up processes.

Clemens continued by clearing the air on the standards which the cloud service operated on. Everything is built according to standards and designed to be secure. Such was the level of quality in display.

After a quick lunch break, an alternative session was conducted for those who were already familiar with the campus. This session on Messaging Guidance was conducted by Francis Cheung and was related to session 4. However, Francis focused more on how we could assess if some of those tools were a good fit for our projects. He also touched on managing and versioning message schemas.

Next was David Barkol’s session focusing on Designing an Event-driven Architecture on Azure through a workshop approach. He challenged attendees to solve problems related to messaging in a group setting. As a Principal Technical Specialist for Azure, David used his vast experience to reinforce the existing knowledge of attendees about Azure messaging services. He really had a lot of interesting things to say.

Using a few simple statements, he was able to highlight the problems of the customer, identify their needs and how to solve them with the use of event-driven architecture. As a platform, the event-driven architecture will eliminate any bottlenecks and allow for easier transmission of information. Azure messaging services will solve all of the demands identified by the consumer. He also mentioned that Event Hubs GeoDR will also provide a backup or secondary region.

Derek Li conducted his keynote next. He focussed on Serverless platforms based on Azure Functions and Logic Apps. Derek is a Senior Program Manager. His keynote focused on how serverless technologies have impacted how applications are built. He also spoke on how Azure Functions and Logic Apps can be used to speed up delivery.

The last session was after a very welcome Cola Zero break. It refreshed us for Rahul Kalaya’s keynote on deriving insights from IoT Data with Azure Time Series Insights.
Rahul spoke about design choices, principles and lessons learned with regards to maintaining the highest possible uptime of cloud databases and servers. Many stories from his experiences with Azure SQL made the keynote even more interesting.
And that was it. The completion of a day of meaningful sessions.

I look forward to sharing my next article on Day 3: Designing for Availability and Recoverability.

Internet of Things (IoT), Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, OpenID Connect, Security, Software Development Insights, TLS/SSL

Microsoft LEAP: Design for Security

January 27, 2020January 31, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

This year is already off to a fantastic start! I am so excited to be here at the LEAP conference at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond Seattle. LEAP is a perfect way for me to keep up to date with new technology and how to apply it here at Gunnebo.

The focus of the day was to Design for Security. The threat of cyber attacks and hackers is still as pressing as ever, so the need for cloud security is crucial. Although technological advancement has triggered an evolution in cloud security over the years, keeping the right level of visibility and control over their applications is still a challenge to many organizations. This means that finding a balance between cloud security and ease of use is a hard nut to crack. Today’s program discusses how Azure can cope up with this issue. Also, speakers are expected to introduce new and updated features Azure brought recently to improve the security of cloud applications.

The highlight of today’s program consists of five great keynotes. The first on the list was Scott Guthrie, the executive vice president for Microsoft’s Cloud. He is an incredible orator and kept the audience thrilled with his in-depth explanations on how Azure helps organizations to deliver product innovation and better customer experience securely. It was frankly impossible to have been there without taking away more than a few vital points and a better understanding of Azure.

Then Stuart Kwan, who is a principal program manager at Microsoft, was the next in line. He backed up Scott Guthrie with a great keynote on how authentication works on today’s applications. Stuart has a wealth of experience under his belt, and he has worked on identity and security-related technologies since joining Microsoft in 1996. Few people have more experience in that field. He is the guy to listen to on topics like Active Directory Federation Services and Windows Identity Foundation. The main focus was on OAuth, Open ID Connect, and SAML. OpenID Connect is a simple identity layer built on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol. OAuth 2.0 defines mechanisms to obtain and use access tokens to access protected resources, but they do not define standard methods to provide identity information. OpenID Connect implements authentication as an extension to the OAuth 2.0 authorization process. It includes information about the end-user in the form of an id_token that verifies the identity of the user and provides necessary profile information about the user.

When Yuri Diogenes took control of the stage, everyone knew that his talk would be primarily based on how cloud security is evolving and becoming more mature. Yuri is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft for Cloud and AI Security.

Before Yuri moved on to talk about Azure security, he provided some insights into the problematic scenarios that many companies find themselves. According to him, security hygiene has to be taken seriously or any cloud-based infrastructure would suffer. Basically, organizations have to protect themselves against modern-day threats. He carefully explained that Azure Security Center is a unified infrastructure security management system that strengthens the security posture of your data centers, and provides advanced threat protection across your hybrid workloads in the cloud – whether they’re in Azure or not – as well as on-premises. In simple terms, Azure security is the new security hygiene which you need.

Yuri went further to explain the benefits of Azure security center and Azure Sentinel. It provides all-round security and also affords a degree of customizability. According to him, Azure is capable of protecting Linux and Windows VMs from threats, protecting cloud-native workloads from threats, detecting file-less attacks, cloud workload protection for containers and so on.

The next person on stage was Nicholas DiCola who was a Security Jedi at Microsoft. He thrilled the audience with his discussions on the Azure Sentinel. He explained to everyone how the Sentinel functions as a cloud-native SIEM for intelligent security analytics for an entire organization. It offers limitless cloud speed and could be used at any scale. It also provides its users with faster threat protection and will easily integrate will all existing tools.

According to him, the Azure Sentinel was designed to collect visibility, helps in detecting analytics and hunting, investigates any incidents and respond automatically to them. Azure Sentinel gets data to function from numerous sources such as Linux Agent, Windows Agent, cloud services, custom app, appliances, azure services and so on. After collating all necessary data, it’s analytics scan for any possible threats. Then, you will now be able to monitor your data and activity.

Last but not least we had a session with Sumedh Barde and Narayan Annamalai. They opened a fascinating discussion on how to secure certificates, connection strings, or encryption keys and new networking capabilities of Azure. Sumedh Barde is Program Manager on the Azure Security team, and Narayan is the leader of the SDN product management group in Microsoft Azure that focuses on virtual networks, load balancing, and network security.

These two gave us great insight into the Azure Key Vault. They explained to us how it functions as a tool for securely storing and accessing secrets. From what I learned from the conference, the secret to tightly controlling and securing access on things API keys, passwords, or certificates is to use a vault. A vault is your very own logical group of secrets.

It was a great day here in Redmond and an excellent opportunity to brush up my knowledge of cloud security. I’m actively looking forward to tomorrow.

Holiday, Reflections, Software Development Insights, Travel, USA

California, here I come!

January 22, 2020September 26, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

Traveling to the US for the second time, I had the chance to take a weekend off to do some sightseeing. Even though I had just a few days, I wanted to cover as much ground as possible.

When the wintry winds start blowing
And the snow is starting to fall
Then my eyes turn westward knowing
That’s the place that I love best of all

California is one of the most well known places in the world for numerous reasons, but chief among them is its identity as pivotal place in world entertainment and technological innovations. It is the birthplace of popular figures like Jessica Alba, Tom Brady, and Clint Eastwood. Ahead of my trip to California, I did a little research on its key areas and here is my summary.

San Francisco is officially referred to as City and County of San Francisco and colloquially called SF, San Fran, Frisco, or The City. With a population of about 883,305 residents in 2018, SF is the center of commerce and finance in North California. In terms of geographical dimensions, SF spans across 46.89 square miles and is second in the list of densely populated large cities and as a county only more populated by the four NYC boroughs in the entire US. In terms of population of metropolitan statistics in an areas, SF has about 4.7 million people and is the 12th largest. The economic significance of this city is further butressed by the fact that in 2018 SF had a GDP of $549 billion and is the 4th highest number in terms of economic output. When combined with San Jose, SF swells to a population of about 9.67 million and becomes the fifth largest combined statistical area (the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area) in America.

The Hollywood neighborhood located at the heart of Los Angeles, California, is world renowned as the home of film and entertainment in the US, it also houses numerous iconic movie studios. It’s impacts on the industry is so strong that the name “Hollywood” has become an unofficial means of referring to the movie industry and people concerned with it. Hollywood began is rise to prominence when it was officially declared a municipality in 1903, this was followed its consolidation with Los Angeles 7 years later; this was when Hollywood began to grow as a film industry. Today, Hollywood is the largest movie industry in the world.

Las Vegas, popularly referred to as the “World’s gambling capital” is officially known n as the City of Las Vegas, the most common name is simply “Vegas”. The name “Las Vegas” is derived from the spanish word for “The Meadows”. In the state of Nevada, Vegas is the most populated and ranks 28th on the list of most populated cities in the US. Las Vegas covers an area of 135.8 square miles and hence, the largest city in the greater Mojave Dessert. Vegas is at the forefront of Nevada’s financial, commercial and back cultural scene, it is also renowned worldwide as the capital of gambling, nightlife, exquisite dinning, and casinos.

On my way back from Vegas I drove through the Mojave dessert, an arid rain-shadow desert that spans across 47,877 square miles in southeastern California and southern Nevada. Of all the desserts in North America, The Mohave is the driest.

Some of the Mojave dessert also encroaches into Utah and Arizona, one of its most distinctive features is the presence of Joshua trees (native to only the Mojave Dessert) in its boundaries. The region is believed to be home to over 1900 plant species. Although The Mojave Dessert has densely populated communities like Las Vegas, Palmdale abs Victorville, its central region has a sparse population.

With that my three-day road-trip is completed and it is back to work 🙂

Gunnebo Retail Solution, Reflections, Retail, Software Development Insights, Sustainability

NRF: Sustainable retail, a vital next step

January 14, 2020January 23, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

I came to New York in a jacket I bought second hand for EUR 25 in my hometown Ålesund. It is nice, warm and comfortable – and this is what is important to me. If 60-70% of your closet is not used, why not sell it so someone else can benefit from it?

It is a constant source of pleasure to me as I discover that some of my ideals are being put forth as visionary in the retail industry, which I am passionate about. In this year’s NRF, sustainability is one of the key points being discussed and an aspect of it is promoting of re-sale/second hand goods. It’s quite exciting to be a part of this and I will be sharing it all with you.

Visionary Voices of Ambition, Purpose and Inclusion

The keynote that caught my attention was with four strong female top managers, Mercedes Abramo from Cartier, Shannon Schuyler from PwC, Shawn Outler from Macy’s and Tammy Sheffer from Rent the Runway.

Revolutionizing businesses (ranging from retail to other industries) requires more than just motivational talk, calculable action is needed to unlock potentials and push the edges of possibility. And when it comes to leading the way, some of the biggest moves are coming from female executives. Progressive voices from the biggest names in retail teamed up with CEO Action leaders to share time-honed tactics and winning strategies that are practical.

There has always been a disparity in the treatment of female employees when compared to their male counterparts. Although informal moments are important, it isn’t quite sad that top female managers are treated different than their male opponents. This isn’t obviously not an issue common only in the retail industry, it’s a humanity issue.

What makes this difference in treatment more worrisome is that females even seem to thrive more in the retail industry since it is flexible work. Retail requires a lot of contact with clients and other entities (suppliers, producers, etc), females on average excel in such roles

Issues like this constitute some of the reasons why top management and CEOs are taking political stands more than ever. CEOs are realizing how powerful their voices are and the influence it yields. Progressive views are embraced by many top executives and they can greatly influence employees.

Retail 2020: The dawn of sustainability

The role of technology in retail has started to change the entire market landscape. It’s easy to imagine the stores of the future with magic mirrors or robotic sales assistants. Yes, there have truly been advancements in the technology used in the retail industry and the dawn of 2020 seems like the time for sustainability. Is sustainability growing to the point that it becomes crucial to your transformation journey? How will brands look to adopt technology and sustainability into their operations? If you are constantly plagued by these questions, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Retail and Consumer Goods, Shelley Bransten’s talk on sustainability and impact of technology on the industry will answer all your questions. Together with Shelley will be Arti Zeighami, Head of AI & Sustainability for H&M, he will share H&M’s sustainability journey and how Microsoft technology equipped them to achieve their sustainability goals. It was good to see Arti again, it was truly an inspiration as always.

Arti noted that retailers are often faced with the question of quantification of product requirement, optimizing supply chain, how much to produce. He also explained that AI in H&M helps perform these computations with fantastic results. He went further to speak on some key tools employed in H&M.

Value chain analysis is a strategy tool used to monitor the internal activities of of a business, retailers in this case. Its primary function is to identify the most valuable activities and those that can be modified to enhance competitive advantage. Simply put, looking into internal activities through the analysis shows the areas where a retailer’s competitive advantages or disadvantages lie. This analysis can shed light on if a firm needs to improve its activities or reduce the operational costs of such activities.

Sometimes having the right products in the right place at the right time is what makes all the difference. Proper strategies and planning of logistic chain a can greatly improve convenience and and lead to higher ROI. Customers are likely to make purchases when products are close to them. Taking data from multiple systems will offer you totally new insights while employing various data mining techniques and technologies diversified your approach and gives you a broader perspective.

The road to sustainability is bound to have a few bumps; so, Test, fail, learn, pivot – then repeat. Making mistakes are inevitable in retail, turning these mistakes into learning experiences will greatly influence your growth rate. Taking on experiments boldly (within reason) and trying out new technology is highly encouraged.

RE-purpose revolution: Upcycling retail’s future

Sustainability has become a top trend. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be labeled as the savage who’s ruining the earth. One of the impacts of environmentalists is that they have successfully managed to make people feel that being environmentally conscious is the new cool. A similar scenario is is playing out in the cosmetics industry, there has been a big influx towards natural products. Tech and industrial giants have obviously noticed this change and adapted to make themselves to being more environment friendly. It’s almost impossible to ignore the fact that retail is shifting towards sustainability.

A lot of retail leaders are doing their best to ensure that they remain relevant and continue to offer their customers sustainable solution. Customers now base their purchase decision on the values of the brand; personal, social and environmental values. It is now clear that to get the best results, then brands have to make purpose-driven decisions that will easily transform the world into a better place. Brands can’t just go around doing what they like. They have to continuously keep the demands of the customer at the back of their mind. It’s only through this re-purpose revolution that the company can reach its peak and keep all of their customers happy. It may seem like a relatively new concept but adopting it is a great choice. So, how do you apply this to your own retail business? The best way to do this would be to learn from the best.

Hear from some of the most innovative leaders from nimble retailers and break-through digital-first brands who are meeting consumer needs and disrupting the industry.

A fact to always have handy is that consumers are becoming more progressive and conscious; they want to buy second hand, but also need to see something fresh. Customers will willingly buy second hand if it looks appealing enough and satisfies their needs, it’s only a matter of time before retail leaders set the trend. The growing consumer awareness on sustainability and environmental consciousness are perfect conditions for retailers to slowly introduce the concept of resale. Although a good percentage of this “awareness” in consumers stems from the urge to look cool and follow trends, it’s still solid enough for retailers to leverage on.

At some point, retailers should understand that re-sale does not de-valuate the brand. Among the elite, minimalism and other such ideologies being adopted. These ideologies embraced by high-end customers make them more susceptible to brands that re-sale.

Celebrities sell or give away stuff from their closet that is not used, this on its own should be enough to shed more positive light or re-sale among retailers and customers, shouldn’t it? Resale does not discriminate, the world is ready for second hand sale and those is message that should be preached. The narrative that second hand goods are for the less privileged should be discarded, there’s simply isn’t any logic to it. On the other hand, a wide acceptance of second hand sale will boost the effectiveness and logistics industries associated with retail.

Another similar idea to re-sale are clothing rental services for luxury items. Brands like Rent The Runway Unlimited, Gwynnie Bee and New York And Company Closet are already creating significant traction in that field. They work by offering members monthly subscriptions and allowing them rent 4-6 items at a time, brilliant isn’t it?

Similarly, ReBag is an online store that offers second hand luxury goods. Considering that 92% of luxury item should are bought offline, ReBag switches from online to omnichannel approach to sales. It will be quite interesting to observe the positive effects re-sale will have on brands.

Curious. Distinctive. Uncompromising. Conversations with Recode

Kara Swisher entered the stage with the confidence only she can radiate. New this year, NRF has partnered with Recode to introduce its straight to the point editorial interview style to NRF 2020 Vision’s arena. In this live interview, Recode co-founder and editor-at-large Kara Swisher will leverage her background in tech, media, and commerce to investigate some of the industry’s most pressing challenges, eliciting thought-provoking insights from her soon-to-be-announced interview subject. Swisher has led insightful conversations with likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Hillary Clinton, Katrina Lake, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey, and many other leading players impacting a broad swath of industries, including retail.

Nothing like a panel of four men talking about women’s clothing

Her “victim for the day” is Ben Silbermann who is an American billionaire Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, a visual discovery engine, which lets users organize images, links, recipes and other things.

Ben gave the audience insight in how Pinterest is created for Inspiration in how to dress, decorate and behave. However Kara pointed out the problems with internet platforms, as they easily become playground for fraud and illegal activities like child pornography. Ben insisted that Pinterest has always had a clear etiquette on contents and are continuously working on enforcing this.

Not wanting to talk too much about the future, Ben could reveal that personalization, and that the consumer should see what they want to see will be important. Also ensuring the confidence of the merchants connected to the platform is important.

Closing KeyNote Goop Lab

The Goop Lab is an upcoming American documentary series about the lifestyle and wellness company, Goop, founded by American actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The series will be premiered on Netflix on January 24, 2020.

Goop started as a newsletter from Gwyneth at a point in her life where she wanted to move from acting into another business. Trying to fill the “whitespace” in her life, she started looking into what she calls Contextual Commerce, a concept where you talk, manufacture and sell what you like and what gives you pleasure.

Gwyneth has been a hot topic the last few weeks with her “Smells Like my Vagina” candle, a topic that amused the american audience here at NRF as well as the customers, as the candle was sold out the first day.

The partnership with Netflix generated criticism of the streaming giant for letting Gwyneth Paltrow use their platform to promote her company which has been under fire for making health claims with no backup evidence. Several critics termed the affair a “win for pseudoscience”. When the first trailer was released, the show received even more notable criticism from the scientific community and evidence-based critics. Gwyneth feels that she is often treated unfairly, but it is not like she wants to take her critics to court, all PR is as you know good PR.

This concludes by visit to NRF, but I will visit EuroShop soon, and look forward to keeping you up to date on what goes on in the world of consumer retail!

Commercial, Gunnebo Retail Solution, Innovation, Internet of Things (IoT), Reflections, Software Development Insights

NRF: Technology keeps retailers two steps ahead

January 13, 2020January 23, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

Socioeconomics or social economics is a branch of social science that tries to understand the effect of social structures and processses on economic activity. At its basic, it studies the relationship between societies progress and local economy, or the global economy.

Efficient social structures inadvertently lead to a stronger economy. Retail is a critical structure in any society, apart from its obvious importance in economic revenue, it is also a huge platform for human interactions at all levels. Embedding technology deeply into retail to the point that it reaches brick and mortar stores and small businesses will make a more efficient retail industry, and hence, economy.

During my second day at NRF, I wanted to focus on technology and how technology empower brick and mortart stores to keep relevant in 2020.

Female Executives are Leading the Way

Specific and measurable action is required for any scalable transformation in business, retail and other industries. Talk and plans alone cannot push and motivate performance and possibilities. And when it comes to leading the way, some of the biggest moves are coming from female executives. Progressive voices from the biggest names in retail and CEO Action leaders share fresh winning strategies, successful tactics, and takeaways that are both valuable and practical.

Visiting the Gunnebo Stand

Being a security and technology company, Gunnebo was of course present at NRF showing our cash management devices for retail. From cash management to loss prevention, there are several areas where Gunnebo Cash Management Solutions can help improve retail processes and security procedures to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance the customer experience.

It was also good to meet ut with collegues I do not see that often, from Sweden, Holland, USA and Denmark amongst other.

Retail and the global social economics scene: The 2020 Vision

The business environment has effectively created space for retailers. But because of the nature of the market, new strategies are important to ensure that retailers can get the best and gain the required advantage. It is assumed that all retailers usually look to establish a fair amount of advantage. This usually ensures that the concept of globalisation is discussed in relation to the retail sector.

So, how do factors such as government policies, such as tax reform, reciprocal trade agreements and monetary regulation, persist as key instruments in managing global economic health? Former US senator and Speaker of the US House of representatives, Paul Ryan joins NRF 2020 with Recode co-founder and editor-at-large Kara Swisher as expert panelists providing insights on the business impacts of recent political and policy decisions in Washington. Whether it’s tariffs, international trade agreements, tax reforms or impending Big Tech regulations, the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Ryan, and tech and innovation authority, Swisher will explore and anticipate what lies ahead for consumers and the retail industry on the global stage.

It is in the interest of every retailer to embrace retail technology. All aspects of retail have some sort of software or technology that aids its smooth running. Customer tracking software can greatly improve customer experience and garner loyalty to your brand. Technology makes for a swift and clutter free way to analyze data, monitor sales and keep inventory.

POS (Point of sale), Executive Information Systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are some ways technology can help in sales, warehousing and analysis.

Technology also has tremendous applications on the executive level. With data mining and planning software, executives can delegate most of their work and focus on strategic tests, hence increasing productivity.

Technology in retail is more important now than ever. It is so crucial that NRF has transformed from a retail show to a full blown tech show for one simple reason: most of the advancements in retail are directly as a result of tech advancements.

China is the new innovator, the Chinese government is making huge investments in cooperation with private companies into AI, robotics etc. Domestic tech giants receive huge support from their government and this has yielded positive results in China’s retail sector. The almost sudden rise of Alibaba and other Chinese brands is testament to this fact. Innovation does not work in the same way in democratic countries as autocracies like China, and countries like USA can not outspend China in innovation simply because it does not enjoy the liberties of Chinese autocracy.

Another stepping stone in the path of USA retail technology is that the US does not have any laws to regulate new technology. EU has GDPR and heavy privacy legislation, but US is lagging behind. Unfortunatley the education is also lagging behind, and both modern US and EU must find ways to educate students for working with AI, not doing the same work as AI. This sort of education does not have to be costly and does not have to involve any complex learning, it should be simply focused on teaching people to make the best use of AI and expose them to how AI can increase productivity.

All in all a fresh discussion and enlightening discussion between Paul Ryan and Kara Swisher.

Cloud Computing: Paving the way for the future of retail

The retail industry is on the cusp of great change with customer expectations evolving and impacting all areas of the retail value chain. The most forward-thinking businesses recognize that they must embark on a digital transformation strategy to stay competitive and deliver innovation. And this involves the adoption of cloud computing. The investment brands in cloud computing has risen from about $4 billion in 2011 to a whopping sum of $15 billion in 2016. Retailers are looking to adopt cloud computing just like in the banking and manufacturing industries. There are numerous benefits that can accrue from the adoption of cloud computing.

Winners are retailers that transforms the fastest. The most successful retail brands are those that pursue advancement and embed new systems into their business models. Cloud computing appears to be the next major milestone in retail technology and embracing it now is the way to stay competitive.

Personalization has always been key to brand identity, preserving the identity of your brand in this age of cloud based computing should be a priority. Technology should be utilized to to help retailers optimize the efficiency of business and not totally replace identity.

Digital advisors are automated investment platforms that process the construction and upkeep of an investment portfolio for retsilers. All it takes is opening an investment account, answering some questions about goals and risk tolerance, and the platform makes the best decisions based on answers given. In addition to ease of use and efficiency, digital advisors are also tax effective.

Google works with retailers to solve pain points and shape a future vision that focuses on a set of businesses that brings to bear the very best of Google. Using cloud technologies such as application development, data management, advanced analytics, and AI/ML capabilities, Google is helping retailers unlock impending opportunities. Join Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian and Kohl’s CTO, Paul Gaffney as they discuss how Kohls is infusing their business with intelligence and cloud capabilities to better serve employees and customers.

Global retail mindset: Bold moves from leaders looking to fuel future growth

Retail businesses have extended into every corner of the world. Every business leader is always concerned about the growth of his or her business but sometimes, it can be harder to achieve. This is due to the fact that many retail business owners lack the technical know-how to ensure the sustained growth of the business. A retail business will usually reach a peak after which it may seem like a herculean task to inspire any more growth. How possible is it to get the much-desired growth? Apparently, you have to learn from the techniques used by many industry experts. The insight could be the fuel that you need.

In consecutive interviews, hear from retail and brand executives with penchants for evolution who are tackling new growth challenges, reimaging core customer strategies, and living up to their “change agent” personas? Featuring leaders with bold ideas for leading enterprise transformation, each interview will examine the company’s current landscape, ideas to solve or proactively disrupt industry challenges, and each executive’s vision for future profitable growth.

Commercial, Gunnebo Retail Solution, Software Development Insights

NRF: It’s all about the experience in retail

January 12, 2020January 16, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

Chris Baldwin, Chairman, President and CEO of NRF kicked off this year’s event with his insights and forecasts for Retail in 2020. Unfortunately, I missed his session due to a malfunction in the NRF ticketing system. Rest assured, I will update this article as soon as I can get my hands on a video from the session.

Opening keynote with Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivered a charismatic opening keynote. I have had the opportunity to see him live once before in Stockholm, and again here at NRF. He shared his thoughts on the future of retail and how technology will help the industry transform. Microsoft works closely with retailers all over the world to help them deliver on the promise of intelligent retail.

Next retail innovations will not come from tech, but from you as you build your own capability

The global retail sector is such a pivotal part of world economy that it accounts for 31% of the world’s GDP. Apart from the fact that it creates employment for billions of people, in 2015 retail turned in a whopping $22.6 trillion which rose to $28 trillion in 2019. Retail has displayed a steady grown steadily with an annual growth rate of about 3.8% since 2008. Supermarkets still remain largest provider of retail services (35%).

Omnichannel is expected to surpass supermarkets, it already represents about 23% of retail sales with plenty of room for further growth it is inevitable that at some point in the near future retailers will expect multiple touchpoints for their retail journey.

Satya Nadella is of the opinion that digitalization is already soaked into the economy, pointing out that 92 of the top 100 retailers use Microsoft Azure. Retailers need to abandon conventional means and increase the intensity of technology, this always leads to improved capability and reach. Since 75% of shopping begins online, he advices retailers to capitalize on consumer data to create effective digital marketing campaigns. With Azure retailers does not need to reinvent the wheel, but can use off the shelf solutions and focus on their core offerings – to build their own digital capability so to speak.

Learn all the time, keep your strategies up to date. The retail world is fast paced and strategies are always evolving. Staying current gives your customers the confidence to be associated with your brand. Researching new market trends and strategies must be a vital part of every retailer’s process. All data from all systems should be utilized for personalization, and market data should be processed to meet the brands goals and identity, this sets retailers apart from others.

Customer expectations are constantly increasing, terms like “two days shipping” are now common. Partnering with suppliers can significantly shorten supply routes and spread retailers reach. The result is swift and monitored shipping. Offer customers quality service, swift shipping, personal connection and going the extra mile for their satisfaction. This makes customers expect the best and associate your brand with premium service.

Prioritizing customer satisfaction is the best way to create a loyal customer base. A recommendation from a satisfied customer is one of the strongest forms of marketing, all employees must be constantly aware of this. Satya wants to break down silos and empower employees with the right tools and the capability to communicate across departments.

A new era of transformation at Sam’s Club

Committed to fast-paced modernization efforts, Sam’s Club has gone big on digital and empowered a rising generation of tech-savvy associates who are helping the business grow. Apparently, the Sam Club is now looking to revolutionise the future of retail service. How much have they been able to achieve? Are the changes extensive to the whole world? Also, how would these changes effect the retail giants, small retailers and all of their consumers? Hear noted author and MIT professor Zeynep Ton and Sam’s Club CEO John Furner explore the current retail landscape when it comes to work and employee opportunity. Zeynep and John will discuss how work is changing and what retailers like Sam’s Club are doing to be great employers.

The impact retail has on employment can not be overemphasized, apart from creating over a billion jobs it also provides favourable work conditions and a diversity in roles. Two key features of employment in the retail industry are fair wages and stability.

Experienced and capable employees are crucial elements in the success of any retail service, having specialist employees for predefined roles (e.g sales, customer service, etc) instead of generalists produces better results.

Having a team that shares the brand’s vision is essential. This gives e-commerce brands a sense of identity and purpose which portrays them as a single working unit. Empowering employees to put the customers first can lead to a 15% increase in conversion rates and a 10% increase in customer satisfaction.

Winning the experience economy: How to raise the bar in a world of raised expectations

With consumers expecting increasingly seamless shopping experiences, who is meeting consumers where they are, instore, online or in-home? How does all of the data collected from consumers explain their experience? It’s important to note that we now live in an experience economy where the consumer’s experience is vital to brands around the world. A lot of data is gotten from human living and interaction; reaching about 2.5 billion gigabytes every day. So, how can all of the raw data be used to improve consumer experience? The experience economy isn’t a new concept and the big brands around the world make use of it to satisfy the ever-increasing demand of their consumers. Let’s learn from the top experts. In consecutive interviews, hear from three CEOs who are setting the vision and raising the bar by meeting “me-commerce” demands in a world of always on-demand.

Neela Montgomery believes Social Media is the new capital of advertising for obvious reasons – people spend more time on it than on TV or print. 51% of sales online, although sales still need to go frictionless across channels.

Targeting with products that matters to the customer. Use market data to specifically target customers who have shown an interest in certain products. Sometimes customers do not actually know what they seek, exciting product combinations are an interesting way to inspire sales. She also believes Brokering symbiotic partnerships with other brands leads to more success than unhealthy competition and rivalry.

Neela also maintains that stores are invaluable as physical connection points with the custome and having a solid brand DNA and staying true to it is vital.

Jennifer Hyman, CEO Rest the Runway spoke on ownership replaced by access, faster fashion, customer insight from the beginning and short feedback loop.

Ron Johnson, Enjoy Inc. focuses on having an eye for future trends and being open to change keeps your brand relevant, you should be a decade ahead in innovations. He also maintains that having a dedicated customer service team to provide rapid feedback leads to customer satisfaction. 50% of all visits to his company generated additional sales.

All in all a very fruitful first day of NRF and I look forward to two more days of exciting insights.

Holiday, Reflections

Happy Holidays!

December 24, 2019January 16, 2020 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

Many of my colleagues and friends ask me why I celebrate Christmas while being an atheist. In the Nordic, we actually do not call the holidays Christmas, we call it Jul or Yule. Yule or Yuletide (“Yule time” or “Yule season”) is a festival historically observed by the Germanic people. Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht.

holiday

Later departing from its pagan roots, Yule underwent Christianised reformulation, resulting in the term Christmastide. Many present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from pagan Yule traditions. Terms with an etymological equivalent to Yule are still used in Nordic countries and Estonia to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season.

Unlike Britain, the main Norwegian Christmas celebration takes place with a big Christmas dinner on 24th December, Christmas Eve. The choice of food varies depending on the area of Norway you are from, but often consists stock fish or fermented cod. However, the clear favorite, eaten by as many as six out of ten households, is ‘Ribbe’ – roast pork belly. In Sunnmøre, where I live, we eat Pinnekjøtt. Salty. Rich. Chewy & tender ribs of lamb.

Pork belly with crispy skin — Traditionally served with boiled potatoes, sausages, meat cakes, prunes, lingonberries and pickled cabbage, ‘Ribbe’ and its heavenly aroma is sure to bring you in the holiday mood.

The Holidays is about spending time with family and friends. It’s about creating happy memories that will last a lifetime.

The magical feeling that surrounds the Holidays is one that can’t be replicated at any other time of the year. It connects us regardless of our roots and beliefs in a spirit of thankfulness, love, joy and comradeship.

20181224_194740333_iOS — The Holidays is about spending time with family and friends. It’s about creating happy memories that will last a lifetime.

Joy and sharing is a pivotal theme of the Holidays and we all have different ways of expressing these values as a result of our backgrounds and cultures. For some, the act of exchanging gifts is their way of expressing love and compassion this season, for others it’s just about taking a break from the rigors of corporate life and spending quality time with family and friends.

It has been a very busy year for me and my family. My girlfriend Therese took up a university education within finance and accounting, Sondre is in his pre-university study, Andreas has left the army and will start working in carpentry and Alexander is studying for his electrical degree. Now we will relax and enjoy each others company for the next few weeks, before we kick off the next year!

Happy Holidays and all the best to you in the year to come!

Agile, Customer Journey, Innovation, Methodology, Reflections, Software Development Insights, User Experience (UX)

Customer Experience and Customer Journey Mapping

November 17, 2019November 23, 2019 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

After working in Sweden for 5-6 years I took the train from Gothenburg to Stockholm for the first time to attend a workshop on Customer Experience and Customer Journey Mapping. Since commuting across the country was a new experience for me, I chose to be 30min early for the train only to find the doors of the coach locked. Standing outside freezing, I took the time to find my ticket. I had received an SMS with my details a few days earlier, but to my surprise it said: “This is not your ticket”. So my customer experience with SJ prior to arriving at the Customer Experience and Customer Journey Mapping workshop wasn’t really a superb one.

While puffing and rumbling through the Swedish countryside, I had some time to prepare for the days to come. As a Product Owner it is of course imperative for me to understand everything about our product to deliver impeccable features and functionality to our customer. However in a complex market the complete customer journey has become more important the recent years and my expectations for the next two days was to gain insights of processes and tools on how to improve my work on Customer Experience and the full Customer Journey when purchasing our services.

The workshop kicked off with an introduction of the participants and their roles, following a thorough explanation of what Customer Experience and Customer Journey Mapping is. The workshop was divided into six parts, all aiming to make content customers and employees: Strategy, Insights, Design, Measurement, Management and Culture.

The way to interact with customers and the focus on customer experience has significantly changed during the last 100 years. Back in 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was president, and USA went through the Progressive Era the focus was mostly on the product itself. However in the 1950’s the focus moved more towards the american dream and a very strong brand focus and transitioning into stronger customer relations through the 1970’s and 1980’s.

The focus on Customer Experience as we know is today started for real around the millennium, where new technology became available to both understand and interact with the customer. Also the consumers matured and expected more than just a product, introducing terminology like retailtainment and entertainmerce.

At its core, Customer Journey Mapping is a methodology that enable insight and understanding of customer’s with the aim of developing products or services that support innovation and business development through earning the satisfaction and loyalty of your customers. In a nutshell, I would call it a form of result oriented customer service.

The workshop was tailored to serve a wide range of people, specifically people responsible for customer experience, others were business managers, business developers, support and customer service managers, marketing managers and marketers, strategists, and product owners. Learning about Customer Experience together availed is the opportunity to create connections and offer each other insights relating to our various fields.

Customer Experience Management is a strategy, methodology and process to manage a customers exposure, interaction and transaction with a corporation, a product/service and a brand. The discipline that is about developing service and business models that prioritize the customer in all of the company’s business processes, thus creating favorable conditions for growth. One of the fundamental aspects of CX is taking time to understanding the customer’s experience and contact points with your company. It involves careful documentation and recording of all forms of contact between a customer and the company to the extent that at a glance the customer’s journey can be visualized and understood easily; A Customer Journey Map if you will, which is a documentation/mapping of all the customer’s contacts with you as a company.

During the course of the two-day workshop on learning about Customer Experience, we created a Customer Journey Map for a fictitious company and integrated the results into our respective businesses. We started off by understanding Customer Experience as a business discipline and it’s concepts, what makes up a customer experience and how to understand it. We then proceeded to Customer Journey Mapping, creates models with the aid of working methods, practical steps and guidance. A large part of the workshop was focused on “learning by doing”.

We moved onto Persona and Empathy mapping, gathering customer insights, customer needs and behavior, contact points and channels. This part was more about how to appropriately gauge a customer’s response and feelings when they make contact with our business. We were also taught how to effectively record these to facilitate these to facilitate business growth modeling. Happy customer = better business!

Our knowledge on the workshop was then put to the test by presenting us with practical exercises on creating Customer Journey Map and how to measure the progress of our services linked to Customer Journey Mapping.

The final part of the learning curve was the most delicate: Business development and business management with CX and how you can introduce change to our business specifically. We were made to understand that without actual measurable growth, the aim of the workshop would not be met. So in essence, all CX and Customer Journey Mapping should lead to measurable growth.

Attending the two day workshop armed me with a lot of new skills in dealing with customers and I learnt basic understanding of Customers and experience as a business discipline. What I consider to be the most vital lesson learnt is understanding how an empathetic approach to customers can create an atmosphere that encourages sustainability and profitability in business for your company.

With all these exciting business models, I’m quite ready and anticipate implementing Customer Experience work plan!

Thank you to Camilla Lif and Johan Sjöström for a great workshop. If you enjoyed reading about the Customer Journey or have any questions or great ideas, feel free to reach out at bjorn.nostdahl@gunnebo.com 🙂

Microsoft, PowerBI, Software Development Insights, Technical

Microsoft Power BI: Dashboard in a Day

November 13, 2019 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

What better way to start the week than crunching and visualizing data. I joined the Dashboard in a Day workshop by Microsoft and Random Forest, a one day hands-on workshop designed for business analysts.

I have to say that I really enjoy digging into new tools and learning about new technology. Even if I am probably not going to be working directly with PowerBI, it makes my job easier by understanding what is possible and the boundaries of the tool.

Kicking off with a short introduction (and the mandatory Microsoft advertisements), we dove straight into the PowerBI Desktop application itself, learning how to connect to, import and transform data from various sources. After preparing the data, reformatting and splitting fields, we moved on to exploring data with powerful visualization tools.

PowerBI

The exercises were quite comprehensive, and at some point I went rough and chose to implement some of my own visualizations instead.

The event was well organized and planned, the assets were categorized in a way that made it easier to identify the specific assets that suited our needs. The attendee content consisted of Lab Manuals and Datasets that were available for download on MPN without requirement for an MPN ID.

Towards the end of the day the guys from Random Forest ensured that we had a good working knowledge and familiarity with Power BI and possessed the ability to answer questions concerning the workshop or Power BI in general. It was a tremendous learning experience and I couldn’t wait to try out those awesome new technologies! They even spent the last couple of hours of the day to support and guide us through our own datasets. I brought some statistics from one of our Business Units, and it was quite impressive how I could visualize and interactively navigate through the data.

All in all an exciting workshop, and I look forward to playing more with PowerBI in the future. If you have any questions or great ideas, feel free to contact me at bjorn.nostdahl@gunnebo.com 🙂

Reflections, Retail, Sustainability

Sustainability in Retail

November 5, 2019 Bjørn T. Nøstdahl

Let’s face it, nobody wants to be labeled as the savage who’s ruining the earth. One of the impacts of environmentalists is that they have successfully managed to make people feel that being environmentally conscious is the new cool. A similar scenario is is playing out in the cosmetics industry, there has been a big influx towards natural products. Tech and industrial giants have obviously noticed this change and adapted to make themselves to being more environment friendly. It’s almost impossible to ignore the fact that retail is shifting towards sustainability.

What is interesting with sustainability is that it pretty much involves all parts of your life, thus all parts of the retail business. This includes production, logistics, operations to employees consciousness. Since I work mostly with store operations, I In this post I would like to focus on eco-friendly technology and how this can be implemented in the retail industry.

This brings us to the question, what is eco-friendly technology? Also known as clean tech, green tech and environmental tech, eco-friendly technology can help preserve the environment through energy efficiency and reduction of harmful waste. Green tech innovators use the latest environmental science and green chemistry to reduce the harmful impact of human activity on the earth.

Green technology is still in its beginnings, but lots of interesting innovations have been executed in fields like renewable energy, water purification and waste management, as well as in everyday consumer products like electronics and vehicles. It can be as minute as a hand-held gadget or as immense as a new method of filtering greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Eco-friendly technology often involves Recycled, recyclable and/or biodegradable content, plant-based materials, reduction of polluting substances, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy-efficiency, Multi-functionality and Low-impact manufacturing.

Innovations in the field of green technology have included highly efficient LED lights, which could be used to make countless other gadgets more environmentally friendly, as well as promising growth in lesser-known renewable energies like algae oil. Companies such as Dell and Google are taking steps forward with eco-friendly technology in projects ranging from plant-based packaging to vast wind farms.
Eco-friendly technology innovations such as these will continue have a huge impact on tech, especially when implemented by companies with vast consumer base.

Eco-friendly technologies to join the fight against climate change include:

Direct to the Plumbing Rainwater Tanks

The water supply that reaches most businesses may be steady, safe, and clean. The energy used in the processing and distribution phases also comes from fossil fuels and other less-than-ideal sources, and therefore, not exactly eco-friendly. Harvested rainwater directed to a rainwater tank by means of a catchment area and a number of pipes. Since rain, in itself, is clean, it should not take much to purify it. Many of the filters you need in your system do not require energy to run, so it’s safe to say that with a rainwater harvesting system, you get water that’s safe to use without all the wasted energy.

Greywater Recycling Technology

These are best set up together with a rainwater harvesting system, allows one to reuse water that was just used for something else. The water that can be reused by this type of system can be rain or mains.

Solar and Wind Harvesting Technologies

The fact that Earth Hour participants are required to switch off all their home appliances and lights for one hour is proof that the electrical power we use comes from sources harmful to the environment. It is wonderful that a number of multinational companies have made, or are transitioning, to solar and wind harvesting tech. After all, solar power and wind are renewable and clean sources of energy.

LED and CFL Lighting

LED and CFL bulbs are better than older bulbs in three ways. They are brighter, require lesser energy to function, and last longer. There is absolutely no good reason to not use them.

Biodegradable Plastic

While not exactly new technology, just like the above, many companies are still struggling with making the switch to this type of plastic. This is despite the fact that it’s a lot safer for the environment since it does break down in time.
Let us all stop closing our eyes to the effects of climate change on us and our future and join this young girl in making the world a better and safer place for all the life around us. If you don’t believe you can make big changes to your life style, start with little things like taking your own shopping bag to the mall.

Influencers

So why do we see this intense focus on the environment now? The answer is probably complex, but we cannot underestimate the celebrities and influencers putting the science into layman’s terms. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be labeled as the savage who’s ruining the earth.

Environmentalist Greta Thunberg is a major trendsetter who, at age 15, began protesting in front of the Swedish parliament about the need for speedy action to combat climate change. Her “school strike for the climate” began garnering media attention and she has since become an outspoken climate activist.

In the last year, she has become a worldwide phenomenon of the climate change movement. Promoting #fridaysforfuture alongside millions of children across the globe to demand politicians, governments and corporations make positive moves regarding climate change.

Greta has received many prizes and awards for her strides in the improvement of the environment. In 2019, three members of the Norwegian parliament nominated Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. And in May 2019, at the age of 16, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

At a TEDx speech in November 2018, Thunberg said that she first heard about climate change at the age of eight, but could not understand why so little was being done about it. At age 11, she developed depression and stopped talking. Later she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. She added that selective mutism means that she was speaking only when she needed to and that “now is one of those moments. She said, “I feel like I am dying inside if I don’t protest”.

To lower her family’s carbon footprint, Greta insisted on becoming vegan and give up flying. She said she persuaded her parents to give up eating meat by making them feel guilty. “I kept telling them that they were stealing our future.” Thunberg says her teachers are divided in their views about her missing class to make her protest. She muses: “As people they think what I am doing is good, but as teachers they say I should stop.” She was also quoted saying, “Sometimes the world makes so little sense that the only thing to do is engage in civil disobedience—even in a country as attached to its rules and regulations as Sweden is”.

Siv Skard, Associate Professor at Kristiania University College researches consumer behavior. She highlights that people are always concerned about how others look at them and judge them. This is a great point that can be taken advantage of from a business perspective.

People are self-centered and if they notice that they are being watched, you can promote concepts like ‘go green’ or ‘go healthy’ which people tend to buy.

So, we might move into a greener future for the wrong reasons, but most important is that we are on the right path!

If you are interested in hearing more about the future of retail operations, feel free to contact me at bjorn.nostdahl@gunnebo.com 🙂

Bjørn T. Nøstdahl Blog

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