Top 16 Retail Workload Automation Benefits in 2024
~43% of infrastructure and operation leaders use workload automation (WLA) tools to execute infrastructure operations.1 However, many retail executives are unaware of WLA’s current capabilities.
Workload automation (WLA) tools can help retailers orchestrate back-end operations. WLA tools can schedule, initiate, and trigger retail operations from a single platform. This article will explore the benefits of WLA in retail and structure those benefits according to the business domains they contribute to:
Data services
Retail data, such as inventory and sales, is used in data analysis and forecasting critical for supply chain management and customer satisfaction. However, the retail industry produces over 2.5 billion GBs of data yearly, and retailers must combine these large datasets to use them. 2.
ETL Pipelines
WLA tools provide automated ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) pipelines that can merge large data sets across systems. WLA tools can automate data integration based on preset timers and event-based triggers. The automation of ETL processes with WLA tools:
- Facilitates access to data
- Increases data quality by reducing errors
- Saves IT teams’ time for data analysis and forecasting in domains such as:
- E-commerce analytics
- Customer behavior analysis
- Social media trends analysis
- Processing data from sensors and IoT devices
- Inventory forecasting and management
ERP integration
Integrating accounting and supply-chain applications in retail can be crucial. With enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, accounting and supply-chain applications can be tied together. For example, invoice management and demand planning can be tied together. However, ERP implementation can be costly, and about 72% fail.3
WLA tools can increase the chance of ERP implementation success.
For example, WLA tools can schedule SAP ERP and Business Warehouse (BW) jobs with event-based triggers. Without WLA, basic jobs on the SAP ERP and BW systems are scheduled on time-based triggers (see Video 1). For time-based job scheduling, you need time buffers to keep workflow from going wrong because of “wonky” job completion times. Time buffers, on the other hand, can cause time loss.
As a fix, WLA tools use triggers that are based on events. Event-based triggers can start operations across SAP ERP and BW when jobs are done. This can cut down on, or get rid of, time buffers to save time.
Video 1: Why use WLA for SAP?
Accounting
Using WLA tools has specific benefits for retailers in accounting as well. Case studies indicate that using WLA tools in accounting can:
- Shorten the time it takes to make master reports on sales and inventory
Data center management
Servers with missing patches can:
- Cause companies to get low audit scores and hurt their reputation
- Cause security problems for companies
- Cause server outages
- Server outages can cause a negative customer experience
Working in data centers can improve customer happiness.
WLA tools can:
- Reduce server downtime to improve the customer experience.
What are other areas of WLA benefits?
We enumerated the benefits of WLA in domains that are specific to retail businesses. There are also common business domains like accounting where WLA tools can contribute. Like other industries, retailers can benefit from WLA tools in IT and other departments in WLA use cases, such as:
- Accounting:
- P&L creation
- Billing
- Finance:
- Financial planning
- Client onboarding and offboarding
- HR:
- Payroll automation
- Hiring
If you have any further questions about best practices for workload automation, please get in touch with us at:
External Links
- 1. “Gartner Survey Finds 85% of Infrastructure and Operations Leaders Without Full Automation Expect to Increase Automation Within Three Years.” Gartner, 3 October 2022. Accessed 9 November 2022.
- 2. Impact of Big Data in Retail Industry
- 3. Identifying Characteristics and Configurations in Open Source ERP in Accounting Using ASAP: A Case Study on SME
Cem is the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per Similarweb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month.
Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple.
Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.
He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.
Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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AIMultiple.com Traffic Analytics, Ranking & Audience, Similarweb.
Why Microsoft, IBM, and Google Are Ramping up Efforts on AI Ethics, Business Insider.
Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI to pursue artificial intelligence that’s smarter than we are, Washington Post.
Data management barriers to AI success, Deloitte.
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Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU, European Commission.
Public-sector digitization: The trillion-dollar challenge, McKinsey & Company.
Hypatos gets $11.8M for a deep learning approach to document processing, TechCrunch.
We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck AI startup Hypatos used to raise $11 million, Business Insider.
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