Why cloud is the perfect fit for retailers

With tougher trading conditions than ever, retailers need to maximise their technology budgets to deliver customer value while generating satisfying returns.  So buying hardware to meet seasonal spikes in demand for online services, then letting it lie dormant for the rest of the year, is an expensive contingency plan.

Drive lean retail

Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) from SunGard enables you to apply the lean principles you’d expect from your supply chain to your IT environment, by reducing excess capacity, taking out unnecessary cost and enabling just-in-time provisioning.  IaaS lets you dynamically manage seasonal peaks in the retail calendar without the upkeep of under-utilised hardware, and respond to unforeseen demand surges sooner than your rivals by switching on services in a fraction of the time. 

Understand your business

A good understanding of customer behaviour, accurate forecasting and optimised pricing can all contribute to more efficient and competitive retailing.  But running complex retail analyses and simulations can take hours, days or even weeks.  With almost unlimited computing power on demand from SunGard, you can crunch the numbers and model scenarios in a fraction of the time and obtain valuable answers in minutes or seconds. 

Enhance the customer experience

A smooth, speedy shopping experience is critical to customer satisfaction and loyalty.  By being able to accelerate access to data and cope effortlessly with increased transaction throughput, our infrastructure can support better, faster, more relational interactions with your customers.   

Deliver novel applications

Our cloud also gives you the freedom to run web and mobile applications that can help you expand your offerings, deliver differentiated, multi-channel services and grow revenues through increased customer reach – all without tying up capital in IT infrastructure.