RETAIL SUCCESS STORY

Navigating the evolving retail landscape requires technological innovation and efficiency. With the ever-growing demands for omnichannel retailing, enhancing operational flexibility and minimizing downtime costs, our retail client needed to take its Point of Sale infrastructure to the next level. The partnership between this leading retail company and GlassHouse Systems, a Platinum IBM Partner, underscores the transformative potential of migrating from an on-premises setup to an IBM i Power Virtual Server on the IBM Cloud.

Traditional Point of Sale (POS) systems can impose substantial costs and logistical challenges. Retail businesses seeking to streamline operations and reduce costs are turning to IBM's Power Virtual Server IBM i systems on the IBM Cloud. This migration offers a risk-free "lift and shift" approach, moving existing applications to the IBM Cloud with minimal changes. By leveraging this cutting-edge cloud infrastructure, the retail company achieved a significant cost reduction in delivering POS system capabilities. The initial deployment enabled POS services at a cost of $358/month per store. Compared to the cost of hardware, this cloud-based solution provides substantial savings, eliminating expenses such as shipping, setup, and waiting for delivery.

Furthermore, the IBM Cloud provides everything covered by a disaster recovery (DR) environment, offering enhanced resilience. The company is now deploying a multitenant version of their POS software, further reducing the cost of POS capabilities to an astounding $165/month per store. Beyond cost savings, this cloud-based POS solution offers scalability. Instead of waiting two weeks for the delivery and setting up a physical server, retailers can now spin up 30 stores in just half an hour. This speed and flexibility allow businesses to respond more quickly to market changes and provide a more seamless customer experience.

For the CFO and COO, the cost savings, increased efficiency, and improved scalability translate into a stronger financial position. The ability to deploy POS capabilities at a significantly lower cost per store can drive profitability and support strategic growth initiatives.

For the senior IT executive, this solution reduces the logistical headaches associated with hardware and provides a more secure, reliable, and flexible infrastructure. They can focus more on strategic technology initiatives and less on hardware management.

In conclusion, the partnership between GlassHouse Systems and the retail company exemplifies how innovative cloud solutions transform the retail industry. By reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and providing unprecedented scalability, the IBM Cloud POS solution opens up new possibilities for retail businesses. The added resilience provided by the integrated disaster recovery environment and the risk-free nature of the migration process makes IBM Cloud an incredibly compelling option for retailers contemplating the best way out of their legacy infrastructure gridlock.

• ELIMINATE DOWNTIME BY LEVERAGING IBM'S CLOUD REDUNDANCIES (IN-STORE AND ONLINE) AND INTEGRATED DISASTER RECOVERY.
• ACCELERATE NEW STORE SETUP WITH THE CLOUD. YOUR STORE SETUP IS READY WHEN YOU ARE—NO MORE WAIT FOR SERVERS OR DELIVERY. SPIN UP A STORE IN A FEW MINUTES.
• SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATION; GLASSHOUSE SYSTEMS' FAMILIARITY WITH IBM'S POWER ENVIRONMENTS RESULTED IN A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE FOR THE COMPANY.
• POS COSTS REDUCTION; DRAMATIC COST REDUCTION TO ONLY $165/MONTH PER STORE BY LEVERAGING IBM'S CLOUD AND GLASSHOUSE SYSTEMS INFRASTRUCTURE EXPERTISE