Retail Business Services – November 2019

Retail Business Services T H E I M P O R TA N C E O F C O L L A B O R AT I O N

Retail Business Services: the importance of collaboration

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NOVEMBER 2019

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R E TA I L B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E S , A N A H O L D D E L H A I Z E U S A C O M PA N Y

Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, discusses collaborative approaches to grocery retail tech integration

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etail Business Services was launched in January 2018 to support Ahold Delhaize USA’s consumer-facing grocery retail

companies and online grocery retailer, Peapod.

Retail Business Services provides innovative solutions by leveraging scale and expertise to ensure the company’s partners can focus on developing their local brands. “Since our first day,” Scorza says, “IT has had a seat at the table of the leadership team. Which has enabled us to successfully support these brands.” Paul Scorza is the Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of IT at Retail Business Services, having previously worked as the CIO and EVP for Ahold USA prior to the merger between Ahold and Delhaize in 2016. He brings with him 32 years’ experience at IBM, a job he took immediately after graduating college and in which he performed several software and service-related roles.

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EMPOWERING THE ART OF RETAIL

toshibacommerce.com

Toshiba is proud to work together with partners like Getronics and Retail Business Services to lead the way in delivering more customer-focused shopping experiences.

Through these dedicated partnerships, we are transforming retail by creating unique and compelling customer experiences.

INNOVATION TRANSFORMS THE CHECKOUT EXPERIENCE AT AHOLD DELHAIZE USA BRAND STORES Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company, is a leader in the supermarket industry and well known for its eye toward innovation, passion for great food and dedication to delivering value to its customers. Retail Business Services had a goal from its local brand partners - to increase throughput, front-end lane utilization and improve the customer’s experience. Based on long-term relationships and proven capabilities, Retail Business Services turned to Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and Getronics, plus other key partners to achieve their goals and vision for its stores. The result: a unique convertible lane that transforms checkout.

All lanes open, all the time.

Retail Business Services came to its partners with a clear vision: all lanes open, all the time.

With convertible dual-use checkout lanes, Retail Business Services was able to provide a technology solution to its brand partners to make the most of the square footage in stores by replacing attended lanes that were only used some of the time, with lanes that could be used 100% of the time for either self-service or cashier-led experiences. Through this solution, the stores can reduce lines during checkout and give customers the ability to choose the way they experience checkout; whether they want the personal touch of a cashier-attended lane, or the convenience and privacy of a self-checkout lane – all while preserving the speed and full function of their existing attended lanes.

“Our partnership together goes back many years, but this project exemplifies our relationship as trusted partners and leaders in the industry. Our commitment was not only to project success, but also positive impact on store operations and bottom line results,” said Bill Campbell, VP, Head of Americas at Toshiba.

Leading Together To achieve this, Toshiba leveraged their extensive retail store knowledge to contribute software development and hardware engineering expertise, Getronics acted as the Systems Integrator providing project management, engineering and software testing capability, and another existing partner designed the customized cabinet.

The challenge? Create software functionality that allowed store associates to switch modes from Toshiba’s Checkout Environment for Consumer Service (CHEC), a software application designed to optimize self-checkout, to their Toshiba POS Application. To ensure cashier-led transactions continued at full speed, Toshiba modified existing software application functionality to suit unique specifications.

Toshiba leveraged its TCx™ Elevate digital platform ensuring a seamless end-to-end solution to power the front-end allows cash tender during both transaction types.

Toshiba customized communications to create a unique solution with multiple applications and hardware devices.

Close collaboration among the teams was the key to the successful design, development and deployment.

“We are delighted to have contributed to the teamwork, integration and collaboration that supported Retail Business Services vision for helping their store brand partners transform their front-end,” said Aaron Hagler, Getronics’ Vice President of Software and Retail Solutions.

To perfect the solution, Retail Business Services conducted prototype, lab, and in-store pilots, and gathered feedback from shoppers and associates. With this valuable insight in hand, the team refined functions to reduce operational risk in the rollout and prove value to the business.

Through extensive partner collaboration, we deployed an innovative technology solution that supports our strategy, Leading Together, while delivering our promise of a better place to shop.”

Paul Scorza, EVP, Information Technology and CIO for Retail Business Services.

When the rollout began, Retail Business Services ordered approximately 40 lanes. Less than a year later, they have placed over 435 dual-use lanes in 175 stores across Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands, including Giant Martins (Carlisle, Penn.), Giant Food (Landover, Md.) and Stop & Shop.

These convertible lanes have been met with glowing reviews from shoppers and cashiers alike. Shoppers have reported they appreciate the ability to choose their checkout method and skip the line while using the input belt to load large orders. Cashiers can scan a shopper’s cart quickly, with the added security and accuracy of cash recyclers for cash tender eliminating the complexity and time required to manage cash.

In the end, Toshiba and Getronics stepped up as trusted partners and industry leaders to collaborate with Retail Business Services and partners to create a solution that exceeded expectations and delivered meaningful business value to the companies of Ahold Delhaize USA.

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“There’s a pull now where the stores are asking for innovation. Customers are demanding tech” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company

The merger, he says, was an opportunity to confirm the company’s power of growth. While it did demand lengthy rationalization, bringing together the two IT systems, was a successful endeavour. The key was finding synergies. The merger ultimately allowed the corporation to increase investments in IT infrastructure, apply innovative initiatives, and bring new technology into its physical stores. “Ahold Delhaize USA recognizes the value of IT,” says Scorza.

Collaboration is at the centre of success at Ahold Delhaize USA and Retail w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

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®

New Retail Experience With Frictionless Checkout Store (FCS)

Today’s customers are looking for an incredible shopping experience inside the store that mirrors the online experience of shopping in a frictionless environment and virtual assistance that makes their shopping fun, interesting and engaging.

UST Global Digital Retail team is constantly working on bringing innovative, practical, and cost-effective solutions for engaging customers while they are inside the brick-and-mortar store.

Towards this, we have launched and implemented multiple interactive touchpoints that improve category margin, sales and leave the customer with a WOW experience with a reference to a supermarket chain.

We see tremendous value of rolling out the solution across globally in convenience stores, universities, offices, fulfillment centers, and dense metropolitan cities.

UST Global aims to be a global partner in New Retail

Frictionless Checkout Store (FCS) is a cornerstone of our digital strategy to support the “New Retail” Patented technology enables end-to-end smart store solutions that offer personalized shopping experiences to the customer as well as improved store operation and labor efficiency An innovative shopping solution for brick-andmortar stores using computer vision, machine learning, and IoT UST Global along with its strategic partners including Intel, are behind implementing ‘FCS’ solution for the first store at the RBS office in Quincy,MA Vision sensors track which products customers pick up and put back, virtual baskets are updated accordingly Redefines the way people shop by eliminating the pain points of checkout lines and cashiers with algorithms, and customers’ digital accounts are automatically charged after exiting the stores

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE NEXT GENERATION OF GROCERY RETAIL’ 11 Business Services. “You can’t get

have a good idea of what the brand

anything done without good partners,”

represents. Retail Business Services

affirms Scorza. From partnerships

develops tech in house whenever the

with local brands to collaborations

market fails to supply. Among this is

with other tech companies, these are

frictionless checkout, which allows

an integral part of Retail Business

customers to shop in-store without

Service’s business strategy. To ensure

having to pay at a checkout lane. Using

a strong partnership with local brands,

a mobile phone or scanner, they have a

Retail Business Services created the

preselected payment method associ-

Business Relationship Manager (BRM)

ated to their loyalty card and can leave

role, an account manager that works

through a special lane as soon as

out of local brands’ headquarters,

they are finished picking their goods.

attending staff meetings, and feeding

Scorza compares it to using an EZ

information back to developers and

pass when driving on toll roads.

service providers so the IT team can

Partnerships have allowed Retail w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

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Business Services to keep on top of IT innovation. “One of the things you do as an IT organization is staff all the work you have to do,” he says.

“You want a flexible workforce so that they can bring in skills that you may not have. I generally run 15-20% of my workforce using that flexible resource.” When it comes to project management needs, Retail Business Services turns to Apex and Sevenstep.

To run a data center to support the

“ One of the things you do as an IT organization is staff all the work you have to do, and you want a flexible work-force so that they can bring in skills that you may not have” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company

applications for Giant Food, GIANT/ MARTIN’S and Stop & Shop, both for application maintenance and support,

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Paul Scorza Paul Scorza is the CIO and EVP of Information Technology for Retail Business Services. Scorza has 40 years of experience in IT. Before joining Retail Business Services, Scorza was EVP, IT and CIO for Ahold USA. Prior to that, he spent 32 years at IBM in leadership positions including VP of Global Delivery, VP and Transformation Executive for Finance, Global Financing, Technical Support, and Application Portfolio Management, VP Americas, and Application Solutions Delivery Leader. Scorza holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a combined MBA and an M.S. degree in computer science from Marist College.

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Retail Business Services relies on DXC.

to change over POS systems six and

DXC has a decade long relationship

half years ago, Getronics was closely

with Ahold Delhaize USA compa-

involved. “I watched them install eve-

nies that has evolved over the years.

rything,” says Scorza. “Getronics was

Getronics and Toshiba have also been

truly a partner in the implementation

important to Retail Business Services

and cared about our business as much

both from a POS system and manu-

as we do.” The company also works

facturing standpoint. Toshiba runs

with Salesforce on its IT infrastructure.

point on the system for Giant Food,

“Salesforce is another great IT partner,”

GIANT/MARTIN’S and Stop & Shop,

affirms Scorza. “We have used their

while NCR focuses on Food Lion and

Mulesoft software for data integration

Hannaford. Getronics and Toshiba

and each brand has access to their

helped develop the customized code

Marketing cloud platform. Both tools

Retail Business Services needed

provide access to key information to

within the loyalty scheme that gave

drive business at each local brand.”

customers points off gasoline. When

Retail Business Services also works

legacy company, Ahold USA, needed

with other key partners, such as w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

Wipro for support and development

wedded to a ‘must be invented here’

resources with key tools,

mentality,” says Scorza. “People

like Kronos.

stepped up as trusted partners.”

When Retail Business Services

The goal, Scorza says, is to ensure

wanted to develop a dual lane system

customers have a good experience

that could double as a self-checkout or

when they visit the stores. To keep

associate checkout lane, it partnered

up with innovation, Retail Business

with Toshiba and Getronics. Toshiba

Services uses a “fast follower” phi-

provided software development

losophy as well. “We don’t always want

and hardware engineering expertise;

to be cutting-edge,” explains Scorza.

Getronics brought software test

“Sometimes we let other people do the

capability and project management.

cutting-edge stuff, spend lots of money,

Ultimately, after prototyping, lab

and then we follow closely behind

work, and in-store pilots, the pro-

with something we know works more

ject was a success. It is in 145 retail

efficiently and at a fraction of the cost.”

stores and 380 lanes. “This was a

Retail Business Service’s lunchbox

good success story. No one was

frictionless store is similar to Amazon Go. w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

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21 Customers walk into a store, scan in using an app, pick what they want, and leave; no scanning of products required. UST Global was a key partner in the development of the frictionless pilot store technology.

The world’s relationship with IT has changed in recent years, says Scorza.

When trying to implement wireless capability in-store half a decade ago, he was met with some resistance. “In 2013, we created any kind of innovative solution because you couldn’t get the stores to adopt it,” says Scorza.

“The industry just wasn’t ready. I was always trying to push solutions out w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

R E TA I L B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E S , A N A H O L D D E L H A I Z E U S A C O M PA N Y

“ You can’t get anything done without good partners” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company 22

2018

Year founded

$44bn

Parent company, US segment, 2018

2,700

Approximate number of employees there. However, knowing this was com-

that customize in-store experiences.

ing, we partnered with Verizon to put

“We’ve got a bright horizon here,”

wireless capability into all Ahold USA

believes Scorza. “There’s so much

stores. This was their first entry into a

technology in areas you’d never expect

grocery store and Verizon did a great

there to be. You get out of college with

job partnering with us to make it hap-

a computer science degree and start

pen.” It’s completely the opposite now.

looking for IT companies. Never in my

It’s a pull versus push. There is a pull

wildest dreams would I have imagined

now where the stores are asking for

I would enjoy IT in a retail company. It

innovation. Customers are demanding

has been incredibly exciting here.”

tech.” This change has allowed Retail Business Services to shift its focus to creating an omnichannel experience.

Artificial intelligence is the next step, Scorza affirms, prediction models w w w.re t a i l busi ne ssse r vi c es . com

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Retail Business Services 1365 Hancock Street Quincy Massachusetts, 02169 USA T +00 00 000 000 www.retailbusinessservices.com