In June, the SMART business team took part for the second time in the largest domestic annual exhibition of the retail and development industry RAU EXPO – 2024.
Over the 7 years of its existence, the forum has already become a unifying platform for key players in the retail market and companies directly related to retail. For industry leaders and innovators, participation in the event is primarily an opportunity to share experiences that help them become stronger, move forward and jointly find solutions to face today’s challenges.
The main topic of the event: “Risk Management: from Resilience to Antifragility.” Its relevance for the Ukrainian business community was evidenced by its wide representativeness: more than 60 exhibitors presented the latest solutions in the field of retail and commercial real estate to almost 1.5 thousand attendees.
The SMART business team took part in RAU EXPO – 2024 as an official partner of the event and presented at its booth a number of its own solutions and localizations for building an innovative ІТ ecosystem based on Microsoft and using ML (machine learning) and AI (artificial intelligence).
In addition to the exhibition area, the forum traditionally hosted business conferences in two streams. Over two days, almost 80 experts from Ukrainian and international companies spoke at them, sharing their own experience on how to be consistently successful in a highly unstable macro-environment. Their life hacks are new business opportunities that, without exaggeration, are changing the industry today.
The event program included 12 thematic blocks, covering both global and industry-specific local topics. Among other things: macro context and global trends; current trends in the development and transformation of various sectors of domestic retail, changes in consumer behavior and technology to maintain growth and antifragility under martial law; retail market analytics and transformation of its infrastructure; advice on how to find your effective format and achieve maximum operational efficiency; the role of digital in building a successful business model, and thanks to what retail is growing in Ukraine.
In particular, the growth of Ukrainian retail based on the results of 2023 became the hottest topic of discussion. According to research by NAI Global, one of the largest real estate brokers and consultants in the world, in 2023 the volume of retail turnover in Ukraine was equal to pre-war figures. This is a sign that retailers operating in the market generate a greater turnover per 1 sq. m than it was before the large-scale invasion. Thus, they manage to compensate for the lost potential (at the end of 2023, 109 thousand square meters were occupied, and this is almost 18% of the entire territory of the country, while in 2021 this figure was 43.3 thousand square meters). Today, according to this study, the retail trade generation per 1 sq. m. reached a record.
The growth of the industry is also evidenced by the RAU and YouControl research presented at the forum. According to their data, in 2023, the financial turnover of Ukrainian retail chains reached UAH 1.54 trillion, which is 30% more than in 2022 and UAH 100 billion higher than the pre-war turnover of the industry.
Participants of the event primarily see the reason for this unexpected turn of events in a change in approaches to doing business, mainly due to the introduction of innovations. So, it is natural that the digital transformation of businesses in one format or another was discussed here on almost all platforms. The talk was mainly about “big data”, its quality and use cases for automating processes and personalizing relationships with consumers – as the key to a successful business strategy.
SMART business has been successfully cooperating with businesses for 15 years to implement solutions that help remove operational constraints and expand opportunities for sustainable development. Therefore, realizing that we have something to tell, this year we took part in two sessions at once: “Solutions and innovations for business” and “Marketing that produces results”.
The SMART business team shared its philosophy of sustainability with conference participants
An excellent example of how Ukrainian business “makes lemonade out of lemons” was the story of the unique experience of transforming the relationships of BROCARD, the largest perfume and cosmetics chain in the luxury segment in Ukraine, with its own clients.
It was shared by Oksana Medvedeva, Implementation Project Manager at BROCARD, and Denys Shevchuk, Product Owner SMART CRM, Business Development Manager at SMART business, in their joint presentation “The Art of Million-Strong Marketing: How the Brocard end-to-end IT ecosystem was built”.
It was from them, first-hand, that guests and exhibitors learned about how the first implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Data – not only in Ukraine, but throughout the Eastern European region – took place, which, without exaggeration, radically changed the relationships of BROCARD with its 2 million clients.
This is a story about how there are no unfavorable times for business; there are management decisions that are appropriate or inappropriate for the situation. Thus, BROCARD, during a period of maximum turbulence and instability, without waiting for “better times,” decided to begin developing a marketing ecosystem from a number of solutions of the Dynamics 365 platform and today speaks with confidence about this as its success story.
Of course, we are proud to have been chosen as a partner for the implementation of this large-scale project. SMART business’s 15-year expertise in the development, implementation and support of Microsoft-based solutions has become the key to its success.
By the way, it was in this project that SMART business had the opportunity to fully demonstrate itself as a real guru of localization of Microsoft solutions. Because we not only offer businesses products from the vendor’s portfolio in a local language that meet the requirements of local legislation. We also ensure the implementation of the most demanded scenarios for local businesses.
Thus, in the case of cooperation with BROCARD, SMART Connector for GMS, which is a part of the SMART CRM platform, was completely developed directly by the SMART business team. This solution allowed the customer to maximally personalize relations with a two-million client audience, communicating with them in a convenient and familiar channel. For marketers and the company’s sales department, it has become easy and convenient to implement both mass and triggered SMS and Viber mailings, and to analyze their results in the system itself.
In the last six months alone, almost 6 million messages have been sent thanks to integration with the GMS provider. However, the most important thing in this story is that the company does not just have the technical ability to support such powerful communication. It fully “sees” all the statistics of these messages which are no longer “one-way mailings”. Now all this is data that can be easily analyzed and taken into account in subsequent marketing activities.
Thus, this experience is an excellent confirmation of how, with the right development strategy, in the “right” partnership, the most serious challenges can be turned into strategic advantages.
Artem Stepanov, Product Owner of SMART Demand Forecast, an expert in predictive analytics and working with data, gave a presentation to the guests and participants of the event on the topic: “AI as a key aspect of the retailer’s life nowadays.”
His speech attracted a considerable audience, because the speaker focused on the applied use of technologies based on AI and ML to solve real business problems and told how to easily turn them into another competitive advantage.
He shared what opportunities the use of solutions based on artificial intelligence opens up for companies. Using the example of the implementation of SMART Demand Forecast in the McDonald’s restaurant chain in Georgia, the speaker showed how it was possible to increase the forecasting accuracy to 83% at the levels of individual restaurants and the chain as a whole. This, in turn, has significantly improved inventory management, increased customer satisfaction and significantly reduced operating costs.
Our speaker also made convincing arguments that an AI-based solution is not a fad, but a “must be” for retail and presented a simple and logical diagram of how a company can implement business transformation with AI and where to start. It’s just important not to be afraid of change because, according to Jeff Bezos, “The changes that artificial intelligence and machine learning are introducing will help companies that embrace them and create barriers for those that don’t”.
IT ecosystem of solutions from SMART business based on Microsoft products for retail and related businesses
At the SMART business booth, visitors had the opportunity to learn more about a range of Microsoft-based solutions. In particular, these include:
SMART Accounting – allows you to maintain accounting and tax records taking into account international standards and in accordance with the requirements of local legislation. This is also an opportunity for businesses to scale and easily unify in reporting systems of other regions.
SMART Payroll – a solution for convenient and effective HR and payroll processes. Allows you to automate personnel management, meets local legislation and labor standards and takes into account their current changes thanks to regular updates and system support.
SMART CRM – a comprehensive platform for automating sales, marketing and service. It allows you to:
- create a unified environment for working with clients and preserve the history of interaction with them across all channels,
- establish simple and effective communication with subscribers using all instant messengers or chatbots in a single window: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Viber, Telegram,
- use customized integrations with popular payment systems and delivery services in the process of executing customer orders, without wasting time on customization and localization. In particular, integrations with PayPal, Rozetka, GMS/Infobip, eSputnik, Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta delivery services, Binotel and Ringostat IP telephony providers have already been implemented. Releases of connectors for DHL, InPost, UPS, UAPAY, Mono Pay, Przelewy24 are coming shortly.
SMART HCM & LMS – a comprehensive solution for building a modern HR ecosystem. Saves time when recruiting and onboarding employees by automating the corresponding processes. It will also ensure effective and regular Upskilling and Reskilling processes in the company, thanks to a flexible approach to the creation of programs and courses, IDPs and employee reward systems.
SMART Demand Forecast – a demand forecasting system based on machine learning and AI. Provides comprehensive forecasting for regular and promotional sales at different granulation levels.
SMART Price Insights – an AI-based solution for automating and optimizing pricing. It is based on adaptive pricing, which allows you to quickly and flexibly adapt your pricing campaign in accordance with the competitive environment.
SMART Personal Engagement – a system for optimizing marketing processes and personal interaction with clients. In fact, this is a kind of target audience builder. Allows you to segment huge volumes of customer data and personalize advertising campaigns. Indispensable when it comes to finding the optimal communication strategy.
SMART Flexi Scheduler – a workforce management system for flexible management of working time for teams using AI. Allows you to accurately predict the need to attract personnel, taking into account qualification requirements and restrictions for the implementation of a specific project and correctly distribute the workload.
LS Central – a full cycle retail management system. Allows you to organize comprehensive control over finances, point of sale, supply chain, e-commerce and loyalty programs within a single system.
SMART WMS – a warehouse management system based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Optimizes acceptance and placement processes; speeds up the processes of picking and shipment of goods. It also improves inventory accuracy and employee efficiency through automatic distribution and prioritizing of warehouse tasks.
SmartPoint DMS – a system for automating document management processes. The product provides the ability to customize the company’s document flow in strict accordance with the requirements of current legislation and at the same time guarantees a high level of data protection.
SmartPoint Intranet – a comprehensive solution that allows, based on secure technologies, to build a unified communication digital environment for the entire company, convenient for storing, accumulating corporate knowledge and using it by employees in their professional activities.
Microsoft 365 Copilot – a tool that uses artificial intelligence and is an indispensable assistant when performing work tasks in Microsoft 365 programs. In particular, it will help to significantly reduce the time spent on data analysis and simplify the process of preparing various reports.
With Copilot in Dynamics 365, it’s easy to automate inventory tracking across all retail locations and set up alerts to staff when there is a shortage or excess inventory. Copilot for Customer Insights will save staff the time needed to create personalized offers for customers based on their purchasing history.
Summing up the impressions of these two extremely intense days, we would like to note that RAU Expo 2024 lived up to expectations. The event is invariably an excellent platform for productive networking, the development of new positive partnerships and collaborations and provides enormous opportunities for enrichment with new contacts and innovative ideas for business development.
As a company driving digital business transformation, we analyze and carefully study all requests, interactions and prepare a new package of offers and ideas for participation in next year’s event.
We don’t just deploy services designed to take business processes to a new level of organization and efficiency. We have enough experience and expertise to be a driver of positive business change on its path to achieving true sustainability and antifragility in the most difficult macroeconomic conditions. And we are ready to share this expertise.