VMware Modernizes Retail IT to Deliver Exceptional Customer Experiences in the Intelligent Store

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  • Home Depot and Pacific Dental Services Increase Customer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty with VMware Retail Solutions

  • Dell, Intel, QOS Networks, Windstream, and Zscaler Showcase Partnership with VMware at the National Retail Federation Annual Show

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual show, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, highlighted expanded partnerships in the retail space with leading technology companies, as well as showcased several customers who are partnering with the company to modernize IT and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

In the highly competitive and dynamic retail industry, technology drives almost every step of the retail experience. Successful retailers, including 10 out of the top 10 global brands1, are differentiating customer experiences and growing revenue with VMware.

Modernize Retail IT Delivery
Modern IT powers exceptional customer experiences. By speeding digital and in-store service delivery and reducing complexity, VMware software-defined data center (SDDC) solutions empower retailers to improve processes from checkout to supply chain management. Flexible, secure, and cloud-ready digital infrastructure from VMware improves operational models to create frictionless retail environments that accelerate innovation and grow revenue.

“For a growing number of customers, Homedepot.com has become the front door to our stores,” said Daniel Grider, vice president of technology at The Home Depot. “Creating an interconnected customer experience across our online, in-store and mobile environments is what we call ‘One Home Depot.’ To help us meet the evolving needs of our customers, we rely on innovative technology partners like Dell Technologies to help us increase business efficiency, virtualize our infrastructure and support new workloads as we continue to grow.”

VMware continues to partner with leading technology companies to help retailers modernize IT delivery. For over a decade, Intel and VMware have collaborated to deliver solutions that enable retail IT to continually transform their data centers. The companies continue that legacy today to accelerate Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) and hybrid cloud deployments, enabling retail IT to advance store innovation.

“Intel enables retailers to confidently integrate cloud applications and extend their businesses through optimized and hybrid cloud solutions using VMware software and Intel IoT Architecture,” said Joe Jensen, general manager of IoT Retail, Intel. “These advancements help our customers rapidly develop, deliver and manage their technologies to modernize retail tools that support the modern store, quick serve restaurant and supply chain.”

Connecting Retail Networks for a Holistic Shopping Experience
Today’s retailers are seeking new ways to provide customers with a dynamic omnichannel experience while maximizing operational efficiencies. Connecting a network that includes retail locations, primary business offices, distribution centers, online warehouses, cloud services and applications is a struggle for retail IT professionals due to ever-increasing network complexity and skyrocketing costs. Competitive pressures and consumer expectations throughout the shopping journey mean retail networks need to be agile, flexible, scalable and secure but also easier to manage and cost-effective.

That is why retailers chose VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud to transform their WAN. With VMware SD-WAN, retailers can significantly cut operating costs by using broadband for business-critical applications, enable enterprise and customer data protection with PCI DSS compliance and segmentation, improve user experience quality of service (QoS), and enjoy simplified deployment and management for all sites from a single pane of glass. VMware SD-WAN spans connectivity across branch offices, data centers and the cloud for retail transactions, end user computing, and IoT. 

VMware works with a wide, global network of service providers, solution providers, and technology partners to provide a complete WAN solution for retailers. Some of these partners were highlighted at NRF this week, including:

  • Windstream Enterprise’s SD-WAN Concierge optimizes and transforms customers’ networks to meet the evolving demands of the cloud with its fully-managed VMware SD-WAN solution and proprietary Cloud-Core architecture.
  • The Zscaler Cloud Security Platform combined with VMware SD-WAN’s cloud-delivered solution provides a cloud-first architecture that modernizes retail IT and results in enhanced visibility and better security for local internet breakouts, while minimizing the hardware footprint. Together, they provide fast, more secure, reliable connections to the internet and business-critical applications from any retail location, warehouse, manufacturing facility, and headquarters.
  • QOS Networks has partnered closely with VMware SD-WAN to deliver the high performing SD-WAN solutions customers expect, paired with the white glove service and end-to-end management that many retailers require.

Pacific Dental Services (PDS) is one of the country’s leading dental support organizations and manages more than 700 dental practice offices in 20 states with plans to add more than 80 supported offices each year. PDS relies on a complete SD-WAN solution from VMware and QOS Networks to connect, manage and secure a network that spans all these locations.

“Our enterprise is in a constant need to grow and execute faster and more effectively every day. It’s critical for IT to be able to deliver business intelligence rapidly with 100 percent visibility at the edge so we can streamline our dental offices to be faster, more flexible, and more secure,” says Rich Brownlee, director of infrastructure & operations, Pacific Dental Services.

Innovate in Retail Stores
Edge trans­formation is underway in retail, driven by device proliferation and the Inter­net of Things (IoT). Traditional desktops and laptops are augmented by tablets, smartphones, facial recog­nition, digital price tags, beacons, cameras, and more—all requiring edge IT to eliminate latency and de­liver exceptional experi­ences. VMware makes IoT easier to manage, monitor, and protect. With VMware, retailers onboard, manage, monitor, and better secure all IoT connections throughout their lifecycle—from RFID tags and shelf sensors to security cameras and robotics.

In order to accelerate collaboration and the creation of new open interoperable IoT digital foundations, VMware is joining with industry leaders in establishing the Open Retail Initiative. The goal of this industry coalition is to create an open, scalable, and flexible ecosystem for accelerating innovation within retail.

“Retail customers are looking for new ways to delight their customers in stores and are using Internet of Things use cases to optimize merchandising, personalization, line times, inventory, store layout and more across the store experience with data from video, sensors, digital signage, beacons and many other devices,” said Mimi Spier, vice president, Edge and IoT business, VMware. “VMware’s unique approach to edge and IoT provides a consistent, flexible, open digital foundation from cloud to edge to ensure customers can innovate with data driven use cases across their agile business at scale, while streamlining management and security.” 

Empower the Digital Workspace for Retail
Mobility empowers retail associates to better serve customers. With the more secure VMware Digital Workspace for Retail, full-time and seasonal workers have authorized, self-service access to all the applications and information they need on any device in stores, warehouses, and call centers to help customers make smarter buying decisions. Simultaneously, enterprise-grade control over unified user, desktop, and mobility management help IT keep enterprise data more secure.

Visit Us at NRF
To learn more about how VMware is helping retailers enable the store of the future, visit the VMware booth (#1057) at NRF or browse www.vmware.com/solutions/industry/retail.

Additional Resources 

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About VMware 
VMware software powers the world’s complex digital infrastructure. The company’s compute, cloud, mobility, networking and security offerings provide a dynamic and efficient digital foundation to over 500,000 customers globally, aided by an ecosystem of 75,000 partners. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, this year VMware celebrates twenty years of breakthrough innovation benefiting business and society. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html.

Media Contact
Angela Leaf                                                     
VMware Global Communications                       
Phone: +1 860 480 3367                       
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1: National Retail Federation Top 100 Retailers List: https://nrf.com/resources/top-retailers/top-100-retailers