Top Retailers Battle Over Their Most Valuable Asset: Data

Retail giants Walmart and Amazon have been duking it out in the consumer goods marketplace for years, but now the battle has moved to a new front: data. Why? Because savvy retailers know data is king. They understand that information is their most valuable asset, and it’s worth fighting for.

Recently, Walmart warned the tech vendors it works with not to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power apps. The implication was clear: Walmart doesn’t want a rival to control (and possibly mine) its most valuable asset, its data. Amazon fired back, accusing its rival of bullying suppliers into using competitor cloud services.

To paraphrase Yoda, “Begun, the data war has.” Walmart’s opening salvo is significant for two reasons: first, that the company would publicly take this position implicitly acknowledges the value of data — which should send a message to other retailers about the value of their data. Secondly, Walmart has a lot of influence with its enormous network of suppliers.

And Amazon’s shot across the bow will resonate since AWS is the dominant player in the web hosting and cloud computing space, serving more than 40% of the market. Tech vendors who want to work with Walmart are being steered toward alternatives like Microsoft’s Azure. But Amazon has enormous influence with suppliers too.

Liaison takes no side in the Walmart-Amazon data war, but we do note that it validates a point we’ve been making all along: data is the new currency of business. That means cloud providers must treat data like the critical business asset it is. Liaison works with retail customers every day to integrate and manage data on a global scale:

• Integrate data seamlessly: Liaison’s award-winning ALLOY^TM Platform and managed services approach ensure seamless data integration, allowing retailers to exchange information with business partners and customers securely, reliably and quickly.
• Transform data to deliver insight: Data streams in via a variety of sources and arrives in an array of formats. Liaison transforms raw data from virtually any source, making it usable to the diverse systems and applications designed to consume, analyze and act on it.
• Protect data and enable compliance: Retailers that store and process credit card information must comply with applicable mandates like PCI DSS regulations. The Liaison ALLOY Platform provides comprehensive continuous compliance with PCI DSS and other key data security and privacy standards.  The platform also offers a cloud-based tokenization solution that ensures security and compliance.
• Provide reliable, accurate and standardized data across organizations: Retailers need a synchronized, comprehensive view of product, customer and supplier information worldwide. The cloud-based ALLOY Platform delivers this and more at a lower total cost of ownership.

Retail supply chains are complex. Every SKU can generate copious amounts of data to be exchanged up and down the supply chain. In addition, customer interactions generate ever-increasing volumes of data. This information is incredibly valuable, and the most successful retailers harness it to unlock the insight it contains. Retailers shouldn’t settle for anything less than data integration and management best practices that break down silos and unlock the power of data to drive innovation.

So, keep this in mind as the data war heats up: ALLOY is your ally in the battle to maximize your most valuable business asset. Liaison’s groundbreaking platform and managed services approach deliver the information and expertise you need to make better business decisions and scale up in response to changing business needs. Learn more here.