The Silicon Review ^Asia

The second-largest pharmacy store chain Walgreens of the United States is forming a new alliance with IBM in rendering better analytic services in its retail industry. With the data analytics service offered by IBM, Walgreens can increase the efficiency in the entire IT processes and can drive more IT support across its enterprise. IBM’s unique capabilities to integrate hardware and software from different vendors under one roof may lead to more efficient operation of technology across the different stores of the company. IBM Cloud also will be used to determine the level of support that will likely be needed at each Walgreens location based on service request history. In its future perspective, it aims to render better services while dispatching the field technicians and coordinating them in the most efficient way. These data-driven insights may help to identify the most frequent service calls at a given location and bundle those requests into one service call to minimize repeated instances of system downtime.

In light of all these, the retail company has already secured regulatory clearance for a revised deal that gives Walgreens the green light to buy 1,932 stores, three distribution centers and related inventory from Rite Aid for $4.375 billion. C-suite executives and key stakeholders in all industries are increasingly recognizing the value of cultivating insights through data, as they often create opportunities for enhanced IT efficiency and overall business growth. These tools are also changing the way IT professionals approach IT support in the field by shifting to more proactive, predictive solutions. The partnership is expected to be one such.