IBM WebSphere messaging backbone quickly delivers transaction data to a central hub
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- IBM Integration Bus
- IBM WebSphere MQ
- IBM WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition
Tech Stack
- IBM WebSphere
- MQTT
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
The customer is a large grocery retailer based in the United States. The company operates more than 2,400 grocery stores across numerous states. Its brands include grocery, multi-department, convenience, and jewelry stores. The company employs more than 339,000 associates. The company's operations are spread out across numerous states, making it essential for the company to collect data in a timely manner from all of its stores to make informed decisions for the company as a whole. The company's application environment must therefore support the movement of a great deal of information so that more than 2,400 grocery stores can deliver information on sales and operations to a central hub on a daily basis.
The Challenge
The company, a large grocery retailer based in the United States, was facing a challenge with its data management. With operations spread out across numerous states, it was essential for the company to collect data in a timely manner from all of its stores to make informed decisions. The company’s application environment had to support the movement of a great deal of information so that more than 2,400 grocery stores could deliver information on sales and operations to a central hub on a daily basis. However, the company managed most of these communications in large batches. Each store transmitted its transaction logs to the corporate data warehouse once a day. These logs were then parsed for analysis. This batch processing method delayed analysis and hampered theft prevention efforts. The company wanted to improve the timeliness of these data transfers to improve access to accurate information for day-to-day operations such as customer service, supply chain management, and monitoring of over-the-counter drug sales.
The Solution
To speed up the flow of information, the company implemented an in-store enterprise service bus (ESB) for each store based on IBM® Integration Bus (formerly known as IBM WebSphere® Message Broker) and IBM WebSphere MQ software. The ESB provides reliable data transformation and delivery to all of the endpoints in the store, which use a variety of protocols. It also enables the company to transform messages and publish them so they get sent to remote endpoint systems that might be interested in them. Stores’ point-of-sale controllers publish messages to the store ESB through WebSphere MQ Telemetry (MQTT), a protocol supported by WebSphere MQ software. The company uses IBM WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition software to transfer files between the central hub and the stores’ ESBs and in turn, to other endpoint applications in the store.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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