Creating the Future at METRO Group

Large retailers operate in an extremely challenging environment: margins continually shrink, competition is increasing, and customer expectations are expanding. Multiple new technologies will clearly change the industry significantly. But determining which technologies are key, and how to deploy them cost effectively, is a major challenge. As the world’s 5th largest retailer, METRO Group wanted to assess the potential impact of selected technologies on their customers and their supply chain, and they wanted to explore these in a real-world environment.

METRO Group worked with key collaborators Intel, SAP, and IBM to integrate multiple emerging technologies into a “Future Store” at the company’s existing Extra Store location in Rheinberg, Germany. The new capabilities are built upon the extensive use of radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies, and are based front-to-back on Intel architecture-based products — servers, RFID readers, kiosks, desktop and mobile PCs, handheld devices, and network components. The customer experience is enhanced with personal shopping assistants, intelligent shopping carts, rich multimedia displays, information kiosks, intelligent scales, and self-checkout. Behind-the-scenes elements include RFID tags for better inventory control, employee mobility using PDAs and tablet PCs, and an innovative content bus for multimedia delivery. Through collaboration with Intel® Solution Services, this ambitious project was accomplished in seven months. It ultimately involved over 40 leading companies from the IT, consumer packaged goods, and services industries.

Since opening in April 2003, the Future Store has proven the value of emerging technologies in a real-store setting. The new solutions have enhanced the shopping experience, and have measurably increased customer satisfaction, customer frequency, number of new customers, and average spend per customer. Inventory management is greatly improved, with real-time inventory visibility even at the shelf level, increasing the efficiency and intelligence of the supply chain. Employee mobility has increased productivity and allows staff to spend more time with customers on the selling floor. Operating costs are lowered both by increased efficiency in business processes and by utilizing the standards-based, flexible Intel architecture.

Desktop PCs based on Intel Pentium® 4 processors Mobile PCs based on Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology† PDAs based on Intel® Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel PCA) processors Personal Shopping Assistants based on the Mobile Intel® Pentium III Processors – M Information kiosks based on Intel® Pentium 4 processors RFID readers based on Intel PCA processors.

4-way rack-mount application servers powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor
4-way application servers powered by the Intel Xeon processor MP
2-way application server blades powered by the Intel Xeon processor

SAP Auto ID Infrastructure*
Oracle 9i* Database
PIRONET Pirobase* content management system