No, not a Coke, Fanta or Sprite (although we’d never say no)! Read on to find out more, and why every omnichannel needs one.
We’re talking a different type of SODA: Strategic Omnichannel Data Architecture. This retail data architecture is perfect for quenching retailers’ and brands’ thirst for better data.
Why do you need a SODA? Omnichannel retailers have a particularly fragmented and complex tech ecosystem. A data-centric architecture:
simplifies and streamlines integrations
unifies data from multiple data silos to provide a “single source of truth” for comprehensive analysis and reporting, and
provides a 360-degree customer view for enhanced targeting and communications.
The IT and data challenge for omnichannel retailers
Omnichannel retailers aim to provide customers with a unified and seamless experience across all touchpoints. To achieve this, retailers adopt one of two IT strategies; they either:
retain a core ERP system with applications bolted on to enhance specific customer-facing and back-office functionality, or
replace the ERP altogether with several “best-of-breed” modules.
Whichever strategy is adopted, data needs to be exchanged successfully between the growing number of systems. Yet without the right architecture, there can be significant challenges:
As the number of systems, and the volume and type of data being exchanged, increases, data integration becomes more complex; it takes longer to add in a new system, or swap an existing system, and the monitoring and support overhead increases;
Data for analytics and reporting can become more siloed – different systems being the master for different data – which means it takes considerable time, effort and cost to pool and consolidate the data and provide a complete picture without duplications and inconsistencies.
How a SODA addresses the IT and data challenges unique to omnichannel
Our Strategic Omnichannel Data Architecture recognises the need to orchestrate several applications and services, and implements a “data layer” at the heart of your tech ecosystem to address the data challenges.
There are four components to a SODA:
Integration Hub – this orchestrates the data flows, pulling data in from the various systems, and sharing that data as required with all other systems.
Data processing – data transformations ensure that all the data ingested from the various systems is de-duplicated, enriched and validated before being stored in the lakehouse; the tables and schema are designed specifically with omnichannel in mind, taking account of all the complexity that goes with it.
In short, the data processing results in curated, consistent and complete data in the data lakehouse.
Data Lakehouse – a hybrid data lake and data warehouse, the lakehouse becomes the central data repository, supporting both structured and unstructured data.
Analytics and reporting – the lakehouse provides the “single source of truth” with high-quality data sets in a consumable state against which all analysis and reporting can be done.
If you want to know more, check out our webpage Datitude's Strategic Omnichannel Data Architecture.
A refreshing retail data architecture - the benefits of a SODA
Our Strategic Omnichannel Data Architecture overcomes the challenges inherent in operating the fragmented tech ecosystem needed to deliver the best customer experience, and delivers many benefits to brands and retailers.
Simplifying and streamlining integrations – an agile and flexible architecture:
Moving from a spaghetti of multiple point-to-point integrations to a hub-and-spoke approach reduces significantly the number, and complexity of the interfaces needed. In turn, it’s easier to monitor, manage and support.
Future-proofing the tech ecosystem – a complete historical record:
Business needs change. Vendors come and go. Technology evolves.
An agnostic data layer means you can swap old for new, and introduce additional services or applications quickly and easily.
A complete historical record of all data from all systems means none of the difficulty of migrating data from one application to another. Having past history in an accessible and consistent format ensures the future of your IT strategy.
Putting data in the hands of those who need it – in the format they want, when they want it:
Having a “single source of truth” of curated and validated data means you can provide self-serve reports and analytics. There's no need for data analysts to juggle spreadsheets, crunch the numbers and fill in the gaps. The latest data is already there, and available on demand; complete, consistent and accurate.
Saving money – invest resources in higher value tasks:
A data layer comes at a cost. But that cost is invariably less than the cost of operating without a data layer – the time spent juggling spreadsheets, manual reporting, the risk of making poor decisions based on out-of-date or inconsistent or inaccurate data, the cost and inertia of legacy tech which is too engrained to change easily, siloed functions and data, the cost of employing people to deliver what could be self-service.
Deploy your choice of AI / ML tools – better data, better insights, better decisions:
The more comprehensive your data, and the longer your history, the more efficacious it will be as a model on which to train your AI or develop your ML tools, for the most accurate forecasts and insights.
Strategic Omnichannel Data Architecture: SODA as a Service from Datitude
Datitude implements SODAs for clients, from the initial design, implementation and integration to ongoing fully managed service: data orchestration, data processing and data storage.
Plus, Datitude’s app provides you with a comprehensive self-service suite of data access tools, and there’s an Excel add-in making it easy to slice, dice and extract data. And because the Datitude data layer is BI software-agnostic, it’s easy to plug in the BI tools of your choice (Power BI, Tableau etc).
It's a refreshing retail data architecture. Soda anyone?!?
About Datitude
We do data! Whatever your data needs, you can trust us to deliver.
Datitude is transforming how businesses connect, integrate, and unify their data. Our award-winning data platform and service provide the unifying framework to enable retailers and brands to get everything they need from their data. Data where it needs to be, on time, in the right format. A true single source of truth. No silos.
It's the managed data platform for modern commerce - proven to deliver and trusted equally by mighty retailers and fast-scaling brands who need better access to their data, and valuable intelligence and actionable insights they can rely on.