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Fixed Camera Technology
Episode 167th September 2022 • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast • Supply Chain LEAD Podcast
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Mike Graen sits down with industry Experts on Retail Fixed Camera Solutions and impact to the Retail industry including:

Suzy Monford – Focal Systems

Michael Unmüßig – SES-Imagotag

Derek Johnson – Invue Technologies

Transcripts

Mike Graen:

I am super excited to spend some time with you

Mike Graen:

today to talk about some technologies that are used in

Mike Graen:

retail today to drive on shelf availability reporting,

Mike Graen:

alerting, and resolution. We've talked about a lot of things.

Mike Graen:

We've talked about algorithms. We've talked about robotic

Mike Graen:

cameras that go up and down and shelf scanning robots that go up

Mike Graen:

and down the aisle and scan out of stocks. We've talked about

Mike Graen:

RFID. The next one we want to talk about is fixed cameras in

Mike Graen:

stores and on shelf availability sensors. Got three really good

Mike Graen:

guests, one from SES-Imagotag, one from InVue Corporation,

Mike Graen:

InVue technology and another one from Focal Systems. Let's listen

Mike Graen:

in to the podcasts that we have to talk about fixed camera and

Mike Graen:

sensors solutions.

Mike Graen:

Well, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Mike Graen. It is a

Mike Graen:

pleasure to have you on this on this Friday. We are continuing

Mike Graen:

our series on conversations in retail and the University of

Mike Graen:

Arkansas on on shelf availability. I'm joined with a

Mike Graen:

couple of three very, very interesting people who are in

Mike Graen:

the fixed camera and sensor space, and we'll get into

Mike Graen:

introducing them in just a second. But just just a couple

Mike Graen:

of housekeeping things. First off, we're going to we're going

Mike Graen:

to walk through this just introduce myself. I've been in

Mike Graen:

the retail supplier world for about 40 years, been with P&G,

Mike Graen:

Walmart, Collaboration LLC, I really have a strong passion for

Mike Graen:

on shelf availability. And I'm starting to hit the senior years

Mike Graen:

of my career, and I really want to give back to the industry

Mike Graen:

that's treated me so well, and I believe on shelf availability is

Mike Graen:

an incredibly important area. So I'm volunteering with

Mike Graen:

conversations in retail and the University of Arkansas and

Mike Graen:

really excited about what we're talking about here today for

Mike Graen:

sure. Just a couple of housekeeping rules. We're going

Mike Graen:

to keep this conversation very active, interactive with the

Mike Graen:

panelists, we're going to ask the the participants to stay on

Mike Graen:

the mute unless you have a question and a comment. And if

Mike Graen:

you do have a question or comment, please make sure use

Mike Graen:

the chat function to send those into us. And I'll make sure we

Mike Graen:

get those. I do have some prescripted questions that we

Mike Graen:

want to walk through, but we will have plenty of time at at

Mike Graen:

the end of every big portion of our discussion to cover any

Mike Graen:

questions you guys have. We're going to cover this based on

Mike Graen:

antitrust guidelines, we have three companies that could be

Mike Graen:

perceived as being direct competitors. So we're not here

Mike Graen:

to talk about things like prices and margins and discounts and

Mike Graen:

ROI or anything like that. We'll give you their contact

Mike Graen:

information. If you're interested in contacting with

Mike Graen:

them about any of these functions, we'd encourage you to

Mike Graen:

have those conversations offline for this. Okay. With that, I do

Mike Graen:

want to recognize two organizations which are

Mike Graen:

absolutely instrumental to help us get this put on. One is

Mike Graen:

Conversations on Retail our good met friend Matt Fifer owns that

Mike Graen:

company as an entrepreneur in the retail space, we'd encourage

Mike Graen:

you to look at conversations on in on retail, both on the

Mike Graen:

website as well as LinkedIn and consider becoming part of that.

Mike Graen:

A lot of different kinds of technology and a lot of

Mike Graen:

different areas like marketing and sales and things like that,

Mike Graen:

a lot of information about what's going on in the industry,

Mike Graen:

and obviously he's very passionate about on shelf

Mike Graen:

availability like I am. And the second is the University of

Mike Graen:

Arkansas, the Sam Walton College. The Sam Walton College

Mike Graen:

didn't get its name because of anything other than Sam Walton.

Mike Graen:

So for sure, they are very interested in the retail supply

Mike Graen:

chain, and you we're connected with the supply chain

Mike Graen:

department, which is now called the JB Hunt Supply Chain

Mike Graen:

Department. They just did a big grant with the JB Hunt

Mike Graen:

organization. So we would encourage you to get involved

Mike Graen:

with the outreach group, which is part of the University of

Mike Graen:

Arkansas in the supply chain center, and we can get you more

Mike Graen:

information on that as well. We're going to we're going to

Mike Graen:

briefly say that this is a continuing series we have looked

Mike Graen:

at algorithms as a way of being able to take algorithms and

Mike Graen:

calculate algorithms to produce OSA, that's already out there

Mike Graen:

saved on YouTube and LinkedIn if you're interested in that. We

Mike Graen:

are going to be talking about store audits in a few weeks

Mike Graen:

things like field agent and tracks etc. are going to be talk

Mike Graen:

about how to collect that data from an in store site

Mike Graen:

crowdsourcing. We've talked about shelf scanning robots,

Mike Graen:

like badger robot, zippity robot, Simbi robot, the brain

Mike Graen:

robot, those are all really good alternatives to be able to do

Mike Graen:

shelf scanning robots. We've talked about RFID. We've had a

Mike Graen:

whole presentation on radio frequency identification. And

Mike Graen:

now, there's two others that are very important one is we've got

Mike Graen:

a lot of companies doing online shopping, in stores, things like

Mike Graen:

Instacart, or individual retailers that are doing

Mike Graen:

shopping on behalf of customers and delivering it to their carts

Mike Graen:

or to their homes or to their, their cars, etc. That's another

Mike Graen:

source those no picks where I couldn't find a product, and I

Mike Graen:

have to indicate that are another good source of on shelf

Mike Graen:

availability information. But the one we're really excited to

Mike Graen:

talk about today is the fixed cameras space. And so we've got

Mike Graen:

three representatives here that we're just going to jump to that

Mike Graen:

that piece. There are three individual companies that either

Mike Graen:

have cameras or sensors that allow you to know if a products

Mike Graen:

on the shelf. Some of them tell you if they're low stock, some

Mike Graen:

of them tell you if they're plugged products, etc. So,

Mike Graen:

without any further ado, we're going to introduce, have them

Mike Graen:

introduce themselves. We're going to start out with Suzy

Mike Graen:

from Focal Systems. Suzy, would you like to go ahead and

Mike Graen:

introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Focal Systems.

Suzy Monford:

You bet Mike, thanks and I would be remiss,

Suzy Monford:

since this is on behalf of University of Arkansas, if I

Suzy Monford:

didn't say Hook em Horns, since I'm in Austin, and an avid

Suzy Monford:

Longhorn. It's the first time I've lived in Texas in the last

Suzy Monford:

15 years, so I'm feeling extra burnt orange so. But thanks,

Suzy Monford:

Mike, and we really appreciate being included. Suzy Monford,

Suzy Monford:

I've spent Gosh, 25, almost 30 years in the grocery industry

Suzy Monford:

and I sometimes say I feel like I've been the luckiest girl in

Suzy Monford:

grocery because I got to start my grocery career here in Texas

Suzy Monford:

with H-E-B Central Market division. Four or five years

Suzy Monford:

with them when they were nascent and growing and I got to help

Suzy Monford:

develop everything from run the business new technology to store

Suzy Monford:

design, then another five or six years with H-E-B writ large and

Suzy Monford:

more of the same. Since that time I've twice moved to

Suzy Monford:

Australia. I've worked for Kohl's, I've worked for

Suzy Monford:

Woolworths leading innovation, a lot of that tech enabled

Suzy Monford:

innovation. And then back here in the US, I've had opportunity

Suzy Monford:

to be CEO of beloved community grocers like Andronicos.

Suzy Monford:

Community markets in San Francisco Bay Area, have spent

Suzy Monford:

three years working for Kroger running a banner Pacific

Suzy Monford:

Northwest, being Group Vice President for Fresh, based in

Suzy Monford:

Cincy, being group vice president of E commerce. And

Suzy Monford:

I've been able to curate a really interesting experience

Suzy Monford:

across grocery operations and merchandising and technology and

Suzy Monford:

store innovations. And along the way, what's been, what's enabled

Suzy Monford:

me to be effective in my job and help grow and run companies, and

Suzy Monford:

equally turn companies around was really leaning into what's

Suzy Monford:

new, and what's next in technology. That's why I'm so

Suzy Monford:

thrilled to be with Focal Systems. I've been part of their

Suzy Monford:

journey since 2015. Did the first POC in San Francisco,

Suzy Monford:

brought them into Kroger and really happy to be working with

Suzy Monford:

them now. Thank you.

Mike Graen:

Wow that's awesome. And except for that Texas

Mike Graen:

comment, I agree with everything you said. Hey, Suzy, you also

Mike Graen:

had a one pager that you wanted to kind of describe a little bit

Mike Graen:

about the Focal System, I think that would help our audience

Mike Graen:

understand that a little bit. Why don't you go ahead and cover

Mike Graen:

that.

Suzy Monford:

Great, you want to move on to that. Awesome. So

Suzy Monford:

yeah, moving from left to right, this was kind of the elevator

Suzy Monford:

slide. Really, really simple. Because, uh, you know, I'm a

Suzy Monford:

grocer. I'm a merchant at heart. I'm an operator at heart, I like

Suzy Monford:

to keep things simple. We have best in class, fixed shelf

Suzy Monford:

camera, it's tiny. It's the size of my thumb. And we kind of talk

Suzy Monford:

about it as the single source of truth. These cameras are very

Suzy Monford:

fast to install, very inexpensive. You know, as soon

Suzy Monford:

as the iPhone got really good at, at cameras, you know, where

Suzy Monford:

that technology got much more affordable. So we have an

Suzy Monford:

incredibly powerful camera built into a very small, fixed shelf

Suzy Monford:

cam that runs for about three years on two double A batteries,

Suzy Monford:

we can install a whole aisle in about four minutes. We had some

Suzy Monford:

fun with it not not too long ago, we had a race who could

Suzy Monford:

install the fastest aisle. So from that single source of truth

Suzy Monford:

that camera, we measure out of stocks planogram non compliance,

Suzy Monford:

we measure when products are low, and when products have been

Suzy Monford:

restocked by the teammates who use something called an action

Suzy Monford:

tool out in the field. And so, and so what? Well, we use AI

Suzy Monford:

computer vision, we pull it through our deep learning model.

Suzy Monford:

We are a deep learning first company, and we have a stack, we

Suzy Monford:

automate hourly shelf scans, which as an operator, oh my

Suzy Monford:

gosh, you tell me I never have to scan loads and holes again.

Suzy Monford:

No more ones tons and nuns holy cow game over. And on top of

Suzy Monford:

that, we know precisely what time of day things have are in

Suzy Monford:

stock or when they're not in stock. So we can help promote

Suzy Monford:

things like on brand and what's on what's on the seasonal add or

Suzy Monford:

the end cap. So hourly automated shelf scan, automated

Suzy Monford:

prioritized replenishment, we actually let you put the

Suzy Monford:

customer at the center of everything you do, because you

Suzy Monford:

can now replenish based on what matters most first, and what

Suzy Monford:

matters most is what the customer wants. We do optimize

Suzy Monford:

labor from doing that, minimally, a two to 3x ROI just

Suzy Monford:

on the labor alone, we automate e-commerce. The number one

Suzy Monford:

reason people don't like e-commerce is because they get a

Suzy Monford:

substitution or they get just a hole in their order. We take

Suzy Monford:

care of all of that. And then last, but not certainly not

Suzy Monford:

least, near and dear to my merchandiser heart, adaptive

Suzy Monford:

plan and grabbing. When we know what runs out at certain times

Suzy Monford:

of day, we can help you localize your stores by saying, hey,

Suzy Monford:

instead of one facing of this product, why don't you expand it

Suzy Monford:

to two and go two cases to shelf or whatever the whatever the

Suzy Monford:

case may be. So that's it in a nutshell, incredible amount of

Suzy Monford:

AI, computer vision, and machine learning. But most importantly,

Suzy Monford:

our deep learning algorithm is informed by over now over

Suzy Monford:

100,000 cameras deployed around the world, over 2 billion images

Suzy Monford:

in our database, and we're learning and growing faster

Suzy Monford:

every day.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Thank you so much. I've got about five

Mike Graen:

questions, but I can't jump into this. We are definitely going to

Mike Graen:

have time for sure. So let's move on to Derek you at InVue,

Mike Graen:

you've got a solution that's a little bit different than that.

Derek Johnson:

Little bit different. Again, thanks, Mike

Derek Johnson:

for inviting me and again, the opportunity to sit on panel with

Derek Johnson:

these other distinguished solutions provider. Again, my

Derek Johnson:

name is Derek Johnson. I'm the Product Director for our sales

Derek Johnson:

enablement category. So within my responsibility, I manage

Derek Johnson:

three distinct product categories that provide retail

Derek Johnson:

solutions, primarily in security. But the category of

Derek Johnson:

interest that I'm actually going to talk about today is

Derek Johnson:

relatively new to us and its intelligence sensing. So InVues

Derek Johnson:

been around for 50 years, we've been a retail technology

Derek Johnson:

innovator, really providing a lot of solutions as it relates

Derek Johnson:

to retail security, operations as relates to key management and

Derek Johnson:

other associated activities within the store. But we've

Derek Johnson:

recently launched a new ecosystem that we call Live, and

Derek Johnson:

it's basically a connected ecosystem that allows for

Derek Johnson:

deployment of small sensors that give you much more data than you

Derek Johnson:

would see in the store. So now whether I'm inside the store or

Derek Johnson:

1000 miles away, I can get insights from individual

Derek Johnson:

sensors. And so this aids in not only security, but planogram

Derek Johnson:

compliance, and customer behavior insights. And so we

Derek Johnson:

look at what are some of the other pain points within the

Derek Johnson:

retail space besides just security or associate

Derek Johnson:

productivity that we can address with the solution. And that's

Derek Johnson:

how we came up with the idea to develop an OSA sensor. And so I

Derek Johnson:

have a video that I'll show in a second but basically the OSA

Derek Johnson:

sensor, my two colleagues are going to talk about front of

Derek Johnson:

shelf solutions. We are a back of shelf solution on not only

Derek Johnson:

shelves but also hanging merchandise. So very small

Derek Johnson:

connected IoT sensor that doesn't take pictures, it

Derek Johnson:

actually just scans and it's scanning for the presence of

Derek Johnson:

material in front of it. And so we can monitor what's available,

Derek Johnson:

what's out of stock with, and I'll show you this in a video,

Derek Johnson:

but what's available in terms of low stock as well. So, Mike, go

Derek Johnson:

ahead and run that video and it'll explain a little bit more

Derek Johnson:

about the OSA solution.

Mike Graen:

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and play it with a caveat

Mike Graen:

that once we jumped on the zoom the other videos I was playing

Mike Graen:

were a little choppy but we'll give this one a shot.

InVue Video:

InVue's OSA sensor works with Live to accurately

InVue Video:

track the availability of most valuable SKUs and deliver alerts

InVue Video:

when shelves are empty so that you never miss a sale. Each

InVue Video:

sensor can be instantly added to existing shelves or hanging

InVue Video:

fixtures within seconds. Direct visibility of on shelf status

InVue Video:

gives associates the information to quickly stock merchandise and

InVue Video:

ensure your shoppers have access to the products they need. OSA

InVue Video:

sensor accurately monitors the product assigned to each space

InVue Video:

and sends a notification through the Live app to make associates

InVue Video:

aware that a product needs to be restocked. When used with a

InVue Video:

dispenser or pusher OSA sensor can also recognize when a

InVue Video:

position is low, so you can restock before merchandise is

InVue Video:

unavailable. All data is captured via Live software,

InVue Video:

allowing retailers or brands to evaluate out of stock trends

InVue Video:

across stores and implement strategies to improve sales.

Derek Johnson:

Thanks Mike. So as you can see, similar to the

Derek Johnson:

fixed camera solutions were battery operated so really quick

Derek Johnson:

and easy to deploy. One thing that we found in terms of how

Derek Johnson:

people see this and where they find value in the ability to

Derek Johnson:

deploy this very quickly, only on the products that really make

Derek Johnson:

sense. And now when I say sensor is not going to make sense for

Derek Johnson:

every single product in the store, but on certain categories

Derek Johnson:

in certain areas within the store really makes a lot of

Derek Johnson:

sense. And just the, the stream of data that it can collect is

Derek Johnson:

really driving a lot of value. So really excited to talk more

Derek Johnson:

about that. Thanks, Mike.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Thank you, Derek. Appreciate it very much.

Mike Graen:

Michael. Michael gets the he gets extra credit, because he's

Mike Graen:

actually calling in from vacation PTO. So Michael, tell

Mike Graen:

us a little bit about yourself. And then SES-Imagotag.

Michael Unmussig:

Yeah, let me thank you very much for the

Michael Unmussig:

introduction. Let me start with with a small, more small

Michael Unmussig:

introduction of myself and the company. We are since could give

Michael Unmussig:

me allow me to share. So I will start here with this. Perfect.

Michael Unmussig:

That's. So let's start. I'm working for a company called

Michael Unmussig:

SES-Imagotag, which is yet by far the largest manufacturer of

Michael Unmussig:

electronic shelf labels and IUC devices for the retailer in the

Michael Unmussig:

world. So typically, if we are growing by around 20 to 25%

Michael Unmussig:

annually, and reach the last year, just about 400 million of

Michael Unmussig:

revenue growing extremely fast, having a big footprint now in

Michael Unmussig:

the US as well. And having also very large stakeholders in the

Michael Unmussig:

crew with Qualcomm from the bay, are eating as the inventor

Michael Unmussig:

startup. It's also fair to say startup, as a part of the MIT in

Michael Unmussig:

Boston invented the electronic, you pay for solutions. So we are

Michael Unmussig:

stockless, the company in France, working together with

Michael Unmussig:

the largest retailers in the world having 15 offices

Michael Unmussig:

globally, three manufacturing plants and more than 120 people

Michael Unmussig:

in total R&D. We're working together with the leading

Michael Unmussig:

retailer 350 leading retailers globally, including various

Michael Unmussig:

teams, one or two very famous one in the US just Walmart

Michael Unmussig:

announced to work together with us in terms of digitalising the

Michael Unmussig:

shelf as well as cold Scroop using our IoT technology to

Michael Unmussig:

really help to make the digital journey or leverage the digital.

Michael Unmussig:

So what do we do? So it's not just it's a bit of a merge of

Michael Unmussig:

what my what what Susie and Derek is that the primary

Michael Unmussig:

product is an electronic shelf labels. And especially in this

Michael Unmussig:

time, where we where we see that the price is changing very

Michael Unmussig:

often, this is a very helpful tool. And we combine this tool,

Michael Unmussig:

the electronic shelf labels with new sensors. And this new

Michael Unmussig:

product is the camera you see here, it's an amazing product,

Michael Unmussig:

you just click it on the shelf, it immediately recognizes the

Michael Unmussig:

product on the other side of the aisle have a motion sensor into

Michael Unmussig:

it. And immediately recognize that out of shelf products are

Michael Unmussig:

recognizing this base product planogram, and so on and

Michael Unmussig:

compares it and prints this and transform this data into

Michael Unmussig:

structured data. That's one of the pictures from the latest

Michael Unmussig:

deployment we have in France for an example, where we just

Michael Unmussig:

installed this camera and it's just amazing, we install every

Michael Unmussig:

day in a store 100 to 120 cameras. And it's even not

Michael Unmussig:

necessary that we have our own employees there the technology,

Michael Unmussig:

it's so simple, that even their associates in the store are able

Michael Unmussig:

to install this kind of cameras with a battery life of up to one

Michael Unmussig:

year. And it's really incredible. But that's not

Michael Unmussig:

sufficient. That's not enough, because we have realized that

Michael Unmussig:

the camera can only see it to the picture. So what we have,

Michael Unmussig:

what we did is we used our 30 years experience in building

Michael Unmussig:

ultra low power IoT devices and merge them together with

Michael Unmussig:

inventory sensors. So we use the sensor and see that a product is

Michael Unmussig:

out of shelf, but we combine it with a time of flight sensor so

Michael Unmussig:

that we really can predict when is a product out of shelves so

Michael Unmussig:

that the associate can be there before product is out shelf, we

Michael Unmussig:

use the camera for the planogram compliance, we use the inventory

Michael Unmussig:

sensor if necessary for the high volume products to predict out

Michael Unmussig:

of shelf and we use the electronic shelf labels to adapt

Michael Unmussig:

the pricing and being always the ones and having a single

Michael Unmussig:

product, a single cloud, a single IoT management system

Michael Unmussig:

which combines all these three technologies. The impressive

Michael Unmussig:

thing on it and that's the our history is that we not just have

Michael Unmussig:

IoT sensors. We are CV and AI companies since we have started

Michael Unmussig:

30 years ago and we are working together with leading partners

Michael Unmussig:

so just having as a bag as a core system working since years

Michael Unmussig:

together with SAP with Microsoft in terms of planogram comparison

Michael Unmussig:

with Blue Yonder Panasonic globally in Japan in US and

Michael Unmussig:

Europe as well as relax and managing the camera network

Michael Unmussig:

together with our global partners is the extreme

Michael Unmussig:

networks. It's Cisco Meraki, Aruba, Lancome Huawei, they are

Michael Unmussig:

the global partner network. And that's what we do with our fixed

Michael Unmussig:

camera business. So thanks for giving me the time put in

Michael Unmussig:

production, and back to you, Michael.

Mike Graen:

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Mike Graen:

So so we got, we have some questions already, from the

Mike Graen:

folks who have joined us, but I've got some setup ones. And

Mike Graen:

Suzy, we're going to start with you, and you've got a extremely

Mike Graen:

interesting background with a lot of experience in retail

Mike Graen:

running retail operations doing merchandising and retail. Now

Mike Graen:

you're on the technology side providing solutions to the

Mike Graen:

people that they used to be. So obviously the first question is,

Mike Graen:

what's the business driver here? You mentioned some of it in your

Mike Graen:

kickoff, but we'd love to double tick click a little bit why why

Mike Graen:

is suddenly these solutions have to be in place? What are the

Mike Graen:

challenges that retailers are seeing in and what's the

Mike Graen:

business challenges?

Suzy Monford:

It's all I gotta just maybe say that it's a

Suzy Monford:

people centric solution. Retailers very much desperately

Suzy Monford:

need to put the customer at the center of everything that they

Suzy Monford:

do. So they can differentiate themselves, so they can maintain

Suzy Monford:

and grow market share. So to do that, you have to take care of

Suzy Monford:

the other set of people that you employ, which is your employees.

Suzy Monford:

And right now, we are in a decri world we live in in a day of

Suzy Monford:

labor crisis, we don't have enough humans. And so to think

Suzy Monford:

that we can continue to run and stand up businesses that can

Suzy Monford:

survive and thrive and invest labor in what I consider to be

Suzy Monford:

non value added tasks like the manual walk around the store to

Suzy Monford:

do scanning of lows and old. There's no value add there.

Suzy Monford:

There's not one customer that shops, you know, that shops at

Suzy Monford:

Kroger stores, there's no I shop Kroger, because I see them

Suzy Monford:

scanning lows and holes. So we've got to deinvest non value

Suzy Monford:

added labor, and automate and optimize the store. So our

Suzy Monford:

entire point of view is we're going to digitize the store, so

Suzy Monford:

that we can put smart OODA Loops into how we run our business,

Suzy Monford:

observe orient decide act. We've got cars that can drive

Suzy Monford:

themselves that automate basic fundamental decisions, we want

Suzy Monford:

to do the same thing inside our store, so that retailers and

Suzy Monford:

merchants can invest that labor into being smart merchants

Suzy Monford:

building and writing better ad seasonal promotions, getting

Suzy Monford:

behind their own brands, having labor to invest in customer

Suzy Monford:

experience, customer service, dedicating labor and teams to

Suzy Monford:

digital e commerce, because we're not just you know, a store

Suzy Monford:

is not just a brick and mortar store. It's also an online micro

Suzy Monford:

fulfillment center. So there are many things and many places to

Suzy Monford:

invest in the go to market strategy to invest that labor

Suzy Monford:

in. It's certainly not in the manual tasks. So then we need to

Suzy Monford:

make running stores easier, faster, we need to be able to

Suzy Monford:

have speed to market when we hire a new employee, get them to

Suzy Monford:

become highly effective very quickly, with smart tools in

Suzy Monford:

their hand that helped them know what to do, what the customer

Suzy Monford:

values most getting that product to shelf getting the most

Suzy Monford:

important products to shelf in real time. So the the nuts and

Suzy Monford:

bolts answer is we need to upskill labor, we need more

Suzy Monford:

labor, we need technology to scale our human labor. And

Suzy Monford:

that's the reason that retailers of all types, not just grocers,

Suzy Monford:

are reaching toward AI computer vision for their solutions.

Mike Graen:

Wow, that's a great summary of the problem that

Mike Graen:

we've got for sure. Michael, adoption, you mentioned adoption

Mike Graen:

in your kind of opening discussion of your solution.

Mike Graen:

Clearly adoption is expanding in your space. Do you think some of

Mike Graen:

the reasons that Suzy just mentioned are the reasons for

Mike Graen:

that adoption or what are some of the driving factors for

Mike Graen:

adoption of this tech?

Michael Unmussig:

We see several things the first of all there

Michael Unmussig:

was it started with a bit of a war between the E commerce and

Michael Unmussig:

retail already 10, 15 years ago. So it's not new but it's

Michael Unmussig:

accelerated and what we see I'm working for 30 years in the IT

Michael Unmussig:

industry I never have seen that an industry like like retail

Michael Unmussig:

it's so evolving, right like right now. So there is a

Michael Unmussig:

shortage of personnel or associates that's one thing or

Michael Unmussig:

the other thing is are there are new expectations from the

Michael Unmussig:

shoppers as well. We have a new generation of shoppers which is

Michael Unmussig:

used especially in a pandemic to buy online and they are looking

Michael Unmussig:

now for a new experience in store and what they hate what

Michael Unmussig:

everyone hate is the lane at the checkout and what everyone hate

Michael Unmussig:

is have no product availability when it comes to shopping in

Michael Unmussig:

store. So that's one thing. On the other thing we see, in all

Michael Unmussig:

the countries we work and it's more than 60 that we have this

Michael Unmussig:

labor shortage, this labor shortage is new in the past, we

Michael Unmussig:

was fighting very hard with our ESL to find the right sort of

Michael Unmussig:

cost of ownership, the return on investment. Now we are there and

Michael Unmussig:

our our customers, our retailer said, Is it all? Or do you have

Michael Unmussig:

more? And we said, Yes, we have more, it's not just that you can

Michael Unmussig:

do automatic pricing, you now see the shelf, we are talking

Michael Unmussig:

about a digital shelf, which that if a product is lower, not

Michael Unmussig:

available, we give this information to ecommerce to

Michael Unmussig:

omnichannel. If it's low, we change the price and give a

Michael Unmussig:

recommendation on the price. So many things are doable now with

Michael Unmussig:

this technology when you have a single platform backbone in the

Michael Unmussig:

in the center of your writing. And that's what we that's what

Michael Unmussig:

we see definitely in all of the 50,000 stores we have equipped

Michael Unmussig:

with our technology.

Mike Graen:

Okay, great. Well, Derek, question for you. And

Mike Graen:

then we've got a couple questions that are coming in.

Mike Graen:

And just a reminder, if you do have questions, feel free to put

Mike Graen:

them in the chat. And I'll I'll throw them to the panelists here

Mike Graen:

after each section. What do you think the future is Derek? I

Mike Graen:

mean, it seems like it's fixed cameras and sensors have sorta

Mike Graen:

coming on fairly quickly over the last several years. I'm

Mike Graen:

assuming the the future is bright for this kind of thing.

Mike Graen:

But talk to us a little bit about what you and InVue think

Mike Graen:

about the future.

Derek Johnson:

Yeah, I think it is. And it's because of all the

Derek Johnson:

business drivers that Suzy talked about. You know, when I

Derek Johnson:

look high level, we're using sensors and cameras more than

Derek Johnson:

any other time, if you think about all of our vehicles have

Derek Johnson:

tons of cameras and sensors, our homes, cameras and sensors. And

Derek Johnson:

now in the retail space, you're seeing a need and and again, for

Derek Johnson:

those business drivers that Suzy mentioned, the need to

Derek Johnson:

supplement and sometimes replace, very hard to get very

Derek Johnson:

expensive, sometimes labor activity. So now, as the

Derek Johnson:

technology continues to evolve, I think it's going to push all

Derek Johnson:

of us as solutions providers to innovate even more, you know I

Derek Johnson:

think about it in terms of 3d printing, you know, 15 years

Derek Johnson:

ago, 3d printing was novel. And I remember our CEO at the time,

Derek Johnson:

the company I worked for saying, you know, in 10 years time,

Derek Johnson:

we're gonna have a 3d printer in everybody's house. Well, we're

Derek Johnson:

not quite there, yet, but you probably have them if all of us

Derek Johnson:

have kids, probably somewhere in your kids school there's a 3d

Derek Johnson:

printer somewhere. And I can see a day where there are connected

Derek Johnson:

cameras front facing for planogram compliance and plugged

Derek Johnson:

and in rear facing sensors, working together to provide

Derek Johnson:

richer and richer data. I think as the technology improves, as

Derek Johnson:

cameras get better, as sensors get more com, more complex and,

Derek Johnson:

and sophisticated, I think there's going to be a higher

Derek Johnson:

need for better data management, because now you've got all this

Derek Johnson:

rich data being gathered, what do you do with it? How quickly

Derek Johnson:

can you deploy that to a person who one needs to make a decision

Derek Johnson:

and then two another person who actually needs to do something

Derek Johnson:

about it, but I can see all of those things rising and

Derek Johnson:

improving together, and not in a long time. I think we're you

Derek Johnson:

know, I think it'll continue to improve, you know, five years

Derek Johnson:

from now we'll be having another seminar and all of us will have

Derek Johnson:

even better and more sophisticated solutions to talk

Derek Johnson:

about.

Mike Graen:

Great, thank you, Derek, super. So if I'm a

Mike Graen:

retailer out there, or brand owner, either one, depending on

Mike Graen:

who I talk to, I get a different response. The people who have

Mike Graen:

robots think robots are the future, the robots that scan the

Mike Graen:

shelf, the folks who are out there, and we've had them on

Mike Graen:

this, this this podcast before and they they make a very

Mike Graen:

compelling argument, why a shelf scanning robot can provide you

Mike Graen:

the level of outs and alerts and pricing that you can't get

Mike Graen:

anywhere else. We've also had people on who've produced the

Mike Graen:

algorithms, those algorithms are used to say, hey, we don't think

Mike Graen:

this is selling as much as we should be. So we think there's

Mike Graen:

an out of stock, go check it. We've also had a panelist on

Mike Graen:

RFID, you get the point. There's other competing solutions out

Mike Graen:

there. So as we think through fixed cameras and sensors, how

Mike Graen:

do you make and articulate do they work with these other

Mike Graen:

technologies? Do you, do you and what are the advantages that you

Mike Graen:

see for the fixed cameras and sensors? And I'll just kick this

Mike Graen:

open to any of the panelists who would like to ask to answer this

Mike Graen:

one.

Derek Johnson:

So you know, and Mike we talked a little bit

Derek Johnson:

about this, but I think it's important for all of us, and I'm

Derek Johnson:

sure we're all very articulate in doing so understanding what

Derek Johnson:

our technologies can do really, really well, but also

Derek Johnson:

understanding what we can't do. I think, as we look and I've had

Derek Johnson:

the pleasure of sitting in on I think all of those seminars, I

Derek Johnson:

learned a lot really, really informative seminars, but what

Derek Johnson:

I'm learning is that, you know, as a solutions provider, you

Derek Johnson:

really need to understand that it's probably unlikely that one

Derek Johnson:

solution is going to solve every single problem. But how can my

Derek Johnson:

solution meet a specific need, possibly in either a niche

Derek Johnson:

vertical or even if specific is a niche product category, how

Derek Johnson:

can I draw value for that product category? And I think as

Derek Johnson:

a solutions provider, if you can identify that and really craft

Derek Johnson:

your solution to meet that need, then that's what that's what you

Derek Johnson:

chase. That's what you go after. I think trying to trying to

Derek Johnson:

swallow the ocean ends up choking you and you ended up not

Derek Johnson:

being able to provide really the value that you want to, to your

Derek Johnson:

to your customers.

Mike Graen:

Okay

Suzy Monford:

I would piggyback on Derek with what you're

Suzy Monford:

saying. And you're spot on. I mean, one of my roles with

Suzy Monford:

Kroger as Group Vice President of E commerce and Randy Ocado

Suzy Monford:

sheds, and the Ocado fulfillment and that's an Ocado fulfillment

Suzy Monford:

centers is a part is the probably perfect example, for

Suzy Monford:

the use of robotics in in retail and food retailing. In a mere

Suzy Monford:

seconds, a hive of robots can pick an entire order in mere

Suzy Monford:

seconds. When you come to the retail consumer facing, we want

Suzy Monford:

to drive more products and the right product to the right shelf

Suzy Monford:

at the right time of day when the customers want them.

Suzy Monford:

Therefore, we need more data. Robots generally do one scan a

Suzy Monford:

day. And that's it, they don't run anybody over and there's

Suzy Monford:

nobody blocking the view and that the thing is even working.

Suzy Monford:

And I get it, I love robots, I saw the Jetsons as a kid. So

Suzy Monford:

it's super cool. We believe in fixed shelf cameras, because

Suzy Monford:

they never call in sick they are never late. Ours wake up one

Suzy Monford:

time an hour or more frequently, you could have an image every

Suzy Monford:

five minutes if you wanted. It's about the amount of compute that

Suzy Monford:

you need and what the data that you need. So we find that

Suzy Monford:

investing in AI, computer vision via the fixed shelf cam, the

Suzy Monford:

most efficient, the most scalable, the most affordable,

Suzy Monford:

and the most reliable for real data in real time. RF, RFID. I

Suzy Monford:

love it. I sort of love it hate it, because I can pay for

Suzy Monford:

something with the click of my iPhone. So sometimes my checking

Suzy Monford:

account may not love it. That's where RFID works at a at a at a

Suzy Monford:

Payment Center, AKA your credit card swipe machine. But RFID in

Suzy Monford:

grocery store, it doesn't work. You know, we sell things that

Suzy Monford:

come in cans, and it doesn't read through the metal. And it's

Suzy Monford:

really expensive. So again, the most efficient, sustainable,

Suzy Monford:

ecological, and data rich version solution we found is the

Suzy Monford:

fixed shelf cam.

Mike Graen:

Yep, and I just summarized for a couple of

Mike Graen:

reasons. Number one is you're scanning it as frequently as you

Mike Graen:

need to to see if the in store conditions are right, to your

Mike Graen:

point versus a robot that's literally going through the

Mike Graen:

aisles.

Suzy Monford:

One time a day.

Mike Graen:

And I think the other challenge of a robot if we

Mike Graen:

can just be transparent, is that's just more stuff in the

Mike Graen:

aisle that creates shopping frustration for those people who

Mike Graen:

are in the aisle with their grocery carts. And now I've got

Mike Graen:

a navigate this robot going around. I think those are

Mike Graen:

disadvantages, and there are some advantages as well. But

Mike Graen:

there are some certainly some disadvantages, Michael, you were

Mike Graen:

gonna say something

Michael Unmussig:

I think we should leave the decision to, to

Michael Unmussig:

the retailers. And we have seen in the technology that there is

Michael Unmussig:

not a single route to success. So what would we learn there,

Michael Unmussig:

there are multiple routes to success. Therefore we develop

Michael Unmussig:

and that's that that's our philosophy, we developed the

Michael Unmussig:

fusion cloud platform where we connect the robots, the RFID

Michael Unmussig:

sensors all together and merge it to a sensor fusion, of

Michael Unmussig:

course, and I'm agreeing with Suzy, we also see that the

Michael Unmussig:

camera is the best solution because at the end, it's it's

Michael Unmussig:

cheaper versus when you see the maintenance cost running a

Michael Unmussig:

robot. It's much easier to install a camera replace the

Michael Unmussig:

camera when a defect then to try to find robot specialists in all

Michael Unmussig:

over the US. That's that's a tough job. And if you see the

Michael Unmussig:

shortage, not talking about the shortage in shopper in retail

Michael Unmussig:

associates, I'm talking about a shortage of IT specialists and

Michael Unmussig:

IT specialists for robots. It's tough to find everywhere in the

Michael Unmussig:

world. So that's why I say just replacing a camera on a shelf,

Michael Unmussig:

just the kid can do it. And so that's why I said it's just from

Michael Unmussig:

a maintenance perspective, the better solution. But of course,

Michael Unmussig:

if someone and we see it in Europe have invested in robots

Michael Unmussig:

and they're heavily invested investment and profits. I've

Michael Unmussig:

seen your your webcast as well. There are rollouts and if

Michael Unmussig:

shoppers and retailers decide for it, just include it to our

Michael Unmussig:

fusion platform, and we work on it. But I like to work from

Michael Unmussig:

Suzy, it's a better choice to go with cameras.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. So we have a we have a question from the

Mike Graen:

audience, which I think is pretty good one and I will

Mike Graen:

summarize it by saying this solution that you're putting in

Mike Graen:

is not necessarily a technology solution. It's a change

Mike Graen:

management solution. Because here's the question, how do you

Mike Graen:

provide, How do you get the retailer to engage and actually

Mike Graen:

use the data that you provide? We find that there are retailers

Mike Graen:

that know that they're out of stock, but they don't place

Mike Graen:

purchase orders to restock the inventory. So you're giving an

Mike Graen:

alert a solution that says hey, we have an issue here. but it's

Mike Graen:

really a change management to get that to the right people.

Mike Graen:

Who are the people that actually address these alerts in the

Mike Graen:

store? And how do you work at this as a change management

Mike Graen:

project?

Suzy Monford:

I'm happy to take a go and then maybe let my

Suzy Monford:

teammates equally weigh in. Yeah, I love that question,

Suzy Monford:

because it's acknowledging that this requires a paradigm shift,

Suzy Monford:

a culture shift. And again, we've all approached this, I

Suzy Monford:

know in our solutions, and Focal, we again, we work to put

Suzy Monford:

people at the center of what we're doing, whether it's the

Suzy Monford:

customer, but inside the store, it's the associates, it's the

Suzy Monford:

teammates that run the store. So through our operating system,

Suzy Monford:

we've got something called the action tool, which is an app

Suzy Monford:

that you can run on a UNFI device, or moreover, it's a

Suzy Monford:

zebra handheld that we use. And it directs the the associate, to

Suzy Monford:

do all of the restocking replenishment task in sort of a

Suzy Monford:

gamified fashion, that gives them instant positive feedback,

Suzy Monford:

it's a positive feedback loop. And it helps them they no longer

Suzy Monford:

are, they hunt, hunting, for the product in the back of the house

Suzy Monford:

that they need to replenish. Because we've got cameras in the

Suzy Monford:

back of house and on the floor and top stock, we guide them to

Suzy Monford:

that we help them prioritize their work, we give them tools

Suzy Monford:

to give feedback. So that's one way that we work to create

Suzy Monford:

change is we enable the associate, to do their highest

Suzy Monford:

and best work fast and efficiently. So much so to the

Suzy Monford:

fact that some of our customers, we've literally had employees

Suzy Monford:

say, oh my gosh, if you ever take this technology out of this

Suzy Monford:

store, I want to, I'm gonna, I'm gonna quit or I'm never gonna

Suzy Monford:

leave this store, because I love this store, because it's got

Suzy Monford:

Focal. And we're getting that positive feedback from our

Suzy Monford:

customers around the world, particularly with Walmart, with

Suzy Monford:

whom we work in a in a massive rollout as I speak, in Canada,

Suzy Monford:

for instance. So it's the workers and the teammates in the

Suzy Monford:

stores, we find if we can create cultural change there, then that

Suzy Monford:

goes upward to the category managers to the store leaders.

Suzy Monford:

So it's not just corporate office down, it's not just the

Suzy Monford:

chief merchant chief operators CIO, we build from the ground up

Suzy Monford:

really fun, fast, easy to use tools. That's how we're

Suzy Monford:

affecting change along that paradigm curve.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Derek, Michael, any other builds on

Mike Graen:

that.

Derek Johnson:

Yeah, similarly, understanding who those people

Derek Johnson:

are that that, that really care about this, you know, you're

Derek Johnson:

right, some to the question asker, some retailers will say,

Derek Johnson:

Yes, I know I have a problem, just don't want to fix it right

Derek Johnson:

now, that's gonna be a hard sell either way. But finding and

Derek Johnson:

identifying retailers that one, they may not already and we

Derek Johnson:

found success with smaller retailers that may not have a

Derek Johnson:

really robust OSA system already or they may rely just on manual

Derek Johnson:

audits, they are prime for for being introduced to some simple

Derek Johnson:

tech that they can deploy, again, at a single product

Derek Johnson:

category, or maybe a small grouping of products that are

Derek Johnson:

immediately gonna give them information, our sensors scan

Derek Johnson:

every five minutes. Now, you don't you only get a you only

Derek Johnson:

get an alert when you see an out of stock or in the case of low

Derek Johnson:

stock. So they can either choose to act immediately or that

Derek Johnson:

collection of out of stocks and low stocks can be presented to

Derek Johnson:

them in a really quick report. And so we have different ways

Derek Johnson:

that they can respond. But I think point one is really

Derek Johnson:

understanding that retailers pain points today, what they do

Derek Johnson:

today, how they manage it today, and looking for opportunities to

Derek Johnson:

introduce tech that's actually going to save somebody money,

Derek Johnson:

make the company more, save somebody's time and make the

Derek Johnson:

company more money. I will admit there are a lot of retailers

Derek Johnson:

that are just okay with their their chaos and or their

Derek Johnson:

homegrown OSA system that may not have a problem. But I think

Derek Johnson:

identifying the retailers that have those clear pain points is

Derek Johnson:

step number one really got to get in front of the right

Derek Johnson:

people.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. I had a I'm sorry, go ahead.

Michael Unmussig:

I have I have I think we need to differentiate

Michael Unmussig:

we have a tier one and tier two and tier three retailer

Michael Unmussig:

globally. So there is not a single answer. Having changed

Michael Unmussig:

management means we change things. If you don't, if you do

Michael Unmussig:

not, if there is no need to change things because they are

Michael Unmussig:

that much integrated into like SAP for an example, we have a

Michael Unmussig:

worldwide partnership with SAP. So when we talk about computer

Michael Unmussig:

added ordering, we have our interface between our system and

Michael Unmussig:

SAP. So there is not that much of change management and the

Michael Unmussig:

other thing is to change people's mindset. It's a lot

Michael Unmussig:

about to convince them that we not destroy their job because

Michael Unmussig:

they have fear because there is a camera which creates fear it

Michael Unmussig:

could destroy the job of course we are now in a in a job

Michael Unmussig:

project. But in the long run we will see that will change. So

Michael Unmussig:

change management means we need to convince the folks the SSA

Michael Unmussig:

and therefore we started to have an on and that's our way to do

Michael Unmussig:

we have an on consulting part of it. We're globally where we

Michael Unmussig:

really have consultants, from other consulting companies,

Michael Unmussig:

which are used to train people, their associates the management,

Michael Unmussig:

how to use this technology, because it's completely new.

Michael Unmussig:

They're excited, right? We are used to work with or we are used

Michael Unmussig:

to try for Tesla with a lot of cameras, or Mercedes or Porsche

Michael Unmussig:

or whatever, but we don't feel the camera, we don't see the

Michael Unmussig:

camera. That's a bit different. If you look to the cameras,

Michael Unmussig:

focal installer, we install, you see that, and you get the fear

Michael Unmussig:

on it. So change management is not just convincing them for a

Michael Unmussig:

new way to work, but also to convincing them that it's not an

Michael Unmussig:

enemy, it's a friend, because it helps. That's the thing we need

Michael Unmussig:

to do. And I think that's that that's the important thing on a

Michael Unmussig:

on a change management perspective to to go about this

Michael Unmussig:

approach.

Mike Graen:

Awesome

Suzy Monford:

Mike, can I just say one thing I just want to

Suzy Monford:

build on what Michael said real quick, Michael 100% in

Suzy Monford:

alignment. I just wanted to throw out this notion because

Suzy Monford:

whomever wrote the question, if it's helpful, similarly, you

Suzy Monford:

know, at Focal, yes, we're a SAS company. But we do we lean in a

Suzy Monford:

lot to thought leadership. And being a very, our mission is to

Suzy Monford:

be the best consultant and partner we can be. So along that

Suzy Monford:

line, I would invite any retailer out there listening, if

Suzy Monford:

you need some help, and you want to talk about AI, computer

Suzy Monford:

vision, not that doesn't have to be centered on Focal, but how

Suzy Monford:

you enact change management, just reach out, we're happy to

Suzy Monford:

chat to you because, and here's why. What I'm really afraid of

Suzy Monford:

and I've started speaking, speaking out to grocers, is

Suzy Monford:

right, now we've got such a supply chain issue, right? It

Suzy Monford:

used to be that as a retailer, we would we would drive and

Suzy Monford:

incentivize a minimum of 97 and a half to 98% OSA from our

Suzy Monford:

supplier, so from our suppliers, that's where penalties would

Suzy Monford:

kick in. But now living in a supply chain crisis, we've got

Suzy Monford:

suppliers who are under the pump, and then retailers who are

Suzy Monford:

increasingly growing accustomed to 7, 9, 12, 15% out of stocks

Suzy Monford:

day after day after day, so much so that they have stopped doing

Suzy Monford:

some of the daily disciplines like scanning lows and holes.

Suzy Monford:

And you've got to do that if you don't have aI computer vision

Suzy Monford:

because then you don't know. And what happens is you are it's a

Suzy Monford:

slippery slope and it goes very quickly to the bottom. So I'll

Suzy Monford:

put a point there, but change management starts with don't be

Suzy Monford:

afraid of the data. I think Michael, you said that. Derek,

Suzy Monford:

you touched on that too. Don't be afraid of the data. Collect

Suzy Monford:

the data anyway you can. And there are consultative companies

Suzy Monford:

like likely all three of us that are here to help you learn how

Suzy Monford:

to lean in and action that data.

Mike Graen:

Wow. That's That's huge. That's huge. And the

Mike Graen:

follow up question I think I've got from that from the from the

Mike Graen:

chat that just came through, is I don't think the retailer is

Mike Graen:

the only customer of this data. When we think about this, there

Mike Graen:

are brand owners to your point Suzy Hey, I'm shipping 98% on

Mike Graen:

time and in full into your store but your stuffs not making it to

Mike Graen:

my shelves and my shelves don't look right can we provide

Mike Graen:

because the brand owners the CPG companies can the merchandisers,

Mike Graen:

the Acosta's the Cross Marks, etc. Could they be looped into

Mike Graen:

this connectivity that says, hey, we may not be able to get

Mike Graen:

to every alert from a retail perspective. Can the brand

Mike Graen:

owners and the merchandisers, can the direct store delivery

Mike Graen:

people? Because they're responsible for delivering

Mike Graen:

product without really the stores engagement other than

Mike Graen:

approval, etcetera. Can the direct store delivery folks use

Mike Graen:

your sensors? Again, it broadens the scope of this technology

Mike Graen:

outside just the retailer. But for any of you just talk a

Mike Graen:

little bit, because what they're asking is, isn't this something

Mike Graen:

that's broader than the retailer? And I think it in fact

Mike Graen:

is.

Derek Johnson:

Yeah, and you mentioned all three entities,

Derek Johnson:

the brand, the merchandising companies that they work with,

Derek Johnson:

and ultimately, the retailer. Now, it's really important that

Derek Johnson:

all three of them are willing to play because the retailer they

Derek Johnson:

are selling the product, but they have to get permission to

Derek Johnson:

install that camera to install that sensor, they have to be

Derek Johnson:

fully bought in and understand the value that it's going to

Derek Johnson:

bring. One interesting discussion that we've had with

Derek Johnson:

some brands is understanding performance, where certain

Derek Johnson:

things perform you know whether they've gotten the same product

Derek Johnson:

deployed on an end cap, and also their normal modular. If they're

Derek Johnson:

just looking at point of sale data, they can only see oh, well

Derek Johnson:

we sold this number of items. But now if you've got whether

Derek Johnson:

it's a fixed camera, or a sensor that can not only detect outs,

Derek Johnson:

but it can also detect lows, now you can get a better

Derek Johnson:

understanding of well maybe that incap performed a lot better

Derek Johnson:

than I expected or maybe it was a doll and maybe I'm not going

Derek Johnson:

to pay for that face next time because I'm getting better

Derek Johnson:

business in my my modular. So there's definitely I think value

Derek Johnson:

for both the brands, the merchandising companies they've

Derek Johnson:

worked with and then ultimately the the retailer.

Suzy Monford:

Yeah, I think you're, you're 100% correct. I

Suzy Monford:

mean, in terms of Focal, we don't monetize our data. We

Suzy Monford:

that's up to the retailer. If the retailer wants to monetize

Suzy Monford:

the and commercialize that data, great, good on them. No, no, no

Suzy Monford:

worries there. CPG, we get tremendous amount of reach out

Suzy Monford:

from CPG. And not just CPG. But also third party providers, the

Suzy Monford:

folks that are enabling e commerce delivery or click and

Suzy Monford:

collect and pickup. So Focal, you know, we want to be the

Suzy Monford:

world's best consultative partner to our retailers. So the

Suzy Monford:

when we work with the retailer, they own their own data. But

Suzy Monford:

you're very, you're right, this data is very, very valuable. For

Suzy Monford:

CPG, for third party, and the retailer themselves.

Michael Unmussig:

I'm, I'm agreeing with with Suzy. So the

Michael Unmussig:

thing is that data belongs to the retailer. But there is there

Michael Unmussig:

is a balance between the CPGs or the vendors and the retailers

Michael Unmussig:

because both has a common interest to have increased

Michael Unmussig:

sales. So what we learn and that's interesting when we see

Michael Unmussig:

also to reducing carbon footprint is using this data to

Michael Unmussig:

reduce the effort monitoring yourself. So you have another

Michael Unmussig:

session where you said you made this OnStar or on site

Michael Unmussig:

monitoring people looking by by you being at the shelf, does it

Michael Unmussig:

make sense in this world where Tesla's have more cameras than

Michael Unmussig:

any other vehicle in the world, so it doesn't make any sense. So

Michael Unmussig:

the world is changing. And the other world is that means we

Michael Unmussig:

have we have a we have a crisis, not only just in Ukraine, we

Michael Unmussig:

have a crisis that we have to look on the carbon footprint,

Michael Unmussig:

that means using this data to reduce that we have all sales

Michael Unmussig:

for, for small oriented on the shelf, on the consumer, on the

Michael Unmussig:

shopper. That's exactly what we can do with it. But it's this

Michael Unmussig:

decision of the retailer that we know from Europe, that they sell

Michael Unmussig:

this data for an enormous amount. That's what we can help

Michael Unmussig:

with our shelf edge or with the shelf cameras, exactly what we

Michael Unmussig:

can do, it's a business model for them as well, supporting our

Michael Unmussig:

total cost of ownership or reducing the total cost of

Michael Unmussig:

ownership for shell edge cameras.

Mike Graen:

Okay. So so somebody just chatted and asked me, isn't

Mike Graen:

this too expensive. And while I don't want to get into the cost

Mike Graen:

of this solution, or anything like this, what I will say is,

Mike Graen:

if it was too costly, I don't think these three companies

Mike Graen:

would be on right now talking about the adoption and expansion

Mike Graen:

that they're seeing out there in the industry, they wouldn't have

Mike Graen:

any installed they get one maybe opportunity to demo it. And then

Mike Graen:

if it's too expensive, Suzy and I both know, based on retail, it

Mike Graen:

tells you pretty quick whether it's going to work or not so so

Mike Graen:

what are the ROI benefit? Let's not talk about what they are,

Mike Graen:

because I don't want to get into, you know, a pricing

Mike Graen:

discussion, but I am interested. So the retailers that are

Mike Graen:

deciding to use your guys's solution, I'm assuming they're

Mike Graen:

doing it based upon increase sales increase on shelf

Mike Graen:

availability. Anything that looks like recovered sales, I

Mike Graen:

was out and I fixed it. So what are some of the key KPIs that

Mike Graen:

these retailers are using to say, this is a smart investment,

Mike Graen:

in addition to the people savings that I'm not having to

Mike Graen:

people do scan out? So maybe just give us a high level of

Mike Graen:

what the KPIs the retailers are looking for?

Suzy Monford:

Yeah, I'm happy to jump in there first. I mean,

Suzy Monford:

it's what we've been talking about first and foremost labor,

Suzy Monford:

how do I stop investing in non value added labor so that then I

Suzy Monford:

can either take some of that savings to the bank or reinvest

Suzy Monford:

it in areas so I can differentiate and make my

Suzy Monford:

concept of my shopping experience my CX even more

Suzy Monford:

powerful. So there is a massive, massive ROI on labor alone. And

Suzy Monford:

again, all the largest companies that we work with around the

Suzy Monford:

world, we usually get there first, then you mentioned sales.

Suzy Monford:

Yeah, so sales, gross profit margin, you know, with AI,

Suzy Monford:

computer vision, when you know what's in stock at what time of

Suzy Monford:

day, you can help shift the mix, you can help promote own brand,

Suzy Monford:

you can help promote your seasonal in and outs you can

Suzy Monford:

promote anything you want to by having a laser focus on that. We

Suzy Monford:

believe if you see more, you can do more. So this information

Suzy Monford:

every hour on the hour or more frequently, if you'd like

Suzy Monford:

enables you to be a smart, efficient merchant. It ties into

Suzy Monford:

the E commerce layer that again is incremental, profitable sales

Suzy Monford:

lift. And the one thing I want to make sure I'm always an

Suzy Monford:

evangelist for is I want to come back to the people piece, the

Suzy Monford:

associates working in the store, when we can make these jobs

Suzy Monford:

easier, better, more fun, then we unleash professional benefits

Suzy Monford:

and wages for everybody in our business. We're going to attract

Suzy Monford:

hire and keep top talent. We're going to grow careers on behalf

Suzy Monford:

of our retailers. And we know that we need to do that to help

Suzy Monford:

the industry continue to survive and thrive. But it starts with

Suzy Monford:

labor sales, gross profit margin. Ultimately, it's EBITDA

Suzy Monford:

and that's where we've seen you know, I could give you all kinds

Suzy Monford:

of fancy numbers, but they're all true at 10x or higher return

Suzy Monford:

on EBITDA. And that trickles down to earnings per share if

Suzy Monford:

you're a publicly traded company. So it's really how the

Suzy Monford:

operator, how the retailer invests, the labor savings, the

Suzy Monford:

labor efficiencies, and the lift of sales and gross profit

Suzy Monford:

margin.

Derek Johnson:

Yeah, one thing that Michael mentioned about

Derek Johnson:

being more efficient when we look at how CPG brands utilize

Derek Johnson:

merchandisers, some merchandisers, they go to stores

Derek Johnson:

on a schedule, and they just go and they may go to a store that

Derek Johnson:

really don't need any replenishment. But understanding

Derek Johnson:

that data before they ever pack a truck or before they actually

Derek Johnson:

arrive at a store then allows them to realize OPIC savings. So

Derek Johnson:

that another figure I heard from a major brand, you know, for

Derek Johnson:

them 1% OSA improvement equated to about $15 million in a

Derek Johnson:

recovery of of sale. So, the money's definitely there when

Derek Johnson:

people understand what the OSA is, but then to what we've been

Derek Johnson:

saying all along, actually being able to take action on it and

Derek Johnson:

make some some transformative changes within the retail space

Derek Johnson:

is really where the value lies.

Michael Unmussig:

What we what we've seen, we did a survey, and

Michael Unmussig:

I'm saying in France. And what we realized is three things.

Michael Unmussig:

First of all, it's the gap scanning, so saving, saving time

Michael Unmussig:

and labor, but that's enormous. We talking 100 source about 40

Michael Unmussig:

to 50,000 hours a year. So that that that's even if you look

Michael Unmussig:

from a labor shortage perspective, and that the need

Michael Unmussig:

for some areas for some product character categories that you

Michael Unmussig:

need, well skilled people then then it's enormous when. The

Michael Unmussig:

other thing is increase in revenue. That's also enormous.

Michael Unmussig:

We see if you increase by 4% on shelf availability, you can lift

Michael Unmussig:

your revenue by around 2%. That's the most important thing

Michael Unmussig:

have loyal customers. And what we have seen the Net Promoter

Michael Unmussig:

Score rises by 50 to 60 points, just just having a product

Michael Unmussig:

available. That's not all we see also that we see in the omni

Michael Unmussig:

channel that that if you have stores which using an app that

Michael Unmussig:

you purchase, that that if a product if you see the available

Michael Unmussig:

availability like like for Instacart. And any others that

Michael Unmussig:

you that you sit select on your mobile phone the right products,

Michael Unmussig:

because not a product, which is wishful thinking which is not

Michael Unmussig:

there the selected product which is available, if you also have

Michael Unmussig:

happy ecommerce customers. And that's very interesting. The

Michael Unmussig:

other thing is when we go out of groceries and then if we look to

Michael Unmussig:

DIY stores, could you imagine you go to Home Depot store

Michael Unmussig:

looking for a light bulb and you do not find the right size that

Michael Unmussig:

the necessary ones or can't mark comes to the evening and it

Michael Unmussig:

cannot switch on the light. Didn't know that we won't go

Michael Unmussig:

there anymore. So this is just disappointment poor and that's

Michael Unmussig:

that the moment of truth where such a solutionist is helpful.

Michael Unmussig:

Like Like, like the help yeah. So that's the small moments

Michael Unmussig:

where you really create happy shoppers are the final and that

Michael Unmussig:

that that is the why for this. By the way, we haven't found a

Michael Unmussig:

single customer which have a return on investment longer than

Michael Unmussig:

four months. That's that's also nice. That's in all of the 80

Michael Unmussig:

projects, we are we are rolling out and that's really amazing.

Mike Graen:

This thing right here is the game changers.

Mike Graen:

Kroger Kroger, if you don't have the flavor I'm looking for I'm

Mike Graen:

going to use your Wi Fi to order it from Amazon. Thank you very

Mike Graen:

much. So it's the ultimate game changer in terms of where the

Mike Graen:

smart people spend their money. So you're all three of us

Mike Graen:

technology help to make sure the products that the retailer

Mike Graen:

merchandisers are saying the customers want are available for

Mike Graen:

them. So I applaud all of you guys, I think it's great. I do

Mike Graen:

want to get each one of you just a minute or so if there's any

Mike Graen:

other closing comments in the way I like to do the closing

Mike Graen:

comments is, was there a question that I should have

Mike Graen:

asked that I didn't. And if if I if there is give us some some of

Mike Graen:

your thoughts of where this is going and anything else that

Mike Graen:

you'd like to address that I didn't ask specifically or our

Mike Graen:

audience didn't ask. Suzy, we'll start with you.

Suzy Monford:

Gosh, you asked a lot of good questions. And we'll

Suzy Monford:

we'll leave our college football teams out of it. You know, no,

Suzy Monford:

but I might just carry forward. I'm back at the office after a

Suzy Monford:

couple of days in Denver at FMI FMI fresh forward which is their

Suzy Monford:

fresh centric conference. And we spent a lot of time talking

Suzy Monford:

about sustainability. So it was fresh health and wellness and

Suzy Monford:

sustainability. So the one territory we didn't cover here

Suzy Monford:

is something that we are quite advocates and evangelists for at

Suzy Monford:

Focal is that when we can run better stores and we have a more

Suzy Monford:

efficient supply chain, which starts with writing better

Suzy Monford:

orders. If I can't write better orders if I don't know my Osa

Suzy Monford:

and my out of stocks, not in general and not tomorrow or next

Suzy Monford:

week, which is what most perpetual inventory systems do,

Suzy Monford:

they take days to tell me the truth. Whereas we can tell you

Suzy Monford:

the truth in an hour or faster or right now if you like, and we

Suzy Monford:

give you actionable tools. But when we can do that we create

Suzy Monford:

better merchants who can plan better, we create better

Suzy Monford:

operators who can write better orders, and there's less waste

Suzy Monford:

and less shrink, less waste and less shrink, the retailer's

Suzy Monford:

winning, wages can go up, prices could go down. But equally, the

Suzy Monford:

sustainability footprint. We're not producing and transporting

Suzy Monford:

food all around the world that's only going into the waist bin.

Suzy Monford:

So here in the US, in particular, we waste 30% of all

Suzy Monford:

the food that we sell. So one of the things that's underpinning

Suzy Monford:

Focal, is this idea of creating the new food economy. And how do

Suzy Monford:

we use technology, automate, optimize brick and mortar retail

Suzy Monford:

for all the obvious KPIs? Yes, but equally to create a more

Suzy Monford:

sustainable ecosystem and retail, so I just thought I'd

Suzy Monford:

share that it's ever present. It's not just the topic for ESG

Suzy Monford:

chat rooms. It's how companies are being run today. So I wanted

Suzy Monford:

to make sure I added that to the conversation.

Mike Graen:

Awesome. Thank you very much, Derek. Closing

Mike Graen:

thoughts.

Derek Johnson:

Michael, great sitting on a panel with you

Derek Johnson:

guys. Like I said, I've watched all of these seminars learn a

Derek Johnson:

ton excited to see where this portion of the industry goes and

Derek Johnson:

and how we'll be carving out our niche. But yeah, I'm really

Derek Johnson:

excited. Again, thank you guys for your time, and excited to

Derek Johnson:

learn more.

Mike Graen:

Great, Michael.

Michael Unmussig:

Derek, you ask really amazing questions. But

Michael Unmussig:

there is one typically missing in this field of IoT, there is

Michael Unmussig:

one big risk we are missing to talk about that cybersecurity,

Michael Unmussig:

because we install IoT devices in a store. And cybersecurity is

Michael Unmussig:

the big stopper, if you have the best idea in the world, and you

Michael Unmussig:

even if we talk whatever we talk about the benefits in the field,

Michael Unmussig:

it can stop us. And that's why I said typically, we need to raise

Michael Unmussig:

this question about say IoT cybersecurity, because you have

Michael Unmussig:

devices, sometimes open devices in the store, which connects to

Michael Unmussig:

the internet, which connects to the core, like SAP, whatever, it

Michael Unmussig:

connects to the core system. So suppose security is for me the

Michael Unmussig:

big thing in IoT and retail next to the benefits they have. And I

Michael Unmussig:

think that's the thing, if you talk about the robots, the RFID,

Michael Unmussig:

the sender's whatever. I think the big thing on top of

Michael Unmussig:

everything is cybersecurity and how to solve this topic, if you

Michael Unmussig:

have millions of IoT devices, IoT devices in a store. A very

Michael Unmussig:

interesting question, because this shows how difficult it is

Michael Unmussig:

to manage these devices.

Mike Graen:

Alright. Excellent. Well, thank you all very, very

Mike Graen:

much for your participation for the panelists, I can't thank you

Mike Graen:

guys enough for for taking time out of your busy schedules. And

Mike Graen:

secondly, for the attendees, a couple of things. The first is,

Mike Graen:

you got to hear the results first. Our plan is to share this

Mike Graen:

podcast on LinkedIn on the Conversations on Retail and the

Mike Graen:

University of Arkansas channel, probably in the next few weeks

Mike Graen:

or so. So you'll be if you missed it, if some of your

Mike Graen:

colleagues missed it, there'll be a chance to to cover that

Mike Graen:

then please, please join us in September, we're going to cover

Mike Graen:

the last of the on shelf availability techniques, which

Mike Graen:

is store audits. We've got people from Intellect, we got

Mike Graen:

people from Tracks, and we've got people from Field Agents

Mike Graen:

that are all going to be part of that. And very, very different

Mike Graen:

solution than we just talked about here. Thank you all very,

Mike Graen:

very much, Suzy, Derek, Michael. Thank you, great insights. And

Mike Graen:

we appreciate you spending some time with us so much.

Suzy Monford:

Thank y'all. It was a pleasure.

Derek Johnson:

Thanks guys

Suzy Monford:

Thank you very much. Cheers.

Mike Graen:

Bye. Bye, everyone.

Michael Unmussig:

Thank you, bye bye.

Mike Graen:

Thank you for joining us to talk about the

Mike Graen:

fixed camera and sensor solutions. I hope this has been

Mike Graen:

very helpful to give you some of the idea of some of the

Mike Graen:

capability that's out there in the industry today. For next

Mike Graen:

week, we're going to we're going to shift gears back to a topic

Mike Graen:

that we really think is invaluable in terms of on shelf

Mike Graen:

availability and onhand accuracy, especially in the

Mike Graen:

apparel and the general merchandise area and that's

Mike Graen:

called RFID radio frequency identification. Join me next

Mike Graen:

week as we invite Bill Toney, Vice President of Avery

Mike Graen:

Dennison, the leader in RFID technology tags. Join us on our

Mike Graen:

podcast to talk a little bit about the different kinds of

Mike Graen:

capability that's available to retailers and brand owners

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