News

Sainsbury's signs up for NCR's predictive services for POS and self-checkout

January 17, 2012

NCR Corp. recently announced that U.K.-based supermarket chain Sainsbury's has entered into a five-year managed service agreement which will see Sainsbury's deploy NCR Predictive Services on its point-of-sale and self-checkout lanes.

The move will help ensure that more devices are working in stores at peak times and saving tens of thousands of hours in downtime to improve the customer's in-store experience, according to NCR. Sainsbury's is the first U.K. retailer to sign up for NCR Predictive Services, which is unique in predicting and addressing IT issues quickly before they happen, unlike other services that fix POS and self-checkout terminals after they break, according to the company.

The deployment is part of a multi-million pound managed-services renewal that will also see NCR provide helpdesk and multivendor support across 1,000 stores and 23 depots through its Managed Services Retail Centre of Expertise. NCR currently provides managed service support for Sainsbury's NCR point-of-sale, self-checkout and kiosks systems, printers and peripherals. The new agreement covers helpdesk and services for Sainsbury's POS software, voice and data networks, including its servers, wireless and fixed network, PCs, laptops, software, printers and VoIP telephones.

"Consolidating our managed services enables us to use NCR's technology to meet our commitment to deliver a great shopping experience for Sainsbury's customers, while driving greater efficiencies that support our growth plans," said Rob Fraser, Sainsbury's IT Director, in the announcement. "Sainsbury's and NCR share a relentless focus on ensuring shoppers at our stores can get through the checkouts as quickly as possible, especially during peak times. Our new predictive service strategy is the latest in a series of innovations delivered by NCR over the ten years of our strategic partnership."

NCR Predictive Services works through a software agent on each NCR device, which gathers a wide variety of operational data. This data is then analyzed by NCR's business intelligence software and processes that leverage the NCR Services data warehouse, which maintains operational data from more than 2 million consumer points of service and 12 million annual service actions globally. From this analysis, NCR makes recommendations for preventive action on devices and modules that are end-of-life or likely to fail imminently. Detailed, advance information on repairs can also be provided, enabling faster resolution, either by on-site technicians or remotely.

For example, NCR said, its software can identify that a cooling fan in a POS terminal is running slower than it should be. It would also highlight the fact that terminals with this operating condition statistically fail within a certain time period, and an NCR Customer Engineer can be automatically dispatched to change the part at a minimally disruptive time, before the defect causes failure.

For service actions that do not require an on-site visit, such as firmware updates, a remote resolution session could be established. The NCR technician can securely recover and review logs, and perform problem resolution activities rapidly.

"We understand that Sainsbury's customers expect both great value and an excellent shopping experience, and we're committed to providing ongoing service innovation that helps Sainsbury's deliver this," said Stuart Henderson, NCR's director of retail for Northern Europe, in the announcement.

Read more about kiosk service and maintenance.