{"id":22231,"date":"2018-10-22T15:10:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T14:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=22231"},"modified":"2018-10-30T14:42:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T14:42:50","slug":"software-defined-networking-will-enable-the-store-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2018\/10\/22\/software-defined-networking-will-enable-the-store-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Software-defined Networking will enable the store of the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Software-defined Networking (SDN) is an approach to cloud computing that aims to improve network performance and monitoring. Intelligent CIO hears from one industry expert, who argues that the store of the future will use seamlessly integrated technology to create a wonderful retail experience for all its customers and lower costs at the same time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Metacom CEO R\u00e9an van Niekerk believes that what makes a retail experience great is being recognised and valued as an individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifty years ago, or perhaps even today in small neighbourhood stores, that could happen because owners, staff and customers all know each other,\u201d said van Niekerk.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassive retail chains killed that personal experience, but technology is starting to bring it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already possible for retailers to identify regular customers the moment they walk into the store and send special offers to their phones, or even arrange a personal greeting by the manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that\u2019s stopping your local retailer from doing it tomorrow is the cost, but it doesn\u2019t have to be expensive,\u201d added Van Niekerk<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonalised service to customers these days is dependent on reliable, fast and secure communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dawn of the Software-defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) means that standard of communication is now within reach of every retailer, no matter how tight their margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Niekerk says Metacom\u2019s managed network can deliver anything from financial transaction processing, Internet radio, Internet video and VOIP telephony to free wi-fi for customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can switch and control anything you like – using almost any protocol communicating with any hardware,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we can remotely upgrade and configure our systems anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepkor IT executive Conrad Reinke revealed at the inaugural Metacom Insight event that Metacom provides all networking services to nearly 4,000 group stores across Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe serve the cost-conscious market so cost control is very important to us, but so is reliability and that is why Metacom is the right partner for us,\u201d said Reinke.<\/p>\n

\u201cMetacom is the reason our stores now provide a wide range of value-added services like bill payments, airtime purchases and money transfers, as well as handling peak volumes with ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Niekerk says Metacom\u2019s new MC6000 Enterprise Router, the latest in a range of network devices the company has designed and manufactured, is a key component of its ability to roll out future services.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike our previous routers, it can link every remote point into a seamless network regardless of whether connectivity is supplied by fibre, LTE, ADSL, satellite or even radio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know power supply reliability is an issue in many places, so it has dual power supplies; and it has integrated multimedia capability to play in-store Internet radio and video, and ample processing capability for edge computing. And you can control many of the advanced features from a smartphone app, even if you\u2019re in Cape Town and the router is in Luanda.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Software-defined Networking (SDN) is an approach to cloud computing that aims to improve network performance and monitoring. Intelligent CIO hears from one industry expert, who argues that the store of the future will use seamlessly integrated technology to create a wonderful retail experience for all its customers and lower costs at the same time. Metacom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":22232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,328,6,399,602,183,262],"tags":[7100,1677,1678,7099,7098,215,1070],"class_list":["post-22231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-features","category-insights","category-more-news","category-retail","category-software","category-used","tag-conrad-reinke","tag-mc6000-enterprise-router","tag-metacom","tag-pepkor","tag-rean-van-niekerk","tag-sdn","tag-software-defined-networking"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22231"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22319,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22231\/revisions\/22319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}