By Steven Berkovitz, OrderDynamics
When presented with a need for a new technology capability, retailers are often faced with the decision of whether to ignore the need, or to rip-and-replace an existing system and purchase a whole new solution suite. This is particularly disheartening for retailers that have taken the time to develop and build their own technology systems in-house.
However, what if ripping and replacing wasn’t the only option? What if there was a way to simply add on the needed capabilities or features to your existing system, even if your current provider or in-house system didn’t have those capabilities yet? Even better, what if you could plug in these capabilities from a best-of-breed solution provider without having to purchase their entire technology suite?
Advertisement
Well, there might be an answer to all of these questions — microservices. While the concept of microservices isn’t new, perhaps it’s something more retailers and solution providers should consider. In particular, this might be the answer for retailers that have built robust in-house systems, but also have ample staff and expertise available to develop, implement and optimize highly specialized solutions that address independent business needs.
Let’s Define Microservices
But before we worry about who should use them and how to implement them, it’s important to know what microservices really are. According to Martin Fowler and James Lewis, “In short, the microservice architectural style is an approach to developing a single application as a suite of small services, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API. These services are built around business capabilities and independently deployable by fully automated deployment machinery. ”
In layman’s terms, microservices are components that can be easily plugged into existing solutions and solve a business capability limitation.
Why Might This Approach Work?
Traditionally, retailers have consumed solutions in their entirety. By doing this, they often end up with multiple solutions featuring overlapping functionalities. For retailers that have built their own solutions, adding new functionalities traditionally meant building from scratch or buying a solution that would force you to rip-and-replace the existing in-house infrastructure.
In both these situations, cloud hosted microservices offer an alternative. An added bonus is that microservices are a more cost-effective approach to bringing functionalities or capabilities online without skimping on quality. For retailers moving into the omnichannel space, this makes a great deal of sense; they don’t have to replace their entire infrastructure. Rather, they simply add on the technology they need to become truly omnichannel. In addition, this allows the internal IT team to remain in control, without giving everything up to an outside solution or service provider.
Who Could It Work For?
Microservices aren’t for everyone. They don’t make sense for small-to-midsize retailers, or even larger retailers that don’t employ the talent needed to configure and operate microservices. If you’re looking for omnichannel retail microservices, you need to make sure you have the store and online footprint to justify and support the additional capabilities and functions.
Microservices make the most sense for large brick-and-mortar retailers with an online presence that have already made an investment in technology, third party or homegrown. But this is not enough without the in-house IT staff, who can implement the microservices and work through any development issues in providing connection points between the new microservices and existing technology.
Is The Industry Ready?
So, is the retail industry ready for microservices? The technology is certainly available, as existing solutions can be easily configured to fit this model. However, before microservices can become a reality, there must be a shift in how both solution providers and retailers operate. Retailers can no longer rely heavily on solution providers for IT support, and solution providers must be willing to offer the standalone capabilities the retailer needs, not only entire software suites. It may not be a big deal but for both parties, but it’s better than no deal.
One thing is for certain — retail is changing and somewhat unpredictable. If retailers stand by and do nothing, they will not survive. By choosing a microservices strategy, retailers can make simple, cost effective improvements to their business that may have a big impact on their bottom line.
Steven Berkovitz is one of the founding partners and Chief Technology Officer of OrderDynamics. As CTO, he oversees software development, platform operations and corporate IT. Berkovitz brings over 15 years’ experience working in technology and building software for the commerce, retail, accounting, education, marketing and health care industries. He attended McMaster University where he studied economics and computer science.
