Concept:
Founded in 1999, Ipanema Technologies develops next-generation solutions to enable large enterprises and retailers to have full control over their global network. Ipanema’s patented technology is designed to help retailers align wide area network (WAN) performance with business objectives for optimal business application availability and response times. Ipanema’s technology is aimed at providing retailers with greater ability to control, accelerate and guarantee performance of business-critical applications across the entire global network. The Ipanema solution helps retailers reduce checkout line wait time by processing transactions faster.
Team:
Headquartered in France, with offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe, Ipanema has a global partnership with NCR, a global technology provider with a large footprint in the retail space. CEO Jean-Yves has extensive experience in managing international high-tech companies in the technical, industrial, marketing and sales domains. After co-founding Tecsi, Yves previously held the position of Deputy General Manager of Telic-Alcatel, where he oversaw the development of Minitel.
Market Relevance:
Any slowdown or service interruption could be catastrophic for retailers as customers can, and do, shop at a competing retailer when they are dissatisfied. Retailers need readily available IT applications to transmit critical sales and inventory information across the retail chain, regardless of store location, time of day and especially during peak business periods (holidays, back-to-school, etc.). Ipanema ensures the availability of business critical retail applications, improving customer service by eliminating wait periods and long lines, therefore enhancing the customer experience and brand loyalty.
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Delivery:
A retailer’s WAN must be able to efficiently deliver business applications (POS, PCI, PSS, etc.) to many distributed store locations. Traffic congestion on the network, especially during peak business periods (like winter holidays), can significantly slow application performance for end users (brownouts) or interrupt application availability (blackouts). According to Gartner Dataquest, such interruptions can cost a retailer millions in lost revenue — up to $90,000 or more per hour.
Network interruptions also precipitate long lines at checkouts, prompting customers already in the store to abandon their purchases; potential future customers may choose to not enter these stores. Other resulting problems include: slower supply chains, less efficient store inventories; diminishing customer loyalty, marketing and customer service programs; reduced employee productivity and job satisfaction; and hindered customer centricity, sales and operational efficiency.
Proof Points: By aligning WAN performance with business objectives, retailers can streamline the rollout of new applications and ensure timely and accurate data transmission for demand-driven supply chains, then store inventories can be synchronized with customer purchases and demand. Ipanema has been named as a visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for WAN optimization controllers. Ipanema also has been recognized as a Red Herring Global 100 winner. Ipanema’s technology is utilized by retailers including Debenhams, Leroy Merlin, Sephora and Alliance Boots.
