Data & Analytics

Deerfield Park, Ill. – Walgreens has entered into a multi-year agreement to provide Inovalon's data-driven encounter support platform, Electronic Patient Assessment Solution Suite (ePASS) within healthcare clinics at select Walgreens to support improvements in managed care quality and performance.

The ePASS platform allows identification and resolution of gaps in quality, care, assessment, documentation, and risk score accuracy, as well as analytical capabilities. It will be rolled out at 400 stores nationwide.

Pennsauken, N.J. – Becker’s School Supplies has redeveloped and relaunched its e-commerce site on the WebLinc e-commerce platform.

The WebLinc platform provides both front-end branding and back-end merchandising and management tools. Within months of launching its new site, Becker’s experienced a 120% jump in revenue compared to the same period last year and saw transaction volume increase by 81%.

By Jeff Wakefield, Verifone

Mobility. It is such a broad concept, meaning different things to merchants and consumers. Mobile acceptance, mobile payments, mobile POS, mobile shopping – each plays a distinct part in the overall mobile experience and each has different risks and rewards.

Within this larger mobile arena, the security of the mobile payment device offers the greatest risk for both merchants and consumers alike.

New York -- Retail is the No. 1 category utilizing location-powered advertising, with big box, consumer electronics and department store retailers being the most frequent users, according to a new report by location-based mobile advertising firm Verve Mobile.

The "State of the Market: Location Powered Mobile Advertising, Deep Dive on Retail" study reveals that geo-fencing, which includes geo-conquesting, is the most utilized location targeting strategy deployed by retailers.  I

In other findings:

New York -- For the second consecutive month, Jcrew.com ranked No. 1 overall in customer service performance in the Stella Monthly Benchmarks, a ranking of the best online customer service performance in the United States. Rounding out the top five, were the e-commerce sites of Ralph Lauren, L.L.Bean, Kate Spade and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Philadelphia -- Wal-Mart Stores and McDonald’s were the only retailers to crack the Hay Group’s eighth annual Best Companies for Leadership Study Top 20 list.

The study surveyed nearly 18,000 individuals at more than 2,200 organizations worldwide to examine how companies develop their leaders and foster cultures of innovation. This year, Procter & Gamble led the Top 20. Wal-Mart ranked No. 7, and McDonald’s came in at No. 8.

Boulder, Col. -- Publix Pharmacy is North America’s favorite based on customer satisfaction, according to a new study of 3,600 consumers conducted by customer intelligence solutions provider Market Force Information. Target was a close second and Kroger ranked third. All three received high marks in operational attributes such as service, cleanliness, atmosphere and checkout times.

Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy ranked the highest when those consumers were asked to name their pharmacy chain, with 18% identifying Walgreens and 17% CVS.  

Naperville, Ill. -- OfficeMax has opened a digital innovation collaboration center (called Digital IC2) in its headquarters in Naperville, Ill.

Pittsburgh -- Dick’s Sporting Goods on Wednesday detailed its long-term plan to deliver sales and operating profit growth and drive shareholder value over the next five years, with the company’s namesake stores, new Field & Stream retail format and omnichannel platform driving its growth.

When it found the performance of a legacy data-processing system lagging too far behind the pace of its business, Alpharetta, Georgia-based The Original HoneyBaked Ham Co. of Georgia, Inc. decided to investigate more current options. Difficulties keeping up with the flow of transactional data from its 115 corporate stores and 200 franchise locations during the 2011 holiday season marked the turning point for the retailer.