NEC has launched the Alp analytics learning platform, a business intelligence analytics platform for retailers that delivers real-time content and data measurement.
 
Alp combines the company’s video analytics with its digital signage expertise to make retailers smarter through big data and content matching, and delivering relevant, impactful content to customers. Alp was unveiled at last month’s NEC Display New York Partner Showcase.
 
“With NEC Alp, we’re giving retailers the ability to provide customers with a personalised experience through real-time, relevant content triggered by demographic data such as age and location,” said Richard Ventura, vice president of strategy at NEC Display Solutions of America. “This also provides retailers with valuable insights on the impact their content has, creating more opportunities for consumer engagement, which is invaluable to growing their business. With NEC Alp, we’re helping retailers deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience.”
 
The Japanese company developed a new back-end architecture for the Alp business intelligence platform that uses edge and cloud computing to deliver real-time insights. Using facial detection, non-identifying demographic data such as age and gender are fed into a local computing appliance, which then triggers the appropriate content to be shown.
 
Data are then delivered into the cloud where big data analytics provide retailers with insights such as impact on sales from content, demographics and audience traffic, overall engagement with customers, and which content triggered the most positive customer experiences.
 
“NEC Alp is not a facial detection or even a digital signage solution,” Ventura said. “It is a fully-featured business intelligence platform that is all about enhancing the customer experience by driving engagement. It’s less about hardware and more about the data analytic capability the technology enables.”
 
The platform’s data analytics capability gives retailers the power to deliver the right message or content to the audience because it answers the questions of whom the customer is and which piece of content was most successful in creating a meaningful engagement. Using these data, Alp can draw a direct correlation between when content was played, the number of impressions and what the conversion rates are to actual sales.
 
“One of the biggest challenges retailers face is changing customer behaviour to spend more time in stores,” Ventura said. “NEC Alp answers this challenge by providing the ability to make positive impressions and engagements with customers.”
 
The system consists of hardware, software, cloud services, managed services and big data analytics. Locally in-store, the platform consists of an edge computing appliance, cameras and sensors. The system is designed with full API integration into key digital signage content management systems (CMS), allowing it to deliver and trigger content onto different media player platforms. The triggered content is then displayed on large- or small-format displays.
 
As a complete platform, it includes everything from consulting, software, hardware, cloud computing, customised software development, physical installation, software and hardware integration, integration into key content management platforms, and content creation capabilities. The platform also includes on-site, round-the-clock service and maintenance, with hardware, software, and managed services support.
 
“With NEC Alp, we’re helping change the narrative of what defines digital signage in retail,” Ventura said. “Instead of being limited to traditional architecture such as a media player with apps, NEC Alp includes data analytics with CMS integration to enhance customer engagement.”
 
The technology comes from several sources to deliver a complete product. Integrations into the BrightSign platform, Navori and StratosMedia CMS, and Microsoft Azure and Intel for infrastructure are key. In addition, the platform uses NEC Eva for video analytics and Data Call Technologies for weather and location-based content aggregation.