{"id":125816,"date":"2022-06-15T16:03:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T16:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=446533"},"modified":"2022-06-15T16:03:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T16:03:52","slug":"wolverine-worldwide-and-its-portfolio-of-popular-brands-tap-the-hybrid-cloud-to-be-fleeter-of-foot-in-reaching-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/15\/wolverine-worldwide-and-its-portfolio-of-popular-brands-tap-the-hybrid-cloud-to-be-fleeter-of-foot-in-reaching-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolverine Worldwide and its portfolio of popular brands tap the hybrid cloud to be fleeter of foot in reaching customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of that digital upgrade, Michigan-based Wolverine Worldwide plans to increase customer personalization and make it even more intuitive and engaging to shop and buy goods from its portfolio of brands, which also includes Keds, Sweaty Betty and Merrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith so many good retailers today, c<\/em>onsumers have many choices, so they\u2019ve become accustomed to, and gravitate toward, better user experiences,\u201d says Chris Hufnagel, president of Merrell<\/a>, also headquartered in Michigan. \u201cBrands that can\u2019t create seamless experiences are going to be at a competitive disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we create a lot of friction for consumers as they try to engage with us, regardless of channel, that\u2019s not good for the long-term health of the brand,\u201d Hufnagel adds. \u201cIn the future, the road is going to be littered with brands that didn\u2019t make it easy for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

By moving to Azure Arc \u2013 which allows data and apps to be securely shared between on-premises hardware, a cloud or multiple clouds (multicloud) \u2013 Wolverine Worldwide and its brands say they will ensure more stock availability and faster shipping, along with other enhancements.<\/p>\n

\"A
A consumer inspects her shipment of shoes from one of Wolverine Worldwide\u2019s brands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In time, the company and its brands also aim to personalize shoppers\u2019 experiences, offering product-specific insights and individual recommendations as buyers peruse goods, enabling better informed buying decisions tailored to individual tastes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about one of our customers. Let\u2019s call him \u2018James.\u2019 What do we know about James today?\u201d says Dee Slater, chief information officer and senior vice president at Wolverine Worldwide. \u201cWe run our CRM (customer relationship management platform), so we know what James bought from us and if he\u2019s returned any items. But that\u2019s about all we know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future, as we build a data lake and a customer data platform, we\u2019ll apply some AI (artificial intelligence) over that data, and we\u2019ll know that James really likes the color blue,\u201d Slater adds. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll know James is a hiker. So eventually, when James comes to our website or enters our stores, we\u2019re going to present him with blue hiking shoes.<\/p>\n

That innovation is part of a far larger tech transformation Wolverine is beginning under CEO and president Brendan Hoffman, who took over the top role in January 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Sun
The company now known as Wolverine Worldwide was founded in Michigan in 1883. By 1903, the family business was making 300 pairs of shoes a day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company\u2019s digital push will invest in technology to bolster the supply chain, modernize how employees work, and enable Wolverine Worldwide and its distinct brands to scale production up or down based on seasonal or market demands, Slater says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on an overdue journey,\u201d she says. \u201cThe move to Azure is all about supporting that initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Wolverine Worldwide also is transitioning to RISE with SAP on Azure and the Microsoft Cloud<\/a>.  That offering gives companies access to an array of SAP cloud-based services, solutions and tools through a single license. Running the solution on Azure accelerates cloud journeys and helps companies combine their advanced technologies, hardware, software and databases.<\/p>\n

And by implementing Azure Arc, Wolverine Worldwide is shifting away from legacy, on-premises platforms to nimbler, multicloud, multitenant environments. The gains in business speed and agility derived from that deployment, Slater says, will be \u201ctransformational.\u201d One example: Azure Arc has helped employees start using data to drive their decisions, moving from \u201chindsight to foresight with AI and machine learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dee
Dee Slater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That set of technologies also will help ensure that employees can continue to securely share files, communicate and collaborate in the cloud, particularly while working remotely.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttracting and retaining talent today is mission critical to every brand on the planet, including ours,\u201d Slater says. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to come to work and use an abacus. They want to move quickly, use modern, easy-to-use productivity tools, and have access to data that drives insights. They want to know they\u2019re making a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy moving to the Azure cloud \u2013 with the speed that we\u2019ll be getting from that shift \u2013 and by having all that data at our fingertips, we\u2019re also attracting and retaining the talent that\u2019s going to bring the brands farther, faster,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Each of Wolverine Worldwide\u2019s 13 brands has differing needs and operates in different consumer segments. For example, Sperry, founded in 1935, is the market leader in boat shoes and has also expanded into casual shoes, boots and sneakers. Harley-Davidson Footwear sells motorcycle boots plus riding-approved shoes and sneakers online and through a network of dealers. Then, in 2021, Wolverine acquired Sweaty Betty, a London-based women\u2019s activewear retailer.<\/p>\n

With help from Azure Arc, those brands can more quickly test and deploy business solutions while the brands\u2019 decision makers and developers gain access to expanded and accelerated data analysis.<\/p>\n

\"Wolverine
At Wolverine Worldwide headquarters, the company\u2019s many brand logos are displayed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSome of the challenges we have working with so many brands are the various business requirements,\u201d says Jason Miller, vice president of IT at Wolverine. \u201cSome brands have very complex business models. Some are more international. Some have third-party joint ventures. All those different requirements \u2013 and being able to meet those from an analytics perspective \u2013 is the challenge for us here at Wolverine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving to the cloud enables us to compile all of the data pools that the brands have built up over time into one place so that all the brands can take advantage of it,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Indeed, tapping such cross-channel opportunities is crucial, Slater says. Wolverine Worldwide will be better able to decipher, for example, which Sweaty Betty customers also buy products from Keds and Merrell. Gaining that kind of data intelligence currently takes \u201ca lot of heavy lifting,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\"Employees
Employees at Wolverine Worldwide are using more data to drive their decisions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But when all that consumer data is safely and securely connected to the cloud, mapping that kind of customer-focused Venn diagram will be much simpler and will enable Wolverine Worldwide to specifically market to people who, say, are highly loyal to both Saucony and Sperry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons we bought Sweaty Betty was not just because it\u2019s an amazing brand, but they have consumer-focused skillsets and mindsets,\u201d Slater says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we harness that so we can grow even faster, so we can learn that and apply it to our other brands?\u201d Slater adds. \u201cThis is about getting our data in the cloud so we can connect in ways we have not done before, making that data even more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out this Microsoft customer story<\/a> to learn more about how Azure Arc is fueling innovation at Wolverine Worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of that digital upgrade, Michigan-based Wolverine Worldwide plans to increase customer personalization and make it even more intuitive and engaging to shop and buy goods from its portfolio of brands, which also includes Keds, Sweaty Betty and Merrell. \u201cWith so many good retailers today, consumers have many choices, so they\u2019ve become accustomed to, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1359,298],"class_list":["post-125816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-azure-arc","tag-transform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}