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如果说COVID-19疫情被证明是数字化转型的催化剂，沃博联(Walgreens Boots Alliance，简称WBA)则是这一趋势的先锋。沃博联(Walgreens Boots Alliance)总部位于美国的公司，在美国拥有近9000家药店，在英国拥有近2300家Boot零售商。
2019年3月疫情在全球爆发时，该公司别无选择，无法关闭或放慢生产速度。相反，六个月前加入WBA的全球首席信息官兼高级副总裁Francesco Tinto推动了该公司云优先的业务转型，以确保药房链能够更好地为客户提供数字化服务，因为对COVID-19的调度、检测和疫苗接种的需求促使该公司以比计划更快的速度构建数字解决方案。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“COVID确实促使我们确保在封锁期间能够真正为客户提供服务，”Tinto说。
迄今为止，WBA已在美国接种了5600万支COVID-19疫苗，并进行了2290万次检测，这在一定程度上要归功于主要基于Azure云和一系列令人眼花缭乱的前沿技术(包括MongoDB数据库、Snowflake数据仓库和Databricks基于spark的人工智能平台的数字化转型。
现在，这位沃博联(Walgreens Boots Alliance的IT主管正在利用先进的云计算、数据分析和人工智能技术的强大组合来提供大规模个性化服务，并增强WBA与消费者的在线关系。
一、这种数据基础已被证明是建立WBA下一代服务的关键
WBA对其IT堆栈的现代化需要将推动其在线零售业务的后端流程(如应付账款、总账和库存管理)迁移到微软的云上。作为该计划的一部分，WBA通过迁移到SAP S/4HANA和迁移到ServiceNow基于云的自动化运营服务来重建其业务应用程序堆栈。
Tinto表示，该公司还开始将其众多数据资产整合到微软Azure数据湖中，这一转变已被证明是实现分析和人工智能奇迹的关键。作为这种转变的一部分，WBA从传统数据库迁移到高级云数据库和分析，为关系数据部署Azure Synapse，为非结构化和半结构化数据部署Azure Cosmos，为面向文档的模型部署MongoDB。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Tinto说，这家零售连锁店还将存储在Teradata、Netezza和Hadoop设备中的内部数据迁移到云端，利用Snowflake作为数据仓库，利用Databricks用于人工智能。
Tinto表示，这种数据基础已被证明是建立WBA下一代服务的关键，使WBA 2000名IT员工中的开发人员和数据科学家，以及数千名合作伙伴的程序员，迄今为止构建了大约100种内部人工智能产品。
除了Databricks的平台，WBA还使用Python工具、Spark集群、Jupyter笔记本和开源NLP(自然语言处理)功能来编写用于库存优化和定价优化的机器学习模型，并创建客户档案——这是WBA下一代个性化服务的核心，Tinto说。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“对我们来说，人工智能确实是我们大力推广的技术，”他说。“一个很大的推动是建立一个运营模型，我们可以真正利用数据，数据科学家可以增加他们对人工智能的知识和利用。我们希望确保人工智能和机器学习嵌入我们所做的一切。”
二、努力创建一个数据驱动的组织可以提供大规模个性化服务
根据Tinto的说法，在转型的第三年，WBA现在的首要重点是建立客户档案，为客户提供大规模个性化服务，改进其在线配药系统，并为消费者提供更多的在线处方管理。“这真的是我们所有数据的整合和管理，是我们开始建立客户档案和个性化功能的方式，”Tinto说，并补充说，该公司正在以一种能够使公司“协调全球能力和本地适应”的方式实施云服务。
Tinto和首席执行官Rosalind Brewer都认为，WBA的云基础设施对于该公司的战略至关重要，该战略旨在为美国和英国的大部分消费者提供更多定制化、个性化的服务，以及在墨西哥、泰国和爱尔兰越来越多的WBA药店。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“我们已经奠定了基础。我们不再迁移到云端。我们在云端，”Tinto说，并指出该公司正在完成其在线配药系统，并更积极地转向“更具规范性和预测性”的数据分析。虽然该公司仍在其数据中心利用一些应用程序，但下一代数据分析和人工智能平台将使WBA能够非常接近其消费者——一次一个客户。
其目的是让客户通过沃博联(Walgreens Boots Alliance)或Boots的账户在线管理他们的处方，并收到针对每个消费者独特健康问题的产品和解决方案的个人建议。
“人工智能对于了解客户的情况非常重要。现在我们可以提供最好的推广、最好的内容和个性化的服务。”他补充说，该计划还包括使用聊天机器人实现个性化服务的互动。例如，WBA在18个月前与微软(Microsoft)和Adobe签署了合作协议，为消费者提供一对一的沟通，并在网上提供量身定制的处方体验。Adobe的客户体验管理(CXM)解决方案是合作伙伴关系的另一个方面，它将在线提供分析、内容管理、个性化和活动编排服务。 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“例如，我们正在为一位被诊断患有慢性疾病的患者推出一种新的体验，这样我们就可以帮助客户度过这段旅程，并提供建议和建议，帮助患者最大限度地减少疾病的影响，”Tinto说。
全球首席信息官对迄今为止的进展感到满意，并对未来的前景感到兴奋。“我的旅程不会因为转向云而停止，”他在谈到他努力创建一个数据驱动的组织，可以提供大规模个性化服务时说。“面对疫情带来的种种复杂情况，我正在重建一个组织，从一个高度运作的组织转变为一个转型的组织。”
原文：
If the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an accelerant for digital transformations, Walgreens Boots Alliance was at the vanguard of that trend.
The Deerfield, Ill. -based company, which counts nearly 9,000 retail Walgreens pharmacies in the US and nearly 2,300 Boots retailers in the UK, had no option to shut down or slow down when the pandemic hit globally in March 2019.
Instead, Global CIO and Senior Vice President Francesco Tinto, who joined WBA six months prior, pushed the company’s cloud-first business transformation into overdrive to ensure the pharmacy chain could better serve its customers digitally, as the need for COVID-19 scheduling, testing, and vaccinations spurred the company to build digital solutions faster than planned.
“COVID really pushed us to make sure that we could really have service to customers during the lockdown,” Tinto says. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
To date, WBA has administered 56 million COVID-19 vaccines and 22.9 million tests in the US, thanks in some measure to a digital transformation largely based on Microsoft’s Azure cloud and a dizzying array of bleeding-edge technologies, including MongoDB databases, Snowflake data warehousing, and Databricks’ Spark-based AI platform.
Now the Walgreens Boots IT chief is leveraging this potent cocktail of advanced cloud, data analytics, and artificial intelligence technologies to deliver mass personalization services and to enhance WBA’s online relationship with consumers. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
Data is a core ingredient
WBA’s modernization of its IT stack has entailed migrating the back-end processes that drive its online retail business, such as accounts payable, the general ledger, and inventory management, to Microsoft’s cloud. As part of this, WBA rebuilt its business application stack by moving to SAP S/4HANA and migrating to ServiceNow’s cloud-based automated operational services.
Francesco Tinto, global CIO and SVP, Walgreens Boots Alliance
Walgreens Boots Alliance
The company also started consolidating its numerous data assets into a Microsoft Azure data lake, a shift that has proved pivotal to making analytics and AI magic happen, Tinto says. As part of this transformation, WBA migrated from legacy databases to advanced cloud databases and analytics, deploying Azure Synapse for relational data, Azure Cosmos for unstructured and semi-structured data, and MongoDB for document-oriented models.
The retail chain is also migrating on-premises data stored in Teradata, Netezza, and Hadoop appliances to the cloud, leveraging Snowflake for data warehousing and Databricks for AI, Tinto says.
That data foundation has proved key to establishing WBA’s next-generation services, enabling developers and data scientists in WBA’s 2,000-member IT staff, along with thousands of its partners’ programmers, to build about 100 in-house AI products to date, Tinto says.
In addition to Databricks’ platform, WBA uses Python tools, Spark Clusters, Jupyter Notebooks, and open-source NLP (natural language processing) capabilities to write machine learning models for inventory optimization and pricing optimization, and to create customer profiles — the core of WBA’s next-generation personalization services, Tinto says.
“AI for us is really the technology that we’re pushing a lot,” he says. “A big push is building an operating model where we can really leverage the data and the data scientists increase their knowledge and utilization of AI. We want to make sure that AI and machine learning is embedded in everything we do.”
Next frontier: Mass personalization
In the third year of its transformation, WBA’s top focus is now to build out customer profiles and offer mass personalization to its customers, advancing its online dispensing system and giving consumers more management of prescriptions online, according to Tinto.
“It’s really the consolidation and curation of all of our data is how we start building the customer profiles and personalization capabilities,” Tinto says, adding that the company is implementing cloud services in a manner that enables the company to “harmonize between global capability and local adaptation.”
Tinto and CEO Rosalind Brewer both believe WBA’s cloud infrastructure is essential to the company’s strategy for delivering more customized, personalized services to the bulk of its consumers in the US and UK, as well as an increasing number of WBA pharmacies in Mexico, Thailand, and Ireland.
“We have the set the foundation. We are no longer moving to the cloud. We are in the cloud,” Tinto says, noting that the company is finalizing its online dispensing system and moving more aggressively into data analytics that are “much more prescriptive and predictive.”
While the company is still leveraging some applications in its data center, the next-generation data analytics and AI platform will enable WBA to get very close to its consumers — one customer at a time.
The intention is for customers to manage their prescriptions online from their Walgreens’ or Boots’ accounts and receive personal recommendations for products and solutions that address each consumer’s unique health issues. 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
“AI is very important to understanding the profile of the customer. Now we can serve the best promotion, the best content, personalized offerings,” says Tinto, adding that the plan also includes making the personalized services interactive using chatbots.
WBA, for instance, signed a partnership with Microsoft and Adobe 18 months ago to offer one-to-one communications with consumers and to deliver tailored prescription experiences online. Adobe’s Customer Experience Management (CXM) solutions, another aspect of the partnership, will offer analytics, content management, personalization, and campaign orchestration services online.
“For example, we are launching a new experience for a patient who has been diagnosed with a chronic condition so we can help the customer through the journey and offer advice and suggestions that help the person minimize the impact of the disease,” Tinto says.
The global CIO is pleased with the progress to date and excited about the prospects for the future.
“I’m on a journey that doesn’t stop with a move to the cloud,” he says of his effort to create a data-driven organization that can offer mass personalization. “With all of the complications of the pandemic, I’m in the middle of rebuilding an organization shifting from being extremely operational into an organization that is transformational.” 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
数字化转型网人工智能专题
与全球关注人工智能的顶尖精英一起学习！数字化转型网建立了一个专门讨论人工智能技术、产业、学术的研究学习社区，与各位研习社同学一起成长！欢迎扫码加入！ 数字化转型网www.szhzxw.cn
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