IBM announced a new agreement with Walgreens, one of the country's largest drugstore chains, to deploy IBM retail analytics at more than 8,100 locations nationwide to help improve the efficiency of field service support for these locations.

With IBM's support of IT systems at Walgreens stores, IBM's unique capabilities to integrate hardware and software from different vendors under one roof may lead to more efficient operation of technology across the store.

IBM Cloud also will be used to determine the level of support that will likely be needed at each Walgreens location based on service request history. In the future, this information may enable better anticipation and coordination when dispatching field technicians, so they arrive at the right time to resolve an issue. These data-driven insights may help to identify the most frequent service calls at a given location and bundle those requests into one service call to minimize repeated instances of system downtime.

C-suite executives and key stakeholders in all industries are increasingly recognizing the value of cultivating insights through data, as they often create opportunities for enhanced IT efficiency and overall business growth. These tools are also changing the way IT professionals approach IT support in the field by shifting to more proactive, predictive solutions that isolate the root cause of a disruption to eliminate repeated problems and free up valuable time for IT professionals to focus their skills and attention on higher value initiatives.

"Extending our multivendor services capabilities to support Walgreens stores sets an exciting new benchmark in an evolving retail industry, but it does not stop there," says Martin Jetter, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services. "As a cloud services integrator, IBM is always driven by the desire to think differently about the way we manage our clients' services and underlying infrastructure in any business, and we are well suited to help them achieve the results they are looking for."

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