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August 05, 2024

Fractal builds innovative retail and consumer goods solutions with Microsoft’s AI offerings including Azure OpenAI Service

Retail companies today need to maximize investments while sifting through an ever-growing mountain of customer data. Fractal creates AI-powered solutions to help retailers solve problems across functional areas, from supply chain management to manufacturing to marketing. Microsoft infrastructure provides the foundational building blocks, giving Fractal the tools to create dependable solutions quickly and keep retail customers ahead of the AI game.

Fractal Analytics Technologies Ltd

Today’s retailers face an ever-growing set of challenges, from rapid employee turnover to meeting high expectations for personalized customer experiences. Companies are trying to maximize investments and utilize data in innovative ways—and Microsoft partner Fractal exists to help them do that. “We’re an enabler for retailers trying to do their best in a complicated ecosystem,” says Dylan Dias, Chief Alliances Officer at Fractal. “We solve problems across functional areas, helping them along all the steps of their value chain.”

Effective use of AI accelerates value across business areas from resource utilization to supply chain management, helping people do their jobs faster and more accurately. Fractal creates user-friendly tools that let business leaders apply the power of AI in specific, customizable ways.

Building on a strong foundation

Before generative AI (GenAI) emerged as the topic on everyone’s mind, data analytics and machine learning were the talk of the town. While the language has shifted, Dias notes, data still plays a pivotal role. “Data will always be the foundation that underlies every solution,” he says. “For us, there’s an evergreen need for our customers to get their data foundations right.” 

Fractal partners with Microsoft to create solid data foundations for its customers, building solutions on top of the Microsoft stack using a unique development approach that combines AI, engineering, data, and design. “We strive to uncomplicate the technical art of data management and modeling, making its advantages more accessible to retailer customers,” says Dias. “We’re able to bring the latest and greatest because of our deep relationship with Microsoft.”

Fractal is a leading adopter of Microsoft AI offerings, including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Copilot , and Microsoft Cloud for Retail. “Microsoft offers a lot of great technical building blocks,” says Dias. “Those tools provide the bedrock for our solutions.” Fractal’s customers seek cutting-edge GenAI technology that doesn’t compromise on scalability, maintenance, privacy, and security. Utilizing Azure OpenAI Service allows Fractal to address these needs effectively, capitalizing on Microsoft’s robust and secure infrastructure. This strategic choice frees Fractal to dedicate development resources to enhancing the end-solution’s value, drawing upon their extensive expertise in AI and the retail sector.

Moreover, adopting Microsoft Cloud for Retail offers Fractal the benefit of a reliable, industry-specific platform. This approach not only aligns with Fractal’s operational goals but also provides a collection of proven tools to connect their customers and their data.

Helping retailers apply the power of AI

One example is Trial Run, which helps retailers conduct well-formed, statistically rigorous experiments so they can make optimal decisions around pricing, promotion, placement, and more. With Trial Run harnessing Azure and the advanced capabilities of Azure OpenAI, Fractal establishes a robust foundation in data, AI, and GenAI to craft bespoke business experiment solutions. This strategic approach allows Fractal to concentrate on their distinctive value proposition and expertise, eliminating the need to develop or maintain fundamental capabilities from the ground up.

The Trial Run program empowers clients to achieve remarkable outcomes:

  • One of Fractal’s customers, a Fortune 500 off-price department store retailer, implemented Trial Run to scale up its business experimentation efforts. The retailer saw immediate increases in accuracy and faster turnaround times for test analysis and ROI measurement, freeing up its analysts to tackle more projects. In a one-year period, the retailer realized an annual financial gain of $25 million across use cases including pricing and promotions, visual merchandising, and store operations.
  • A retail chain sought to revamp their grocery and snacks sections to enhance the shopping experience. Trial Run’s projections indicated that a widespread implementation could yield an $800,000 increase in adjusted margins within the first year.
  • In a separate engagement, Trial Run identified that simplifying signage would not yield the desired impact. This foresight prevented unnecessary expenditure, saving the client an estimated $1.25 million in potential costs for a system-wide signage overhaul

Customers can now see a live demonstration of Trial Run next time they visit their closest Microsoft Innovation Hub (formerly known as Technology Centers, or MTCs). Trial Run is now part of the partner demonstrations available worldwide in the hubs.

Another Fractal solution for retail, Crux Intelligence, allows decision-makers to extract insights from business data using a conversational, GenAI-based user interface. Flyfish, a GenAI platform for digital sales, analyzes an individual’s buying patterns and preferences to create a personalized shopping experience. Fractal’s AI-powered competitive intelligence solution compiles and delivers market intelligence, empowering retailers to quickly gather insights about trends and competitor actions. 

Flyfish and Crux benefit from leveraging the technologies of Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Cloud for Retail. This integration provides a dependable, scalable, and secure foundation, enabling Fractal to hone in on the unique value proposition of each solution, fortified by the power of Azure OpenAI Service. This synergy ensures that Fractal’s solutions are not only technologically sound but also closely aligned with clients’ specific business objectives.

The wide range of retail tools points to Fractal’s goal: to power every human decision in the enterprise. “All of our solutions are pushing the envelope and helping our customers become best-in-class,” says Dias, “and Microsoft technology, such as Azure OpenAI Service, helps us bring those solutions to market in an accelerated fashion.”

A win-win partnership with Microsoft

The partnership between Fractal and Microsoft is more than just a technical one. “It’s multidimensional,” says Dias. “Microsoft is a partner-first company and makes it easy for us to build solutions, take them to market, and monetize them. There’s a great synergy as Fractal and Microsoft go to market and try to win together for our customers.”

For example, the Azure Marketplace provides a platform for Fractal to deploy and demonstrate solutions and reach its target audience with ease. “Azure Marketplace gives us the ability to reach millions of customers around the world in an efficient manner,” Dias says, “not only to get discovered—but also to transact business.”

Dias appreciates the value Microsoft places on security and privacy. By partnering with Microsoft, Fractal can maximize data insights for retailers while respecting the end consumer’s privacy and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards.

As generative AI continues to evolve, Dias is eager to see what the future holds. “The ability to partner with Microsoft at this pivotal moment to transform the business operations of our customers is very exciting.”

Find out more about Fractal on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“We strive to uncomplicate the technical art of data management and modeling, making its advantages more accessible to retailer customers. We’re able to bring the latest and greatest because of our deep relationship with Microsoft.”

Dylan Dias, Chief Alliances Officer and Head of Cloud Partnerships, Worldwide, Fractal

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