The future of retail IT is not going to be in pulling in new data. It’s going to be in finding the best ways to integrate all of those data sources to generate new opportunities. One of the best — and potentially wackiest — examples of this is coming from a retail mall lighting company that is using sensor-based lighting equipment to identify shoppers and their cars and even find them great parking spaces. Perhaps a journey of 1,000 SKUs starts with a single parking break?

The company behind this is called Sensity Systems, and it announced last week (July 20) that it has raised some $74 million from the likes of Cisco Investments, GE Ventures and the Simon Venture Group. Sensity is positioning itself as an Internet of Everything company, but in my view, that does the company a great disservice. These guys are really focused on integrating the various data streams that most retail malls are already gathering (security footage, automated lighting controls, Wi-Fi, crowd-counting systems, license plate recognition cameras, etc.) and combining them in creative ways to offer new services and to gain fresh insights.

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