Reported impact
Business outcome
Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI
- Cost Reduction
- Customer Experience
- Productivity Improvement
- Revenue Growth
MicrosoftRetailIT Operations AutomationReal-time AnalyticsAI and Machine LearningCloud NativeIoTCost ReductionCustomer ExperienceProductivity ImprovementRevenue Growth2024 MicrosoftMS#0078d4RetailAustraliaIt wanted to scale edge AI capabilities and use technology to improve efficiency and offer leading customer experiences.Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCINov 19, 20246IT Operations Automation|Real-time AnalyticsAzure · Azure Machine Learning · Azure Stack HCI0 2024-11-19 6
Coles Group
IT Operations Automation · Real-time Analytics
It wanted to scale edge AI capabilities and use technology to improve efficiency and offer leading customer experiences.
Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI
Since expanding its Azure Stack HCI footprint from 2 to more than 500 stores, Coles can roll out new applications to its stores six times faster using the intelligent edge backbone without disrupting workloads. This gives teams the capacity to drive value and experiential improvements in stores.
The Azure automated machine learning tool was really useful for us, and it speeds up our data annotation time for training models by 50 percent.
With tens of thousands of high-quality products helping Australians eat and live better every day, Coles Group, a leading name in Australia’s retail sector, operates an expansive network of 1,800 stores across multiple brands, including 850 Coles Supermarkets locations. Committed to seamless experiences for millions of customers in person and online, the retail giant is an early adopter and investor in innovative technologies, such as AI and computer vision.
Solution
Coles Group, a Retail organization in Australia, modernized this it operations automation workload with Azure Stack HCI, Azure, and Azure Machine Learning. It wanted to scale edge AI capabilities and use technology to improve efficiency and offer leading customer experiences. Azure Stack HCI provides the distributed edge and hyperconverged infrastructure that runs local workloads across sites. Azure provides the scalable cloud foundation hosting the customer’s modernized applications, data, and AI workloads. Azure Machine Learning trains, manages, and deploys machine learning models used in the production workflow. Data from point-of-sale, cameras is ingested into Azure Stack HCI, processed across Azure, and surfaced through Azure Machine Learning so teams can act on fresher operational insight. Rolls out Azure-backed edge workloads across more than 500 stores. Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI.
Data flow
Data from point-of-sale, cameras is ingested into Azure Stack HCI, processed across Azure, and surfaced through Azure Machine Learning so teams can act on fresher operational insight.
Solution architecture
- Compute
- Azure Stack HCI provides the distributed edge and hyperconverged infrastructure that runs local workloads across sites.
- Azure provides the scalable cloud foundation hosting the customer’s modernized applications, data, and AI workloads.
- Azure Machine Learning trains, manages, and deploys machine learning models used in the production workflow.
Architecture clues
- Includes governance and auditability controls alongside AI deployment workflows.
- Operates more than 250 Azure Stack HCI clusters for centralized edge management.
- Rolls out Azure-backed edge workloads across more than 500 stores.
Evidence from the source
Coles Group helps feed millions of Australians. The company has an appetite for innovation and has long invested in AI and computer vision. It wanted to scale edge AI capabilities and use technology to improve efficiency and offer leading customer experiences.
Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI
Coles fully stands behind Microsoft innovations and is confident that any new technology it tests will be helpful in the market and benefit customers, suppliers, and team members alike. ”Our long-standing relationship with Microsoft is credit to the way that they’ve not only innovated in the market over the last couple of years but also to how they are willing to innovate with us and other forward-looking organizations,” says Giorgio. Adds Mackay, “Just using part of the Microsoft suite for Azure Stack HCI worked really well with the other Azure tools we use, including Azure Machine Learning.”
It wanted to scale edge AI capabilities and use technology to improve efficiency and offer leading customer experiences.
The retail giant is using Microsoft Azure Stack HCI as the foundation for its intelligent edge backbone, which helps it better manage applications and AI and computer vision use cases across its vast retail footprint.
Transparency Evidence & methodology
Review how this reference was scored and trace each normalized claim back to its documented source.
Scoring methodology
How scores are calculated
Customer Reference Value measures usefulness as a customer reference. Evidence Confidence measures the quality and traceability of available evidence, not independent verification.
Customer reference value92/100
- Problem clarity20/20Measures whether the customer's operational problem is specific enough to compare.
- Implementation depth25/25Rewards named components, data flow, integrations, and architecture detail.
- Outcome specificity12/20Measures whether the reported benefit is concrete rather than a generic claim.
- Quantified impact25/253 metrics describe measurable impact.
- Deployment scale10/10Rewards evidence of a live or scaled deployment and meaningful integration scope.
Evidence confidence89%
- Source authority20/25The main evidence is an official vendor-published customer story.
- Claim traceability21/2510 of 12 key fields link to a named source.
- Direct evidence20/205 direct source quotes retained.
- Date provenance10/10The publication date comes from the source page or publisher.
- Source transparency8/101 source reference document publisher, URL, authority, retrieval, and supported fields.
- Implementation specificity10/10Rewards source-backed components, data flow, quantified impact, and a specific outcome.
Traceability
Sources & provenance
Field coverage shows which facts each source supports. Dates are shown only when documented by the source.
- https://www.microsoft.com/en/customers/story/18810-coles-group-azureMicrosoftFirst-party
Coles Group customer story
Supports- Customer
- Business problem
- Solution
- Products
- Solution components
- Data flow
- Integrations
- technical area
- use case category
- Business outcome
- outcome category
- Metrics
- Architecture
- evidence quotes
- Publication date
Date evidence
- Published on source page Nov 19, 2024 · Microsoft · First-partyOpen date source
Not separately sourced Industry, Region, Company size. Treat these normalized attributes as lower-confidence until a dedicated source is added.
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