Spotify this: How Zulily targets shoppers with hyper-personalized offers

Zulily has run surprise sales of clothing and merchandise since 2010, boldly operating in the shadow of Amazon.com. While most retailers fear the ecommerce kraken, whose tentacles seemingly know no bounds, Zulily consistently lures consumers with tailored offers generated by machine learning (ML) software.    Zulily CIO Luke Friang says the keys to successful hyper-personalization include…

IHG books big tech transformation

IHG is upgrading its IT systems and moving applications to the public cloud to remain afloat in a hospitality market where consumers have come to expect high-tech amenities ranging from mobile check-ins to robot concierges. Hotel chains have long under-invested in technology, opting to focus on white-glove customer service and other offerings that have a…

IT leadership’s new rules of engagement

In the lead up to Synchrony Financial being spun out from parent company GE and launching an initial public offering (IPO), Carol Juel was front and center explaining the newly independent company’s business strategy and innovation plans. Juel was even known to cart giant poster boards from meeting-to-meeting to help customers, partners, and internal employees…

6 reasons why AI projects fail

Eighteen months ago, Mr. Cooper launched an intelligent recommendation system for its customer service agents to suggest solutions to customer problems. The company, formerly known as Nationstar, is the largest non-bank mortgage provider in the U.S., with 3.8 million customers, so the project was viewed as a high-profile cost-saver for the company. It took nine…

IDG Contributor Network: Enterprise architecture short- and long-term wins

Enterprise architecture is not just about building a business and IT knowledgebase. It’s more and more about short and long-term wins, where enterprise architects participate in the selection of strategic priorities and about contributing specific knowledge valuable to the agile delivery solution teams afterward. Short term wins Traditionally, enterprise architects focused mostly on information technology…