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The evolving retail environment has raised the expectations for analysts and service providers to the industry, requiring them to manage massive amounts of data, extract insights, and accurately predict market movements, all while managing client needs and resources.
Management One, a leading retail inventory planning firm, faced these challenges. With the growth of their clients' businesses, their datasets also expanded, raising scalability challenges while also creating new opportunities for advanced analytics. Jeremy Weiss, who serves as Director of Product Development, noted, “we identified where we were stuck in a cycle of repetitive, manual tasks that were hampering progress. With more advanced tools, we knew we could automate these processes and free up time and resources for more strategic work.”
Adding more analysts wasn't the right move for the small company, as it was simply too expensive and inefficient. As Weiss put it, “we needed to rethink how we were doing things, instead of just adding more people. Scaling up manual work just isn't cost-effective.” They focused on finding ways to work smarter with their existing team, reducing time spent on tasks like data labeling and reporting, and more time spent focusing on the needs of retailers, and tasks directly related to that product development.
With finite data science skills inside the company, they needed tools that the current team could use and integrate effortlessly into their existing workflows.
In Akkio, Management One found a predictive tool that was both powerful and user-friendly. Adam Hambleton, Planning Manager at Management One, explained, “having the ability to do these things through Akkio’s graphical interface rather than coding was the big thing for us.”
Akkio empowered Management One to examine their data more deeply without needing more personnel or more technical expertise. By feeding their data into Akkio's advanced algorithms, and leveraging Akkio’s user-friendly interface, they could discern patterns quickly and work more efficiently than with their prior methods.
The team was also able to automate their data tagging process, which was previously done manually, leading to a significant 70% reduction in tagging labor.
Hambleton expressed surprise at the ease and speed of setting up Akkio. “In my experience with other tools, it can take weeks to be up and running, but with Akkio, it was super quick,” he remarked. This easy implementation meant Management One could begin benefiting from Akkio almost instantly, avoiding any costly or lengthy setup.
Akkio's proactive support was another benefit throughout their journey, making them feel like partners, not just users.
Implementing Akkio was a revelatory moment for the firm. They were able to accelerate their use of advanced, machine learning tools to enhance both their operational efficiency and the richness of their data products, leveraging the quality of Akkio’s algorithms as well as its accessibility to non-technical subject matter experts.
Akkio's ability to reduce manual labor resulted in a significant return on investment, enabling the team to double their output. Instead of spending long hours on tedious data analysis, they reclaimed valuable time, enabling them to focus on strategic initiatives. No more weekend scrambles for client deliverables. Akkio took the strain, freeing the team to elevate their performance and productivity.
Looking ahead, Management One plans to automate up to 40 models using Akkio, each tailored to different lines of clothing or types of products and retailers. By recognizing that each product type has unique influencers, they're able to group their inventory into approximately 40 distinctive categories for more efficient planning. This approach demonstrates Akkio's scalability and flexibility, proving to be a significant advantage in the dynamic retail environment.
The journey with Akkio was not just about embracing a new tool; it was about a fundamental shift in the team's approach to problem-solving. By empowering them with easy to use machine learning capabilities, Akkio helped them spend less time wrangling data and more time developing new tools for insight into retail performance.