Melbourne's Riley migrates chemist group Australian Pharmaceutical Industries to Google Cloud

Melbourne-based managed services provider Riley was tapped to migrate health and beauty retail firm Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) to Google Cloud.

API owns and operates the retail stores of Priceline Pharmacy, Soul Pattinson Chemist, Clear Skincare and Pharmacist Advice across Australia.

Riley was tapped by Google Cloud after previously working together on a deployment for another retail customer.

The deployment involved a number of Google Cloud solutions to help generate advanced customer analytics and build an end-to-end view of customers across e-commerce, web channels, mobile apps and API digital health services.

“[The project] came as a referral from Google Cloud, based upon previous work Riley and Google had delivered in the retail sector. We had worked together on another enterprise retail customer solution, with the result being an exceptional outcome for the customers e-commerce performance. Partnering together on API is a natural fit,” Riley founder and managing director Tom Bernadou told CRN.

The deployment builds on API’s existing systems that use a combination of cloud and on-premises systems, which also had Google Marketing Platform toolsets already in place.

The Google Cloud solution integrates API’s loyalty, e-commerce, and customer data platforms into a single ‘Digital Customer Hub’ hosted on the cloudplatform itself, and also modernises the company’s legacy data platform through Big Query and Google Cloud AI. The additions would help analyse existing data and generate real-time insights about customer behaviour, preferences, and propensity to purchase API products and digital services.

API will also look to implement Google’s Recommendations AI architecture to deliver curated recommendations across company touchpoints and dynamically adapt to real-time customer behaviour and changes in variables like assortment, pricing and special offers. Riley has three staff working on the implementation.

API chief transformation officer Dean Matthews said, "Our customers are at the heart of our digital strategy."

“Priceline's Sister Club is Australia's fifth-largest loyalty program with more than 7.5 million members across the country, and we see huge potential in leveraging the platform to curate even more relevant and personalised experiences for our discerning customer base, driven by their shopping preferences and purchase history."

Matthews added that understanding buyer behaviour and translating that into actionable insights is critical to API’s digital strategy and that Google Cloud was a pioneer in the space.

“Our vision is to build more value-based, long-term relationships with our customers and with Google Cloud, we have an innovation partner with a proven track record of success and technical expertise to drive more intelligent, data-driven experiences and build stronger brand loyalty.”

Upon completion, Bernadou added that Riley will run some optimisation work. “At Riley, we take an approach that ensures customer success and will keep a regular cadence along with Google to ensure the ongoing value of the solution,” he told CRN.