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Display System for SportScheck

UMA CREATES SEMANTIC WEB KNOWLEDGE ENGINE AND DISPLAY

SYSTEM FOR LEADING GERMAN SPORTS RETAILER SPORTSCHECK

 

 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2011

 

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – uma, the innovation leader in semantic web technology, today announced that it has developed a semantic web engine for leading German retailer SportScheck that enables the company’s employees to leverage real-time information on products, and customer profiles that leverages the combined know-how of the entire company. uma also announced that it will build a prototype of a semantic display system for SportScheck, based on the uma SKIN™(for Semantic Knowledge Information Network) product, a modular multitouch display solution that combines uma’s semantic content curation engine, which provides real-time information based on suggested topics or key words, and integrates retail e-commerce features.

 

SportScheck will begin testing the new display system at various premier SportScheck retail locations in the coming months, in preparation for the launch of SportScheck’s new 10,000 square meter flagship store, which will open in Munich in 2013.  

 

Using the uma Melvil® semantic engine, uma created a web-based “competence cloud” for all 1,300 SportScheck employees. The system provides SportScheck employees with store product information based on a customer’s preferences and user history. This combination of semantic search and Enterprise 2.0 aggregates the collective know-how of SportScheck employees and brings it into a digital network, to be managed dynamically.

 

Rated Germany’s “best sports shop” in May, 2010, as determined by the German Institute for Service Quality, SportScheck is convinced that the next-generation Internet will change retail faster and more fundamentally than every before. A division of the Otto Group, SportScheck has invested heavily in creating platforms that leverage all employees’ intellectual capital in order to improve the overall shopping experience for both employees and customers alike.

 

“Reaching today’s retail customer requires us to, literally, go ‘back to the future,’ to an era 100 years ago when visiting a major retail store was an event, a true experience that cemented the relationship between a brand a customer, and the uma software delivers a platform that creates instant excitement, engagement, and a real-time exchange that is unparalleled,” said Stefan Herzog, chairman of SportScheck. “We are invested in the future of retail on a level that realizes a greater degree of innovation than we have seen before. Our customers have enormous amounts of knowledge and information at their fingertips, and we need to give them even more reasons to spend their time, and money, with our store.”

 

sps_SKIN_retail2.jpg
A vision of the semantic display system at SportScheck

The uma SKIN base installation for SportScheck will be built on a smaller version of the full product, using six 46-inch Full HD LCD displays and will be easily extendable. Like an organism’s skin, the uma SKIN product provides a display that can be touched and manipulated, and provide response, in the form of information. The uma SKIN product will enable tens of visitors to simultaneously interact with SportScheck information and retail products, as well as digital art, audiovisuals, local and global news, and other rich media and Web 2.0 content.

 

“We view information – whether text, graphics, apps, video, or audio – as particles of knowledge that float through our social worlds in an invisible manner. In order for us to retrieve relevant information intuitively anytime, anywhere, we have created methodologies for playful knowledge acquisition and supportive social interaction, and our work with SportScheck is the first retail installation of our new product, uma SKIN,” said Christian Doegl, founder and CEO of uma. “Our work with SportScheck on their enterprise knowledge system has led to this new store display installation; they are passionate about sharing knowledge in a way that is rarely implemented within an organization, and customers will experience a new kind of retail environment altogether.”

 

uma completed the first installation of the uma SKIN product at the Central European headquarters of Siemens in Vienna last year. The Siemens Identity Display (SID) enables visitors to communicate directly with the display wall, where content is curated based on the number of people, the profile of the visitor, and the time of day, among other factors.

 

uma SKIN’s semantic content curation engine minimizes the effort for content production, editing and curating. It can be used in corporate or public communication, retail, exhibition and museum scenarios. The semantic content curator engine is able to retrieve and contextualize content from various repositories or the web, including web 2.0 sources. Person tracking enables passive interaction of content with visitors. The interaction with the content is on-demand and is personalized through RFID technology. Interactive screen area configurations currently range from 1.2 up to 8.4 Meters @ 29 Megapixels.

 

About uma - separating the signal from the noise

Since its founding in 1994, uma has been thinking about new forms of complex knowledge retrieval and spatial user experiences. Within this domain, uma has continuously built a reputation as an innovation leader, demonstrated through various awards and international recognitions during the last decade. uma provides end-to-end services for its customers, helping with creative planning as well as the implementation and integration on the basis of Melvil©, a semantic service platform the SKIN™ and VICO™ Multitouch Solutions and MelvilMediaMood®, a semantic social and analog Media Monitoring Solution.

 

uma clients include the OTTO Group, Republic of Austria, Siemens, Intel, IBM, Intersport, Deutsche Telekom AG, 3, Verbund AG, Red Bull or L’Oréal.  uma is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. For more information, please visit www.uma.at .

 

About SportScheck

SportScheck was established in 1946 in Munich by Otto Scheck. In the post-war period, shortages required inventiveness: the first winter sports collection was made from old military goods due to the difficult materials supply situation. In 1988, the Otto Group became a partner in SportScheck, and has been the sole shareholder since 1991.

 

As one of Germany’s largest retailers for sports items, SportScheck offers its customers an impressive array of sports and leisure time equipment, comprising over 21,000 articles from almost 500 global brands. The company has four main catalogues per year, containing up to 620 pages, publishes numerous special catalogues and sells via the Internet at www.sportscheck.com. It also has a presence across Germany through its 16 SportScheck stores which represent a combined total sales area of over 48,000 square metres. In addition, customers from Austria and Switzerland can also shop online or via the catalogue. Numerous national and international sports competitions and exhibitions organized by the company, such as city runs as well as outdoor and glacier ‘testivals’, emphasize the company’s expertise in sports equipment and turn popular sports into an emotional event. SportScheck is headquartered in Unterhaching, near Munich. For more information, visit the company web site at www.sportscheck.com.

 

Contact:

Chris Pfaff, +1-201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com

Katharina Meißner, katharina.meissner@uma.at