Linkers Technology
The Google Analytics For Offline Stores

In an intertwined physical and digital world where nothing is inevitable, and new normality is shaping off being ahead of the curve, having the ability to gauge control and stand out in a very competitive environment is an absolute game-changer. A recent research from Experian shows that more than 88% of businesses suffer from data accuracy!

“At Linkers Technology, we believe in bridging the two-worlds and enabling business owners to make it through the edge and be able to maximize their data value on every opportunity that crosses their journey - starting with capturing and tracking their customer traffic and purchasing behavior through to an exceptional control over their operational expenses which directly impact their profitability,” begins Faisal AlKhaldy, founder and CEO of UAE based Linkers Technology.

Data-driven decision making is what will differentiate traditional showrooms and businesses to compete in today’s digital world. Based on real-time data analysis, the company helps business owners and operators optimize their showrooms in sales, cost reduction, assets protection, and operational improvements.

“In today’s world, data is the new oil, where 70% of retail data value has not been captured yet!” adds Khaled Alkhaldi, co-founder and CTO of Linkers Technology.

What Led to Linkers Technology’s Inception?

An appalling dinner experience at a local restaurant set Faisal AlKhaldy and Khaled Alkhaldi onto a discovery journey. Apart from the service delay because of the staff shortage, they noticed lousy temperature control and long wait time in queues to place an order. They also realized that neither the operations manager nor the business owners were aware of the negative vibes, and a couple of customers who peaked in and left seeing the busy floor.

This stormed out a flood of “What if” questions.

What if the operation manager could have predicted the average number of customers who would probably step in and made sure there were enough waiters on the floor?

In Today’s World, Data Is The New Oil

What if they could act in real-time through offline data collected by IoT sensors?

As the “what ifs” list continued to grow, Faisal and Khalid continued to dig in, asking several restaurant owners about their pain points, especially offline locations and showrooms. This led Faisal and Khaled to realize that only 16% of retailers have the experience to use data for decision making! and believed they could close the gap and solve all these pain points in operations, customer excellence, and profitability, using simple IoT sensors and building in the right analytics triggering automated actions for restaurant owners and operators.

That is how Linkers IoT fundamental ideas were born in 2018 in Dubai, aiming to come up with IoT and digital innovative products and services that address real pain points.

The Analytics and Automation Platform

Linkers Technology provides a unique IoT analytics platform to enable retail stores with variable sensors connected to Linkers Cloud, providing trends and business analysis to improve revenue and save cost through customers count and trends, equipment data, efficiency, and utility consumption. Based on which clients can automate decisions triggering a positive impact on their business. The platform provides a myriad of features such as
• Dashboard to monitor and visualize the data in real-time
• Track customer count with their average visiting time, sales convergence and retention rates
• Analyze different branch utilization and plan human resources efficiently
• Check the effectiveness of shopping floor layout using heatmaps
• Measure stores vitor’s traffic response to different marketing campaigns
• Observe customers’ trends and automate social media promotions according to low visiting hours.

Plug & Play Sensors and cameras are installed within any location, and with the help of cloud technology, data is synced with the cloud securely, giving decision makers access to real-time analysis. All IoT sensors and nodes exchange data securely, and all platforms tools are GDPR compliant.

What clients can do with this data is limitless. Users can monitor essential equipment and measure efficiency. They can unlock automation scenarios and maintenance triggers automatically to alarm unusual machines’ behavior triggering faulty machines. Clients can calculate their energy consumption for different elements in their stores.

A Subscription-Based Model

Linkers Technology offers a simple plug-and-play solution that clients can subscribe to and “pay as they grow.” The company has packages tailor-made for SMEs and large enterprises. Linkers’ solution is simple and can be used by any individual. The firm provides a team of highly experienced and technically equipped members that can assess and solve clients’ needs and requirements.

For instance, one of its clients had over fifty branches with an uncountable number of ACs, and each unit had an assigned team to monitor its smooth functioning. It was quite expensive to manage so many different groups who were working manually to check all those equipment one by one. Linkers Technology came in and installed sensors at each of those branches to track various machines at each client’s facilities. By monitoring working hours and consumption behavior of ACs triggering automatic maintenance tickets for faulty ACs, the client could save a lot in terms of power and cost.

What Lies Ahead

Automating IoT data separates Linkers Technology from its competitors, and “it is the fastest way to transform operations digitally,” adds Khaled. The company aims to have the highest number of deployed sensors in the region within a couple of years.

Seventy percent of the organizations already had some digital initiatives in place before this ongoing global pandemic. However, COVID-19 has been a major driving force to push organizations towards digitization. Banking upon the current situation, Linkers Technology aims to solve traditional problems, bring technology in each business area, and give previously unknown customers value and unprecedented opportunities.

In the future, Linkers Technology will build on automated smart insights and triggers in real-time, leading to quantifiable improvement in profitability, customer excellence, and better SLAs and KPIs within businesses without any human intervention. “We look at ourselves as the Google analytics for offline stores,” concludes Faisal.