Drugstore, health care company says partnership aligns with ‘vision of modern pharmacy’.
Rite Aid has entered a sweeping technology partnership with Google Cloud, giving them a more flexible, data-driven and efficient platform for growth and operations.
Plans call for Google Cloud technologies to arm Philadelphia-based Rite Aid with sharp insights, more agility and enhances customer experiences. Modernized applications that can properly execute personalized digital experiences will position Rite Aid’s 6,400 pharmacists to interact directly with their patients.
Rite Aid plans to migrate key health and wellness applications, such as vaccine scheduling and customer messaging tools, to Google Cloud’s Anthos managed platform for easier, more efficient app deployment.
Google Cloud noted that Anthos with give Rite Aid pharmacies cloud computing capabilities on-site, enabling more resilient operations. This platform will enable the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based tech giant to continue to provide incredible services during natural disasters such as powerful recommendations without requiring a mainframe connection.
More specifically, Rite Aid said in a statement that the partnership will play a key role in reaching its vision of a modern pharmacy.
“The power of pharmacies, and the important role pharmacists play in the health of their communities, greatly expanded during COVID. Realizing that potential means making strategic investments in technology that can truly help our customers and maximize the capabilities of our pharmacists,” according to Justin Mennen, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Rite Aid. “Google Cloud’s solutions are uniquely positioned to run at each dispensary location to allow our store teams to help our customers to achieve whole health for life.”
Rite Aid’s digital innovations have been an impressive part of its “digital transformation” efforts. Can you imagine the progress made by Google Cloud? There are many more transformational benefits Rite Aid has achieved, and it is one of their value-chain partners.
• Moving to Google Cloud: Rite Aid is shifting its enterprise data to Google Cloud using BigQuery. This will enable more insights into their finances and customer information, which will in turn make better decisions for business operations going forward.
Rite Aid is partnering with Google to provide an enhanced shopping experience. With the help of Google, Rite Aid’s customers can get more accurate search results on their e-commerce site and mobile app by leveraging Google-quality search models.
Elixir, the division of Rite Aid responsible for all aspects of their PBM application suite including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and business logic capabilities, has updated their current system. The update comes courtesy of a partnership with Google and features a new upgrade to their cloud-first platform which will provide more processing power for data analytics and processing.
A health care company with a retail footprint, Rite Aid is strategically investing in technology to meet customers’ changing expectations. With these innovations, they are helping to define the modern pharmacy.
The nation’s third-largest drugstore chain, Rite Aid, had total fiscal 2022 revenue of $24.57 billion and an operating profit before tax of 159 million. Its Retail Pharmacy business unit (front-end sales of $5.22 billion and pharmacy sales of $12.15 billion) had an operating profit before tax of 92 million and its Pharmaceutical Services unit (same building services) made an operating profit before tax of 158 million dollars.
Rite-Aid follows a range of companies in the food, drug and mass channel teaming with cloud and IT services providers in recent years. The company partners with companies like C&S Wholesale Grocers, Albertsons Cos., Hy-Vee, Kroger, Walmart and Costco. Food, drug and mass retailers partner with cloud and tech service providers including Microsoft and Rackspace. Amazon was also among these companies adding Instacart, Ocado, Sainsbury, HelloFresh to their platform.
UPDATE: Rainmaker more accurately provides the context for Google as an example of a competitor for Rite Aid’s partnering