PracticalSOA

Imagine walking up to a soda dispenser and mixing your own flavor. (Please try and get past the “what about the calories and sugar” argument for a second here ;)) You can experiment with different recipes, go for some outlandish tastes, whatever. The old promise of mass customization, right?

A prototype project at Coca Cola called “Freestyle” allows consumers to do just that. (Link to a press release by Coca Cola.)

What interests me here is not the promise of exotic flavors (though a lime-cherry-orange-grape-vanilla thing would be - theoretically, at least - welcome on a long, hot summer afternoon) but the brainstorming and collaboration that must have gone on behind the scenes.

Then of course, there is the application of technology:

“Ingredients include Windows CE, wireless networks, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager for Mobile Devices, Verizon VPN, Verizon wireless cards, SAP point-of-sale management software, Tibco middleware, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP CRM system/portal, and RFID readers and sensors.”

The big deal here is that this high-tech kiosk allows the marketers at Coca Cola to study consumer preferences in real-time and make faster decisions about “productizing” a flavor before a Jones Soda or a Sobe gets in on the action.

I am sure people in SAP are following this story with great interest. It should make for an excellent case study for how SAP products can truly drive top-line growth.

Bob Evans of Information Week makes many more excellent points in his article about this innovation. Do read the article as well as the original story, also in Information Week.

Now back to my no-flavor, low-tech water….