Sainsbury's Tech – Brochure 2020

TO GE T H ER. AS O N E H OW SA I N S B U RY’S F ED T H E N AT IO N

P R O J E C T PA R T N E R S

TOGETHER. AS ONE H OW SAINSBURY’S FED THE NATION Interface Magazine talks to Sainsbury’s Group CIO Phil Jordan who reveals how the grocery giant tackled COVID-19…

WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY

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A n d r e w Wo o d s K ir o n C h a vd a

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T

he United Kingdom went

unified, multi-brand Technology, Digital &

into full-scale lockdown on

Data Division, Sainsbury’s Tech, already

March 23, 2020. For many

had one eye trained on any potential

enterprises, the stresses of a locked-

disruption caused by Britain’s exit from

down Britain, battling the virus COVID-19,

the EU and so, the lockdown meant it

centred around keeping businesses alive

could adapt and accelerate some of

amid dramatic shifts in working practices.

these plans. “When the word came that

For others, it was a very different chal-

we were going into lockdown, we’d been

lenge. For the big supermarkets, lock-

anticipating it,” explains Phil Jordan, CIO

down represented an enormous logisti-

of Sainsbury’s. “We spent a lot of time

cal spike in operations during a time of

thinking about what policy-makers were

unprecedented uncertainty. Supermarkets

going to do and the impact that might

were literally feeding the nation.

have for customers, colleagues and our

Sainsbury’s and its newly established 4

COVID-19 REPORT

complex supply chains across multiple

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H O W W E F E D T H E N AT I O N

countries. We’d become attuned to that

putting brilliant technology into the hands

process as a result of planning for all the

of brilliant people”, Jordan said upon

various Brexit milestones of the last few

its launch. “Sainsbury’s Tech is all about

years.”

giving customers great experiences, leveraging data like a start-up, but at a

SAINSBURY’S TECH

scale they can’t offer while fostering a

Sainsbury’s Tech was launched in the

culture of experimental curiosity.”

autumn of 2019 and it is the customer

“It’s unprecedented to run a busi-

who lies at the heart of this new divi-

ness like ours, a complex business that

sion headed up by Jordan to provide

requires so much day-to-day intense

the multi-brand, multi-channel capability

transaction, all remotely,” Jordan

that powers the different brands: Argos,

explains. “We had to maintain normal

Nectar, Tu clothing, Sainsbury’s Bank,

working conditions to an extent for

Habitat and, of course, Sainsbury’s, “by

people who were in stores – the vast 5

majority of the people who work for Sainsbury’s have been instore during the pandemic – with social distancing and various other things we had to do, to keep colleagues and customers safe. And doing all that while everybody else who provides a support service to the stores were not working in the same location. To be fair, we’ve done an incredible job, because we pivoted the whole company to work from home in a couple of weeks, and at no point did any of that ever cause any disruption to the stores.”

Innovation wasn’t limited to digital operations, either, as colleague and customer safety forced stores to adapt ways of working, including the checkout experience, and every aspect of where customers interact with colleagues, to try and make it as safe as possible.

“We were doing that sometimes with very little information as to what was needed and what might happen,” Jordan explains. “By just being brave enough to do the right thing and iterate and innovate as we go, and make lots of small changes to make sure we’re reacting to customer needs across all of our estate, such as Argos flipping into being Prepay only, and then Pick-up In Store, for everything. And then scaling our Fast Track and our Delivery teams to try and reach all the customers. Seeing sales numbers much higher than expected without any stores being open is a great example of how we’ve innovated.”

Mark Lowe is Senior Software Engineer, Retail & Labour Management. “COVID-19 represented a massive challenge in keeping the stores running for our customers, getting the stock out on the shelves, supporting

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Understanding customers better with Snowflake’s Cloud Data Platform

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? Perceiving the need to rethink processes and end data silos, Sainsbury’s chose Snowflake, and initiated their cloud data migration with a clear goal in mind: to democratize all of the data across the business.

make use of before due to the data being siloed is now available to query and run analytics against. Empowering many divisions of analysts across the group to make more enriched data driven decisions.

“Snowflake is helping us conquer the hard yards of what it means to rebuild a data ecosystem in the cloud and that gets right at the heart of our business strategy of knowing our customers better than anyone else” Helen Hunter said, Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s.

The result: by consolidating multiple disparate and functional siloed data assets, the granularity of reporting and the accuracy of Sainsbury’s real time data has been unlocked across the group through Snowflake’s cloud data platform housing an ever increasing volume of valuable data. This is enabling quicker decision making and a continuous enrichment of data in a centralised pool to make use of. With Snowflake’s instant scaling flexibility, elasticity and per-second pricing, performance constraints are no longer an issue.

Snowflake’s cloud data platform is right in the core of the so-called ASPIRE solution. This is Sainsbury’s own platform for fast insight and reporting across its multiple brands within the organisation. It connects the huge volume of data sources and ingestion systems to the organisations data consumers and analytical dashboards throughout a multitude of data workloads.

“Snowflake is helping us conquer the hard yards of what it means to rebuild a data ecosystem in the cloud and that gets right at the heart of our business strategy of knowing our customers better than anyone else.”

HELEN HUNTER Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

When migrating, Sainsbury’s decided to go for a full cloud solution. The migration encompassed every aspect of the business from the data warehouse to the supply chain and loyalty programme analytics. They separated the project into phases and replaced incumbent technologies. Ingesting everything into Snowflake finally solved the data silos issue and democratised data analytics at Sainsbury’s.

During these difficult times, Sainsbury’s adapted rapidly and up-scaled their technology and business operations in a way that wouldn’t be possible without Snowflake.

Sainsbury’s strives to know their customers better than anyone else so that they can provide great prices on products and services wherever and whenever their customers would like to shop online and in-store, with data being at the core of this and enabling them to continuously improve, optimise and automate.

Snowflake could not be prouder to work closely with Sainsbury’s throughout this extremely critical and challenging time during the pandemic.

“We’ve been able to build new data products for the organization that users have never historically been able to access.”

HELEN HUNTER Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s now has all of its data within one single place, removing what was obsolete and cleaning up codes and inefficiencies. Data that previously was not available to

snowflake.com © 2020 Snowflake. All rights reserved.

our colleagues etc.,” he tells us. “And so, we looked at streamlining operations quickly wherever we could. We needed to create more shelf space for high volume lines and temporarily removed certain non-core lines, helping dress our stores for our customers to get what they wanted, quickly. We also had a massive shift in our store colleagues’ working patterns as well. As you’ll be aware, Argos and Habitat stores were closed and many of those colleagues were able to come and help out in Sainsbury’s stores as customers’ shopping patterns changed.”

The fact that the entire store installa-

M A R K G A R S TA N G , S E N I O R E N G I N E E R I N G M A N A G E R – I N S TA L L AT I O N S E R V I C E S

tion team was homebased pretty much from the middle of March, meant working remotely with suppliers at the stag-

across the estate. During lockdown the

ing centre in Milton Keynes. The Store

team re-directed its efforts in support-

Installations team provides support for

ing the increasing demand for grocer-

store openings, closures, refits and

ies online, Click & Collect and devices

expansions and following the decision

for colleagues instore. “All the way

to lockdown had to instantly respond to

through this, we remained open and had

changes to store layout and the numbers

a small set of engineers out in the field

of checkouts etc., while at the same

reacting and responding to some of the

time respecting distancing measures

stuff we had to do just to help our store

in undertaking engineering work. Mark

colleagues,” Garstang explains. “We had

Garstang is Senior Engineering Manager,

to learn how to use Teams and technol-

Installation Services, which installs

ogy more to work remotely with suppli-

most of the technology to new stores

ers. We also had to learn how to work

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under the new social distancing poli-

unprecedented demand. “My fear was

cies and procedures coming into play to

always about service availability at that

allow us on site to undertake work. We

point,” Jordan explains. “We were just

became part of the critical force helping

in a period of rcrazy consumer panic.

the store teams pivot towards what was

People buying more toilet rolls than

needed to support our colleagues and

they knew what to do with and various

our customers in stores, such as improv-

other things. It’s like Christmas and Black

ing our till capacity while the volume of

Friday happening at the same time and

our groceries online went through the

out of the blue. My fear is always that we

roof.”

must run the business at high intensity,

As the UK started to panic buy,

24/7 and we can’t afford to fail. And I’m

Jordan and his colleagues had to

delighted to say we prevailed, and the

keep operations agile and scalable to

technology stood up amazingly well.”

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COLIN SMITH, HEAD OF ENGINEERING FOR LOGISTICS

This image is pre-covid-19 12

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S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN Colin Smith, Head of Engineering for Logistics outlines those early days of lockdown. “It was a case of how quickly the business could respond to panic buying. We had an immediate demand placed upon us from our logistics operations team for more capacity. Bear in mind this happened pretty much in the space of a few days, where traditionally we prepare for Christmas 6-8 months in advance. And, to the credit of my team – ‘my family’ – we responded fantastically in an awesome way. We mobilised five additional facilities in the space of six days to deliver circa two million additional cases into the network to meet the demands placed upon the stores.

Traditionally that would have taken one site, around three weeks, but we turned around five sites in the space of six days. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly hard, and the team worked really long hours, but it’s really shown in how we got behind Feeding the Nation, by supporting our store colleagues on the front line.”

As digital operations spiked as a result of raging demand, it was essential to keep that digital infrastructure strong and safe. Simon Grant, Senior

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An adaptable, resilient and purpose-driven technology partnership is key to Sainsbury’s success TCS’s engagement with Sainsbury’s as a Strategic Technology Partner spans 13 years and we are now enabling their evolution into a Leading multi brand multi channel retailer of the future, by leveraging the power of TCS Business 4.0TM framework. In our experience, enterprises that have demonstrated Business 4.0™ behaviours - leveraging ecosystems, personalising at scale, embracing risk, and creating exponential value— have pivoted towards growth, transformation, and sustainability.

www.tcs.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on business communities everywhere.

During such disruptive times, all businesses look to reliable partners to help them navigate the storm. TCS teams swiftly switched into to the new ways of working Leveraging TCS’ SBWS™ (Secure Borderless Workspaces) framework, and put in place robust control measures to ensure business as usual through a stable and secure estate to handle surged volumes and adapt quickly to changes.

“During the pandemic, TCS has been working side by side with various teams from across Sainsbury’s to respond quickly to changing customer behaviour and helping in the mission to ‘Feed the Nation’. We are proud to partner in Sainsbury’s transformation to build a responsive and resilient supply chain thereby ensuring future-readiness,” said Shekar Krishnan, Head of Retail: UK, TCS TCS works closely with product families across Sainsbury’s to deliver a modern, efficient technology estate and we continue to deliver these outcomes using our Location Independent distributed Agile model. Sainsbury’s also benefits from our significant experience in technology and business transformation with global retailers. Sainsbury’s vision is to supply any product, from anywhere, to anywhere, wherever and whenever the customer wants, and TCS enables this using a solid foundation of

engineering and business expertise.

A number of these initiatives have been active since late 2019, and the disruption caused by COVID19 did not impact TCS’ ability to deliver these outcomes ensuring that there was no impact on the ongoing program delivery.

This allowed TCS to deliver a quick turnaround for critical business requirements borne out of the pandemic such as: • Technology changes that provided quick access to Sainsbury’s applications for elderly citizens, NHS staff and other vulnerable carers • Significant enhancements in the logistics and warehousing applications to support Sainsbury’s ongoing effort to “Feed the Nation”.

• Quick turnaround in enabling regulatory and legally mandated changes to Sainsbury’s internal systems that allowed colleagues to work un-hindered during the crisis

colleague experience, reduction in dual systems for managers and improved data governance TCS has enabled a number of organisations to unlock value by leveraging the power of its strategic Algo Retail™framework, a playbook that integrates data and algorithms across the value chain. Sainsbury’s has demonstrated many of these traits in abundance. At TCS, we are convinced that Sainsbury’s appetite to take well-informed, measured risks and embrace a partner-oriented approach are strong indicators of its ability to deliver a customer-centric, datadriven transformation strategy.

“Our longstanding partnership with Sainsbury’s has only deepened and thrived in this new, highly complex, volatile, and fast evolving marketplace. I believe it is a testament to the strong foundations we have built together to enable improved customer focus, extended market leadership, and accelerated business success,” Shekar concludes.

• Supported an accelerated rollout of collaboration and communication tools for all colleagues facing an entirely new day-today lived experience during lockdown • Automation initiatives in retail stores that helped reduce the time-to-market time by 60% and resulted in significant cost savings.

• Integrated Sainsbury’s One Group-wide source of colleague and organisation data.

Providing a consistent

Shekar Krishnan, Head of Retail: UK, TCS

FIN D O U T M O RE

S I M O N G R A N T, S E N I O R I S M A N A G E R , PRODUCT ASSURANCE AND SECURITY TESTING

IS Manager, Product Assurance and

consulting on these immediate needs to

Security Testing. “Our first priority was

ensure we could enable our colleagues

the people and the team. Very quickly

to work effectively, whilst understand-

after going into lockdown, there was

ing what risks that might present, and

clearly a need to support the broader

making sure we had the right controls

business. People had to adapt and

to keep Sainsbury’s and our custom-

change their ways of working to perform

ers, colleagues and data, safe. This was

their operations, which didn’t quite

particularly the case with our Contact

work in a remote setting. Some exam-

Centres, moving these normally static

ples being systems you could only

teams to a remote working model was

access by being connected directly to

their biggest challenge as they had

the Sainsbury’s network and a require-

never worked in this way before.”

ment for a business to have connections

Once the panic buying started to

from home. Clearly that can open more

subside, it was customer channel prefer-

risks, so our teams were really busy

ence that started to shift, affecting scale

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while the operations teams were work-

Sarah Hirtenjohann is Senior Supplier

ing from home. “Given that none of our

Relationship Manager at Sainsbury’s and

teams are sitting together or with the

it was her job to keep relationships with

business stakeholder, how do we hear

tech suppliers open and delivering, as

and interpret and deliver on this real

they helped to support the growing digi-

adaptability and agility?” Jordan posits.

tal operation. “It was clear to us, before

“So, if the first wave of concern is can

lockdown started in March, that it was

we keep it running? The second wave

coming. So, we took an opportunity in

becomes ‘Are we agile enough? Are

the middle of February, whilst we were

we adaptive enough, given that we’re

all still together, to create a 90-day plan

remote working, to meet the demand of

for what we wanted to focus on, and

change?’ COVID-19 has seen endless

deliver, as a team, until the end of June.”

innovation in digital, as we scaled from 300,000 to 700,000 delivery slots a

CARING FOR THE COMMUNITY

week.”

One of the biggest concerns, nationally, 17

OUTMANOEUVRING UNCERTAINTY, TOGETHER. As Accenture continues to be a key partner to Argos and Sainsbury’s, Doug Blyth, Managing Director at Accenture Technology, discusses how that relationship has gone from strength to strength in uncertain times.

We talked last year about how

well as digital stores and

been doing to help make it

Accenture had helped Argos

collection points in Sainsbury’s

all happen.

on their successful Digital

locations.

Transformation and how you

These capabilities, coupled

Could you talk us through some

were about to help Sainsbury’s

with a shift to a more ‘product

of the ways Accenture teams

Tech transition to an agile

led’ agile delivery approach at

helped in this response?

delivery model. Has this been

Sainsbury’s Tech, have meant

In the first instance, our DevOps

tested during the COVID-19

that Argos has been able to

support team worked rapidly to

pandemic?

adapt fast. They’ve transitioned

help Argos adhere to the

What a rollercoaster year it has

rapidly to a ‘contactless’

government guidelines. At the

been. COVID really has turned

experience for customers,

same time, our Forecasting and

the retail industry upside down.

making it easier than ever to

Replenishment teams quickly

Despite this, Sainsbury’s and

shop online and ensuring

adjusted algorithms to account

Argos were well placed to

continued service to the British

for spiking demand and plan for

respond to the challenges.

public during these

both temporary store closures

The transformation journey we

unprecedented times.

and reopening. This enabled

discussed last year has been a

It’s meant that, despite the

Argos to open 100 more

big part of this success. For

disruption, Argos has seen a

collection points in Sainsbury’s

Argos in particular, it has given

10.7% increase in sales during

stores and reconfigure the supply

them class leading same day

the lockdown period. We are

chain to serve them. We also

omnichannel collection and

proud of the work our teams

helped scale up various services

home delivery propositions, as

within Sainsbury’s Tech have

to support increasing customer

Businesses needed to adapt quickly to the new pressures of COVID-19. Accenture’s Maddie Walker and Stéphane Crosnier share inspiring stories of how companies have re-invented their supply chains to meet changing demands and how this experience could help create more agile and resilient operations in the long-term.

demand for same day delivery.

How has the COVID-19

occasional shoppers turning

Elsewhere, we accelerated

pandemic forced Accenture

to digital channels. When

delivery on key programmes to

to evolve and change?

customers do venture out, there is

help meet new demands. One

All of these successes, and

currently a clear preference to

was an ongoing project to

more, were delivered with our

shop local. This change in

improve small item home

teams working from home in

channel mix coincides with

deliveries by shifting them from

the UK and India. This seamless

a change in mindset. Our

a single central delivery centre to

transition to home working

research shows consumers

regional fulfilment centres. We

was only possible because

are now minded to shop more

were entering the pilot

Accenture has already invested

healthily and with a greater

phase when lockdown started,

so heavily in enabling more

regard for sustainability.

presenting immediate

flexible working. It has been

For retailers like Sainsbury’s and

operational challenges. Some

really impressive to see how

Argos, the agility to respond

colleagues from the existing

this commitment has paid off

rapidly to these changing

delivery centre were required to

during the crisis.

dynamics – and outmanoeuvre

self-isolate while delivery centre

future uncertainty – will be key.

and home delivery volumes

What do you think the future

tripled. Despite this, the agile

of retail will look like?

To read more about how

model we have worked to

The world will clearly be different

COVID-19 has changed

establish with Sainsbury’s Tech

for Retailers post-COVID. We

consumer behaviour,

meant we could accelerate the

expect use of eCommerce to

take a look at Accenture’s

national rollout by 4 weeks.

rise by 160% thanks to new or

latest research.

M Y L E S N OTO N, S E N I O R E N G I N E E R I N G M A N AG E R

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was centred upon those members of the community who would find lockdown especially difficult and it was also a high priority for Sainsbury’s. Myles Noton, Senior Engineering Manager, Discover, Decide and Loyalty. “We reintroduced a feature called Recurring Slots, prioritising customers to book recurring slots every week. A lot of that work was borne out of seeing the numbers we saw during lockdown, and analysing what people were doing,” he says. “The biggest part of the work we were doing was aimed at the elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers; we wanted to prioritise those, in addition to allowing other people to book slots. Obviously, there were many teams around Sainsbury’s trying to work out how to get more Delivery and Click & Collect capacity. How do we make sure elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers customers are prioritised? How do we make sure everybody else can get a Click & Collect slot?”

Jordan is particularly proud of how Sainsbury’s identified and responded to the most vulnerable members of the community. “We’ve taken a customer base and said: ‘Actually, we’re going to assess a vulnerability qualification for 21

the data we know about you and come

to them as a priority. We were the first

back to you directly and say we think

to do that above all our competitors,

you deserve, and you need, this deliv-

and before the government had given

ery slot’. That’s incredibly innovative. We

us any data. We also knew that some

were the first to do that. So, in all aspects

of our competitors, some of whom are

of our business model, we’ve had to be

considered to be digital-first grocery

innovative because there’s been such

online providers, had a much harder time

a clear need to apply change to what is

than we did in keeping systems running

a pretty well-established business and

under a great strain.”

to do it quickly and to take some risk

Data analytics were vital to bolstering

in doing it as well. I think it’s absolutely

Sainsbury’s response to the new trad-

bred a huge amount of innovation. And

ing conditions and were provided by

I’m delighted to say that we’ve done that

the Applied Data & Analytics team. “As

in a very Sainsbury’s way.”

part of the COVID19 response, we had

“We used our own data to establish

offered to help the business in perform-

and qualify who was elderly, disabled

ing key pieces of analysis,” says Steven

or vulnerable and offered delivery slots

Henson-Tyers, Data Visualisation &

“ It’s unprecedented to run a business like ours, a complex business that requires so much day-to-day intense transaction, all remotely” — P H I L J O R DA N , G R O U P C I O

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S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN Automation Manager, Applied Data & Analytics. “We addressed questions such as: ‘Should we shut our stores

in a clear and consistent manner that

earlier in the day to enable restocking

allowed them to develop and alter

of shelves?’; ‘Are elderly, disabled and

dashboards at speed as the situation

vulnerable customers taking the oppor-

evolved. “We had to work with multiple

tunity to use the dedicated priority shop-

engineering teams to tactically deliver

ping hour in stores?’ We asked whether

data that had never been in Aspire (the

elderly, disabled and vulnerable were

Group’s democratised data asset) before

using priority booking for online delivery

and find new ways to merge the data

slots, or whether we were losing sales

sets together and provide a clear and

by shutting Argos stores or were custom-

easy-to-use model to support the ques-

ers moving to different order fulfilment

tions above. We then took the analysis

channels?”

and quickly turned around a brand new

Within the ‘viz team’, Henson-Tyers

MicroStrategy project within a week of

and his colleagues worked on a way to

getting the data. We replaced the hand

quickly and easily build the information

cranked models with fully automated

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Born from Retail Built for Retailers

Fi

nd

ou

tm

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e

Sharing our experiences with retailers and partners for the most important customer journey – the one you lead.

Customer journeys are more

systems be modern, con-

same-day pickup. Retailers

than a marketing term. They

nected and built on an agile

must now proactively engage

are the constant, fluid moments

architecture supporting

at every step - before, during,

– before, during, and after

proactive engagement. When

and after purchase. However,

a purchase – upon which your

this happens over 70% of

88% of retailers don’t believe

customer relationships are

retailers report that the new

they personalize effectively,

built. With customers making

value gained through cloud

most forecasts have insufficient

an increasing number of

migration goes directly to

inputs, and most CXO’s don’t

choices before, during, and

innovation projects.

know where to begin in the

Retailers also collect data

store. They rate AI/ML their #1

rience must be earned for

from a multitude of systems

opportunity, but the complexity

retailers to keep their custom-

when engaging customers and

to build and deploy leaves it the

er’s journey progressing to

must quickly bring relevant

#8 spending priority.

them. This means every choice

data together to form a com-

must be guided, which is only

plete picture of their customer’s

ers need the right partner to

possible by moving from

journey. With that visibility,

empower them and offer the

reactive to proactive retailers.

informed decisions can be

kind of unique experience nec-

In other words, leading their

made and more advanced

essary to address not only the

customer’s journey.

solutions – relying on that

unprecedented challenges of

data for conversion – can be

today, but the new opportuni-

has traditionally focused on

deployed. However, even when

ties coming tomorrow.

connecting channels one

modernizing and existing

experience at a time, now

systems through reinvention

only cloud born from retail and

finds itself requiring the

improves the source of data,

built for retailers. We share

speed, scale, and performance

over half of retailers report

Amazon’s own tested, proven

to embrace this challenge.

that they still can’t share data

innovation to help retailers rein-

Years accumulating “best

between systems and 88% are

vent their legacy applications

of breed” solutions – solving

challenged in making actiona-

for new value, complete their

for individual channels with

ble decisions. Fragmentation

view of customers for relevant

disparate technology – have

and a lack of real-time insight –

insight, and transform their

left many retailers paralyzed

especially at the edge – are

engagement for increased

by the complexity and cost of

significant problems.

sales velocity. From recommen-

after the purchase, every expe-

However, an industry that

following customer migration

Finally, sales velocity is a top

All of this means that retail-

That’s why AWS offers the

dation engines, forecasting and

from store only, to online, to

metric for most retailers, but

contact centers, to advanced

connected experiences, and

journeys put conversion oppor-

computer vision and store trans-

now complete journeys. 72%

tunities and rates at higher risk,

formation, AWS offers retailers

of CxO’s report an inability to

as consumers expect relevant

the same expertise we use our-

migrate to new technologies.

personalization; right place/

selves – a head start 20 years in

Simply engaging in customer

right time inventory; and stores

the making for retailers to lead

journeys requires existing

offering both immersion and

their customer’s journey.

dashboards that allowed further self-service analysis. The output of our work has also been the platform that enabled other areas such as Future Finance with their dashboard of group flash and has helped drive Aspire to deliver multibrand, multi-channel versions of Store, Product and Sales.”

Mark Garstang is Senior Engineering Manager, Installation Services and it fell to his team to support the incredible demand placed upon the stores.

“We were able to very quickly turn our teams into supporting and reacting to an ever-changing situation. We were able to open more Groceries Online operations quite quickly. We supported the increase in demand for Click & Collect. We moved some of the team’s capacity into staging more handsets to allow Click & Collect colleagues to support the customer. All Argos standalone stores were temporarily closed. The only Argos capability was online and so we needed to offer our customers the chance to pick up products from Argos stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets. So, we opened just under 100 extra collection points. So, as customer habits changed, we diverted our capability as a team, and while some of the team were still doing the planning to get back to their normal day job, a 26

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These images are pre-covid-19

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lot of the team were actually supporting the change in customer habits. We were having to do that under a remote way of working that completely changed how we interacted and operated together.

And we want to make sure we never stop embracing the technology that helps us do our job. We really should take those learnings forward.”

Sainsbury’s saw 100%, and in some cases 200%, growth, in online food, which has seen the grocer, more than ever before, put its mark on the online retail market. “The other thing I think’s been really clear is we’ve always been a big data company and a lot of the decision-making is driven by really great insight. We have a great data set. We’re talking about 27 million people shopping every week, with Nectar being the largest loyalty program. We launched Digital Nectar in October and it has more than five million active users of the app. So, when you add all that richness up, we really do have a great data set.”

“As we move from responding to the crisis to the opportunities to rethink our business in light of the crisis, I am a believer that we can’t allow ourselves to 27

From recovery to re-imagination In the last nine months, COVID-19 has forced many businesses to repivot their cloud strategy and become more agile and resilient.

We have been supporting our retail customers understand new ways they can forecast drastic shifts in demand, manage mandated store closures, and continue to meet

evolving customer and business needs, or rapidly support millions of teams to connect remotely through use of our modern work solutions.

We’ve worked alongside our customers, including Sainsbury’s to support their critical needs and keep their businesses moving forward.

We’ve helped them be able to continue serving our nation by rapidly scaling out remote working, keeping them connected, secure and informed, supporting both customers and colleagues.

As we now start to recover and adapt to the ‘new normal’, our focus extends

We all need to take our part in supporting recovery from the socio-economic impact of COVID-19.

I’d like to quickly touch on two key imperatives: How technology can support organisations and drive value, and how we can do this ethically and responsibly.

an accessible and inclusive way.

Building on this we are also providing increased on-demand training and resources to aid re-skilling in digital skills, which is imperative given the increasingly key role technology will play in economic recovery.

In January 2020, Satya Nadella, our CEO, was invited to speak the keynote at the National Retail Federation conference in New York. He spoke of our ambition to help retailers create their own tech intensity and tech independence: “Retailers need to use digital to take what they’ve always done to the next level. Capability around tech intensity underlines all of this … you don’t want to fall behind, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, taking pride in digital capability is key to success for the retail industry.”

It’s also a fantastic chance to address the sustainability of our and your offerings. We have achieved carbon neutral objectives for our datacentres in January and we made a further commitment, evolving our mission to be carbon negative by 2030.

None of us in January could have foreseen that we’d hit fast-forward on our tech intensity and workplace modernisation to the level we have in the last nine months. We’re committed to continue partnering with our customers to help them respond to the immediate impact to their organisations and recover with flexible business resiliency models.

to the future of work. It’s the perfect time to re-imagine how businesses will operate, and how we can innovate faster, using data and analytics to gain new insights and streamline operations, whilst also optimising secure remote collaboration and connected workforces.

A big part in this capability is ensuring everyone is included in this recovery.

We are committed to ensuring our products and services are designed for everyone, including over one billion people with disabilities. Our commitment allows us to ensure that you can deliver solutions that work for all your people, and allows you to interact with customers in

We are putting AI in the hands of those working to directly address sustainability challenges, investing $50 million in our AI for Earth initiative. With sustainability featuring as a leading priority for many of our customers, we are proud to be able to help them expedite their ambitions in this space through partnering with us.

Finally, as we emerge from recovery, let’s work together to build a future with resilient and innovative customercentric services. This is a fantastic opportunity to reimagine your organisation and develop a technical intensity that allows you to recover faster, and emerge stronger, together.

Jennifer Morrison Retail Industry Director Microsoft UK

Learn More >

go back to the way things were,” Jordan explains. “I think we’ve seen an acceleration of consumer trends, a 10-year trend acceleration in three months, and I think we should avoid the rubber ball bouncing back to the past. But we’ve been listening, watching and talking to colleagues really carefully about the need to do something different in terms of working practices.”

With the UK heading into Brexit territory very soon, Jordan is glad that the pandemic at least allowed Sainsbury’s to take a good look into its supply chains.

“To some degree we can use this period as prep to really understand our supply chains and their vulnerabilities. We were also able to increase the capacity of some aspects of our supply chain really quickly. Again, something that would have taken us probably months to do.

We were bold and brave in increasing our digital capacity and the capability of

“ COVID-19 represented a massive challenge in keeping the stores running for our customers, the stock out on the shelves, supporting our colleagues etc” — M A R K L O W E , S O F T WA R E E N G I N E E R , S A I N S B U R Y ’ S T E C H - R E TA I L & L A B O U R M A N A G E M E N T 30

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HOW SAINSBURY’S USED BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TO SURVIVE COVID During lockdown, we decided that ‘Feeding the Nation’ had to be our priority. As our primary intelligence platform, we relied heavily on MicroStrategy to help us understand how to redirect our resources to achieve specific operational outcomes.”

Helen Hunter, Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

I

n an industry built on marginal

Helen Hunter, Sainsbury’s Chief Data

be overwhelmed by dashboards and

gains, the ability to make

Officer describes the company’s

analytics. Sainsbury’s understands

better decisions, faster, is

vision, “Even in the recent past,

the power of aggregation, helping

what separates leading retailers

access to data was tightly controlled

to simplify the metrics they watch.”

from the competition. So when

by people with ‘IT’ in their

Sainsbury’s recently re-structured

titles—it was guarded and only

its operations into a single multi-

released after forensic scrutiny.

brand, multi-channel business, data

MicroStrategy is helping liberate

was at the core of its strategy.

our data to better understand our

During this transformation,

customers and our business.”

This simplification relies upon re-usable data objects from one trusted source.

Barth elaborates, “The data used by the head of in store bakery is the same data used by the CEO. Organisations typically find it impossible to achieve consistency across departments.

Sainsbury’s Tech accepted the challenge of creating a single data

Even in the recent past, access to data

MicroStrategy enables this ‘single

management platform to make

was tightly controlled by people with

version of the truth’ for Sainsbury’s.”

access to information from across all

‘IT’ in their titles—it was guarded and

Sainsbury’s brands as frictionless as

only released after forensic scrutiny.

flowing water. “Sainsbury’s has been

MicroStrategy is helping liberate

incredibly bold in redefining its data

our data to better understand our

management landscape,” explains

the remedy for shelves emptying was

customers and our business.”

not buying more product; it required

Helen Hunter,

that distribution be adapted to match

Gary Strickland-Clark, Account Manager, MicroStrategy. “Every data store is being consolidated

Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

COVID-19 intensified the need for effective decision making. For example, Sainsbury’s was quick to identify that

how and where people were buying.

Hunter explains, “During lockdown,

to create an extraordinary enterprise data asset. It’s simple

“Democratising data means

we decided that ‘Feeding the Nation’

in concept, but at this scale the

everybody gets access to the

had to be our priority. As our primary

change is very challenging. Most

information they need,” adds

intelligence platform, we relied heavily

organisations lack the vision or

Nick Barth, Senior Sales Engineer.

on MicroStrategy to help us understand

the stamina to see it through.”

“Sainsbury’s uses MicroStrategy

how to redirect our resources to

to manage and automate

achieve specific operational outcomes.”

Historically Sainsbury’s used numerous software tools for data analysis, visualisation, and reporting. The new solution, however, required consolidating tools into a unified platform.

“MicroStrategy was just one of a

complex reporting so thousands of Sainsbury’s colleagues are

CLARITY OF VISION

seeing exactly the information

MicroStrategy views Sainsbury’s with a

that’s relevant to them, where,

single strategic objective. “Whenever

when, and how they need it.”

we reach a decision, the question we ask is ‘what will make Sainsbury’s

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS TO ‘FEED

successful?’” says Strickland-

THE NATION’ DURING COVID

Clark. “We won’t compromise

“Sainsbury’s hadn’t appreciated

Sainsbury’s uses MicroStrategy

on trust; it’s too important.”

that MicroStrategy was designed to

to make informed decisions

be the single platform they were

about what customers want.

looking for, but with a new analytics

Barth explains, “Without a clear

team, they reviewed their options

intelligence strategy, it’s easy to

number of technologies being used,” explains Strickland-Clark,

and realised they could move MicroStrategy to the Cloud and do everything on the one platform.”

To learn more about how MicroStrategy can empower your business, visit microstrategy.com

w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

33

the logistics network, particularly in our

for the vast majority, 80-90%, I think we

supply chain. So, that’s been great. It

found that people like this [working from

really helped us with the peak volume

home]. They’re productive. They don’t

period, when we were trying to fill the

have to commute. It frees them up from a

stores and people were buying things

location perspective, and we work really

faster than we could ship them.”

well this way. So, I think there’s a real opportunity for us to capitalise and to

LONG-LASTING CHANGE

galvanise this as a catalyst for a change

Working from home, which has affected

in working practices forever. Everybody

millions across the globe, could be here

coming through the same communication

to stay for Sainsbury’s Tech. Jordan

medium has democratised the business,

acknowledges that for some, working in

so a hierarchy becomes less important. I

an office is more suitable and office envi-

think the fact that people are talking from

ronments will need to be open. “However,

their own homes makes you, as a leader,

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we’re performing,” Jordan explains. “But because it’s a complex, big, multi-location environment, we’d end up with probably 30 cascade huddles, starting at the top, going into divisional directors, going into our senior management, going into certain teams. Since we started this, I run it on a Monday, and I talk to every one of the 1,700 people in Technology.

We get a huge benefit of having one voice, one description of how the business is doing. So, I think that’s been transformational. It’s enabled by remote working. But I think when you work hard on engagement on top of remote look and feel more accessible. And I think

working, it’s transformational and we

the online meeting is a platform of collabo-

won’t go back. It really cuts through

rations where people feel more inclined to

decision-making.”

comment, to sit and talk, to ask questions.”

Microsoft Teams provided a constant

Gillian Green, Colleague Experience Manager was charged with helping the

and reliable network through which

team adapt to remote working by provid-

every department within the organisa-

ing support to those who need it while

tion could communicate. Adoption of

onboarding new recruits. “My particu-

Teams within Sainsbury’s became 100%

lar focus is very much around diversity

across operations, as a virtual network

and inclusion and embedding that into

almost completely replaced face-to-

our culture. So, before we launched

face contact. “We would have been

Sainsbury Tech, a lot of work was done

a business that worked really hard to

to create an employee value proposition

huddle and cascade on a Monday to

and my role is to continue the journey

make sure people understood how

so the employee value proposition and 35

the culture we’re talking about is really embedded in the day-to-day experience for colleagues. I’ve been working to help drive inclusion within Sainsbury’s Tech through a lot of different initiatives to raise awareness and build empathy between colleagues through education.”

“And then lockdown happened, and we wondered how we would get the value we’re looking for and still drive those connections and keep that passion alive.’

We had to rethink how we were going to create that in the virtual format without getting screen fatigue either because it’s a three-and-a-half-hour induction (for new starters). You obviously can’t do that for three-and-a-half hours straight. But I was delighted with the way we all came together and problem solved, looking at the different options and the ways we could break up the content.

“We have a fantastic session at the beginning for the new starters where they have a completely open Q&A with STLT (Sainsbury’s Tech Leadership Team), which is Phil Jordan and his team. That’s a really valuable session for our new recruits who always come out of that buzzing and excited having listened to our leaders. We have really made Microsoft Teams and some interactive whiteboard facilities work for us 36

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GILLIAN GREEN – COLLEAGUE EXPERIENCE MANAGER

37

The changing world of grocery fulfilment O2’s Rob Sandford talks insights, Retail Economics and fulfilment

In partnership with Retail Economics

Rob Sandford O2 Head of Business Sales

On 22 July, I was proud to present the findings from The Big Ask report, produced over the last year by O2 Business and Retail Economics.

The aim of this report was two-fold: to take an honest look at how digitalisation is changing customer behaviours, and to provide insight on how retailers are using technology to attract, engage and sell to today’s more connected customer.

You can read the complete report here.

The transformation of retail fulfilment One interesting finding was the overall preference (53%)* for physical fulfilment channels, like the high street (13.6%) and shopping centres (13%), over digital ones.

This was underlined recently during lockdown.

While demand for online delivery initially rocketed (Sainsbury’s nearly doubled their number of delivery slots, for example), there then followed a gradual increase in physical footfall, with each household averaging 14 trips to a retail store per month.

O2 works with retailers across the UK to discover and analyse the way people move between physical locations. So, I’ve seen just how reductive ideas like the ‘death of the high street’ can be. In reality, people love the convenience of local shopping, and they still want to visit stores to experience products and connect with brands.

It’s also clear that digital technology can still be a barrier to online shopping, even after widespread adoption and development of sophisticated logistics.

All consumer groups said they’d shop online more if there were cheaper and faster delivery options, for example.

One emerging answer to this lies in partnerships.

A great example being how you can buy something on eBay, get it delivered to your local Argos, and then pick it up during your weekly shop. In addition to consumer convenience, this brings added security to online fulfilment as items are held in store for collection.

I’m also excited about the new fulfilment options gathering momentum in retail, which could be the next step for grocers too. From robotic autonomous

deliveries to in-home delivery, these are opportunities for brands to provide exceptional consumer experiences through advanced connectivity and innovation.

More to uncover I’ve already been hearing from some of those who attended the event about what they found most interesting.

But I’m curious to speak to more retailers and see whether there are any questions you’ve got about the findings, or how you can put them to practical use.

I’d welcome any questions or comments you may have. You can reach me on LinkedIn or on robert.sandford@businesso2.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you.

w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t * Source: www.connect.o2.co.uk/the-big-ask-download-report

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“ I think we’ve seen an acceleration of consumer trends, a 10-year trend acceleration in three months, and I think we should avoid the rubber ball bouncing back to the past” — P H I L J O R DA N , G R O U P C I O

in running introduction activities to start building those connections.

“COVID-19 is very much on every business’s mind at the moment, and foremost in our minds is how we can support our colleagues from a flexible working perspective so that people can achieve a good work-life balance and really benefit from the ability to do a yoga session on a lunch break or go for a walking meeting and learn from the situation we’ve had this year. But honestly, I think we’ve been quite instrumental in keeping the communities together and keeping us focused and driving forward.”

“There is such a collegiate feel to the organisation, the division, the team.

It is absolutely fantastic,” enthuses Sarah Hirtenjohann, Senior Supplier 41

This image is pre-covid-19 Relationship Manager. “On a personal

our business, which is very values-

level, I could pick up the phone and

driven, to have a really clear emotive

speak to any of the team if I felt I

engagement vision like Feed the

needed some support, and that is up,

Nation,” says Jordan. “It’s been unbe-

across, or down, it does not matter. We

lievable for our business. We’ve done

have a great team. We are very lucky.”

things in days that would’ve taken

Jordan and his team clearly exude

months. We’ve expanded groceries

a sense of pride in how their business

online. We temporarily closed and

was able to reach out to those most in

reopened stores. We changed the busi-

need during such dark times. “I think

ness model of Argos, which operated

there’s something really powerful for

as an online-only business for three

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months. We spun the whole groceries

have worked incredibly hard. But as a

online business on its head by offer-

brand, the business has prospered and

ing it to certain customers and not

I think the business has really grown in

others, and then Recurring Slots. And

stature. Not financially, but prospered

not only did we help feed the nation,

as a brand and as a business in the

but we also helped the nation adapt

community. I think we’ll always remem-

to the pandemic. This has been a terri-

ber 2020, wherever any of us go in

ble time for many, many, many families

the future. If you’re a technologist, and

and we’ve lost colleagues and custom-

particularly a Sainsbury’s Tech tech-

ers. So, against that awful backdrop,

nologist, I think you should always be

we must remember that our colleagues

really proud of the role we played.”

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