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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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
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
COVID-19 REPORT
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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COVID-19 REPORT
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
23
Born from Retail Built for Retailers
Fi
nd
ou
tm
or
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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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
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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
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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.” 43