Why CACI have been a key IT Service Partner for Waitrose for over 10 years.
Waitrose & Partners is a chain of British supermarkets, which forms the food retail division of Britain's largest employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. They have over 300 stores across the UK. Below we explore the challenges Waitrose faced and how CACI Application Services helped them overcome these.
The Challenge
- Existing IT Systems had evolved over a long period of time and had become increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain due to being developed in older technologies
- Some of these systems were being sun-set and replaced by more modern technologies. Others needed to be estabilised
- Resources with the relevant skills needed to support the platforms were becoming difficult to find
- Most of the systems needed to be active 24/7 and out of hours support was difficult to provide
- Support of legacy systems, while simultaneously learning and implementing newer technologies proved challenging - resources became stretched
- Innovation and competitiveness required the introduction of mobile applications, giving Waitrose & Partners customers more choice and a better shopping experience
The Solution
- We established a number of cross-functional teams comprising of Architects, BAs and Developers
- Flexibility of technical resources was ensured to flex across multiple systems and technologies. This allowed us to cover different peaks in demand
- We helped Waitrose establish their own in house mobile centre of excellence
- We became SME’s for business critical systems including Transport, Supply Chain, Mobile, Product, Lotus Notes, Domino Infrastructure and Integration (BusinessWare and MQ)
- Skills were provided in multiple technologies such as COBOL, CICS, RPGIII, RPG 400, Java, BusinessWare, UNIX, JES2, Xamarin, EPoS, DB2, SQL Server and Oracle
- Specialised skills, such as Data Modelling / Data Modeller, were provisioned
- We successfully ran projects including re-platforming Unix Servers, stabilising overnight batch processing and replacement of old Windows CE applications onto Android handsets
- Projects for the technical component of store refits and new store openings were run
The Results
- Waitrose & Partners staff were freed up to prioritise their focus on the introduction of new systems
- A team of flexible, multi-skilled consultants that have experience of the Waitrose & Partners business were created. This team are able to move from project to project across multiple technologies as demand requires
- Development and 24/7 support services are provided, with the team growing to over 30 people
- Management and support of systems through peak trading times including Easter, Black Friday and Christmas
- Integration with new innovative technology such as home delivery, click & collect and self- scanning - on customers own devices as well as Waitrose's own scanning devices
Further information
Email us on ASG_Enquires@caci.co.uk to find out more about our managed service offering and how we can help your team.
"One of the key benefits to working with a trusted partner is that CACI recognised that one size doesn’t fit all. They provided an approach that was bespoke to the organisation that could be successfully delivered to provide a solution that ensured all of Waitrose’s business needs were noticeably met."
Waitrose & Partners is a chain of British supermarkets, which forms the food retail division of Britain's largest employee-owned retailer, the John Lewis Partnership. They have over 300 stores across the UK. CACI have been a key IT Service Partner for Waitrose & Partners for over 10 years. Explore the challenges Waitrose faced and how CACI Application Services helped them overcome these challenges in our case study.