28 OUTSOURCINGISSUE
PEACOCKS OUTSOURCES OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
signifi cant growth in recent years. In response, and in a drive to improve quality and reduce costs, Brendan McKeown, group IT director of Peacocks, recently reviewed the group’s operational support system. McKeown explained: “The operational
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work is a 24/7 service that looks after the out-of-hours side of the business. It involves polling stores overnight for sales information, producing picking lists for warehousing, reports for sales, and dealing with store issues. My team dealt with a mountain of paper to prepare the necessary reports and operated a shift system to take out-of-hours and weekend calls from stores. Apart from the inherent problems caused by manual processes, it left my team little time to devote to new projects.”
He said this had to change: “We automated several processes and introduced business intelligence tools. This meant our core business system was no longer involved in producing multiple reports and many paper-handling tasks vanished – around 20,000 sheets of paper. We also introduced an intranet, which transformed the way we communicated with our stores and changed the volume of shift work involved.”
After also looking at outsourcing as an option, Peacocks also selected PMC. McKeown continued: “The key point for me was PMC understood what I was talking about, and the operational support role.” PMC proposed outsourcing Peacocks operational support to its Indian offi ces, but also developed a detailed transition and management approach to ensure success. McKeown said initial concerns were
quickly overcome. “Naturally, the Board expressed some nervousness about
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2011
the detail right was a major factor in achieving a successful outcome. Bringing members of PMC’s Indian team to the UK increased understanding, confi dence, and communication. We have daily conference calls, not because there are any issues, but because I like to know what’s going on and communication is excellent. We have built up a good relationship in a short time.” Once PMC had created proper documentation, they ran the service
ith more than 550 stores in the UK, value fashion retailer Peacocks has experienced
outsourcing to India and asked some searching questions, mostly because of some poor press coverage. PMC’s approach removed any doubts and reassured us we had made the right decision,” he said. To make the transition, PMC involved both themselves and Peacocks in necessary background work. McKeown confi rmed: “At every stage we knew that PMC had complete control. Their attention to documenting the process was key, getting
out of hours on-site in Cardiff alongside the Peacocks team. When that proved successful PMC moved the service to their Abingdon offi ces using the same Indian team, before transitioning the service to run out of PMC in India. The service includes overnight batch
schedules, polling sales information from stores used by the warehouse to create picking data to replenish store stock. The system also creates sales fi gures that senior management use to run the business. McKeown cited some key
business advantages: “Service quality is better, there are clear escalation procedures, increased fl exibility and measureable cost savings, plus better informed business decisions through improved information accuracy. Too many organisations view operational support as ‘housekeeping’ or a back up service. In reality it’s a business critical operation and PMC has enabled us to deliver that service.” “In addition, I wanted to
concentrate on developing new projects,” he added. “Using PMC has freed me and my team to concentrate on those. We have time to focus on development as well as managing operations. Retail is a fast-moving industry and it’s important to concentrate on new projects to help the business grow and develop.” PMC also provides Peacocks with second-line application support dealing with store issues after
core business hours and at weekends. PMC’s remit is to resolve anything that will impact trading or prevent Peacocks from polling their stores overnight. “PMC deal with anything that stops the process hitting the buffers,” said McKeown. “Also the application support changes have gone virtually unnoticed at store level – no escalations, no issues – and that’s a massive bonus. We remain impressed by the way PMC delivers the service.”
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