CASE STUDY
MORRISONS EMBRACES AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
UK supermarket Morrisons recently revealed some of the details of its work with a custom software consultancy to bring its store ordering processes and new e-commerce presence into the digital and mobile age
B
uilding on a strategy to drive efficiencies throughout all areas of
its business, Morrisons has been working alongside ThoughtWorks to develop an online solution to replace its manual weekly inventory process. The Morrisons Order Pad allows the
retailer’s employees to input and track data electronically on a tablet, making stock management a more accurate and streamlined process. Using Agile software development methodology, the ThoughtWorks team introduced the Order Pad to Morrisons’ York store in just four months. A key aspect of the transition from
paper to pad was that it was user-friendly with both parties taking the time to develop the user interface to ensure that staff did not experience vast amounts of change. This resulted in rapid adoption rates and a limited need for training. Richard Manners, director of retail
process improvement at Morrisons, commented: “Developing the Order
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Pad with ThoughtWorks has helped us streamline our processes in stock management. Our colleagues have found the tool very simple to use and the training has been much easier than with most new systems. “It was also important to us that our
store managers continued to have a certain degree of autonomy and could still control what they sell in store and have in stock, and the Order Pad has allowed this to remain the case. “It is a great platform for the future
for us and we are excited to see it being used across our business. It will enable many other store processes to become streamlined and mobile, ultimately helping us to provide a better customer facing service in the stores.” The tablets will be wirelessly linked
to the store’s network and transmit the orders to the mainframe, saving each store hours of data entry, ensuring an increase in accuracy and giving them more flexibility in what they ordered.
The Motion CL910 was selected as
the tablet for the first widespread roll out, but other devices such as a Samsung tablet were used in the pilot. The system however has been designed for use on any new tablet with a browser that supports the HTML5 standard. The web markup language also featured
in the mobile website ThoughtWorks also worked with Morrisons on for its first transactional e-commerce application, Morrisons Cellar, which was launched last spring as a precursor to its phased launch into online food shopping this year (Morrisons outlines online strategy,
RetailTechnology.co.uk, 22 November 2013). ThoughtWorks built the cross-mobile
application – for iPhone, Android and other HTML5- capable devices – along with a set of re-usable back-end enterprise system services for content management, customer accounts, payments, fulfilment processing and other retail functions. To get a head start for their online
www.retailtechnology.co.uk
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