Morrisons keeps supermarket shelves fully stocked with Computacenter partnership

Customer challenge

Morrisons has 456 supermarkets, each of which relies on a seamless warehouse and logistics operation to ensure its shelves are fully stocked. To safeguard the timely delivery of 250 lorry-loads of goods to each warehouse every day, the retailer must ensure it has continuously available IT systems.

Computacenter solution

Morrisons has partnered with Computacenter to deploy and manage new technologies as part of a major IT transformation known as Evolve. Computacenter has helped the retailer migrate to Microsoft Exchange, deployed a new warehouse picking system and is responsible for lifecycle management for 10,000 desktop devices.

Results

By working with Computacenter, Morrisons has been able to maximise the benefits of its IT transformation. As well as safeguarding the supply chain and increasing staff productivity, the new IT services and systems have helped reduced costs. This will contribute to the £100 million annual cost savings expected from the Evolve programme.

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Customer profile

Fresh from the farm to the supermarket shelf
Morrisons is the fourth largest supermarket chain in the UK with 456 stores and 131,000 employees. It is also the UK's second largest retailer in terms of market capitalisation.

The supermarket differentiates itself from competitors with its focus on managing the entire commercial operation inhouse – from farming and food manufacturing to meat processing and transportation. Morrisons manufactures more than 13,000 products instore and employs professional butchers, fishmongers and bakers behind its supermarket counters.

Business challenge

Getting products on supermarket shelves on time
To ensure it gets the right products on the right shelves at the right time, Morrisons operates a number of manufacturing and logistics facilities, including around 20 factories, 16 warehouses and 15 distribution sites, It is the sixth largest transportation company in the UK.

With each warehouse receiving around 250 lorry-loads of products every day, any problem with Morrisons' supply can quickly impact supermarket stock levels.

Gary Barr, IT Director at Morrisons, comments: "Up to 10,000 cases of goods an hour have to be processed at each warehouse. If our IT systems are unavailable for just a few minutes, we are unable to process stock for storage or distribution, This can impact not only the availability of produce in our stores but also lead to perishable items going out of date."

With warehouses in operation on a 24x7 basis, the IT systems that support them must be continuously available to safeguard staff productivity and the supply chain.

IT solution

Enabling IT transformation
In 2008, Morrisons launched a major five-year IT transformation programme, known as Evolve with the aim of optimising efficiency throughout all its operations – including stores, the head office, logistics and warehousing.

Gary explains: "Evolve is the largest initiative in the UK of its kind and involves upgrading every aspect of our IT infrastructure from network components and desktop computers to critical business applications."

Costing £300 million, the project is expected to reduce Morrisons' operational expenditure by up to £100 million per year.

One of the first Evolve projects was the upgrade of Morrisons' email systems to Microsoft Exchange. This involved not only migrating a large amount of data from 8,600 users' inboxes but also implementing a new backend infrastructure to provide better disaster recovery.

To ensure the project ran smoothly, the retailer needed a partner with experience and expertise. "The email migration was a high risk project as email is an important tool in the supply chain," comments Barr. "We partnered with Computacenter as it had the skill sets and resources we needed to deliver the project on time and to budget," comments Barr.

Computacenter designed the new email environment and helped procure and implement all the key technologies, including HP servers, Microsoft licences, Cisco routers, Nortel switches and crucial security products. It is also responsible for managing the Microsoft Exchange environment, which supports 10,000 users, on an ongoing basis.

Enhanced warehouse management
Following the success of the email upgrade, which was completed with no disruption to staff, Computacenter has become increasingly involved in supporting Morrisons' Evolve programme.

The IT services and solutions provider has been responsible for managing Morrisons' business-critical warehouse systems since 2009, and was involved in the deployment of a voice-pick solution across all 16 warehouses. As Gary explains: "The voice-pick solution eliminates the paper trail associated with collating goods for delivering to different stores. Instead, picking instructions are now delivered via headsets that are controlled by a simple tapping motion - this approach is particularly beneficial for frozen food where gloves have to be worn."

The voice-pick project involved implementing mini datacenters at each warehouse featuring cabling, network, desktop and truck-mounted scanner devices.
Computacenter also provides a 'cradle to grave' lifecycle management service for 10,000 desktops. This includes procurement, configuration, maintenance and environmentally responsible remarketing or disposal.

"Computacenter's 10-strong onsite team manages incidents, moves, adds and changes, with second and third line support provided from Computacenter's shared service desk in Milton Keynes," explains Gary. "Major incidents are handled via Computacenter's Hatfield Operations Centre using industrialised best practices to ensure a proactive and cost-effective service."

Results

Improved productivity and cost control
By partnering with Computacenter, Morrisons has been able to simplify the transformation and management of IT and deliver greater value to the business.
"Computacenter has proven its capabilities and is becoming an increasingly strategic partner for Morrisons as we modernise our IT infrastructure," comments Gary.

The Computacenter services help Morrisons:

• Safeguard the supply chain: Computacenter's industrialised processes ensure a rapid response to IT issues and help it meet stringent service level agreements. As a result, Morrisons is able to ensure its warehouse and other critical business systems remain highly available, minimising the risk of disruption to store deliveries.
  
  
• Minimise cost: More efficient IT systems have enabled Morrisons to reduce operational and capital expenditure. For example, Morrisons has reduced the costs of IT hardware purchases by approximately 10 per cent as a result of economies of scale and supplier consolidation. These reductions all contribute to the £100 million annual saving expected from the Evolve programme.
  
  
• Improve staff productivity and satisfaction: The Evolve programme is helping Morrisons work faster and smarter. For example the new warehouse voice-pick system has resulted in a five per cent increase in productivity while the email upgrade project has enhanced communication. Computacenter's desktop lifecycle management service also enables more rapid provisioning with new desktop requests fulfilled in five days instead of four weeks.

"Computacenter help us safeguard IT service quality, which is key to keeping our supermarket shelves fully stocked in an efficient and cost-effective manner," comments Gary. "A seamless supply chain is vital to our ability to compete with the other three major supermarket chains and support our plans for expansion."