Challenge
The People Domain has been a very important focus point in the Digital Transformation program of Plus supermarkets. Within this domain, the operational model of Plus comes into play. The franchise stores (nearly 300) are managed by independent entrepreneurs with each store having 50 to 150 employees. Plus HQ has around 400 employees to support the retail operation. At the distribution centers, another 600 employees support the logistics and supply chain process. Overall, the complete people domain counts over 20.000 people.
Plus HQ challenged us to come up with a solution for smooth communication to keep employees connected and informed across all layers of the organization. The goal was to create alignment amongst employees, departments and stores. As a consequence, the administrative burden of the store entrepreneurs should decrease, the amount of touchpoints should decrease and information centralized. This solution had to be GDPR proof to ensure safe communication and data exchange.
Solution
An analysis phase was started by Product League to understand the communication needs of all the different user groups. Starting with the stores, our product team built a mobile application for iOs and Android that promotes easy and effective communication for store employees. The main functionalities include private and group chatting, a social timeline, shift takeover and holiday requests. A valuable combination of features with great impact on the day-to-day retail operations. For back-office configurations a web solution was built for the store managers.
The solution was implemented by working closely with selected ‘pilot stores’ that would use the app and provide our team with feedback. In the second phase, the app was improved for roll-out amongst all stores and our team started to prepare the app for usage by HQ as well.
From the start, the solution was designed to be scaled to all employees working at the stores, HQ and DC’s. A new technical solution for Identity & Access Management was implemented in the Infrastructure of Plus to enable safe and smooth log-in for all user groups. This new I&AM solution also made it possible to connect to core HR systems.
