Carpetright rips and replaces to keep up with growth

Carpetright is rolling out a rip-and-replace solution to streamline its IT systems following an intense period of growth.

The retailer, which operates 600 stores across Europe and employs 3,500 staff, had acquired a number of different systems as it bought up rivals. The largest of these buyouts was Carpetland, based in Holland and Belgium, which brought the store estate up to 440 stores by 2002.

Carpetright IT director Ian Woosey recalls the mess in which this period of rapid growth had left the IT department.

Woosey said: "We had three different store systems and a whole collection of bespoke back-office systems. It was a complex environment and really too difficult to manage effectively. The technology wasn't totally reliable and there were conciliation issues between the disparate systems."

Besides interoperability and reliability problems, the systems in place were built for a mid-tier organisation and couldn't scale in line with Carpetright's growth.

Woosey started an evaluation of core systems in 2003. One of his prime considerations was supplying an order processing system that could cope with the complexities of the majority of Carpetright sales.

He said: "Our requirements were built around ERP processing. Orders are complex and can vary in terms of what the customer chooses to buy and when they want it delivered. It's not uncommon that the customer will want the carpeting for each room delivered on different dates, as the redecorating is completed. It may be that there are changes to the original order after it has been made. All of this needs to be recorded at the point of sale but most EPOS [electronic point of sale] systems can't cope with this level of complexity.

With core systems so closely linked to EPOS, Woosey needed a seamless architecture. He chose SAP for the core, with Microsoft Dynamics supplied by K3 for the store-side solution. The Dynamics software fulfils order processing and inventory management functions in a way that is easy for non-technical staff to use on the sales floor.

Woosey said: "We have a sales-lead business and we need technology that won't get in the way of that."

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The first store was migrated to the new system in 2005. Today around 120 stores are using the system, with 500 expected to be switched over by this time next year.

The most important benefit to the migrated stores is staff spending more time on the shop floor, meaning they are available to serve customers and make sales.

Information about availability of stock and delivery times is also much more accurate. Stock is now scanned into the store, rather than recorded on a paper trail. Stock checks are made on a more regular basis because they take less time and are easier to do.

Above all, the solution is easily scaleable, allowing the systems to grow at the same pace as the business. Once the UK rollout is completed, Woosey hopes to migrate the 110 store estate across mainland Europe.

Woosey said: "As we grow the organisation organically, we can roll out the core system just as quickly. If we acquire new stores we can adapt them to the system easily too."