Tesco is standardising its business processes and IT
systems to support plans for global expansion. The move is designed
to give Tesco a single way of working across 3,263 stores in 14
countries.
The programme will involve Tesco standardising each IT system
used to trade with customers and run its stores. These are expected
to include trading, warehousing, distribution, payroll, financial
and in-store systems.
"Few areas are as important to us as IT, and in expanding
internationally, it is important that we are able to transfer this
capability," said
Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy last week. "We are looking to
leverage IT to support our common operating model."
The roll-out, which is believed to be the world's largest
business process management project, should allow the retailer
to cut costs and simplify its IT systems by dispensing with
national IT departments in favour of central IT development.
Tesco will also benefit from better quality data, which will
help it manage each country's operations effectively and understand
more about its customers, said analysts.
"The scale at which Tesco is introducing standardised business
processes is unique," said Gartner vice-president of research
Janelle Hill. "It could result in a dramatic simplification from an
IT perspective, by removing redundant or duplicate
applications."
The project comes two years after Tesco started its
Tesco-in-a-Box programme to standardise on an Oracle enterprise
resource planning system in every country.
Tesco has split the new programme into nine areas, including
distribution and the in-store display of goods. The retailer said
it would trial new business processes and systems in two countries
before rolling them out worldwide.
The first countries will go live in June, just a few months
before
Tesco opens its first stores on the west coast of the US - its
most significant push into a new market for years.
Once a country has gone live, Tesco will no longer need people
to maintain systems specific to that country. The only IT
professionals that will support each country's business will be
first-line support.
Tesco is building all the systems for the programme at its
centre in India. The retailer has been developing standard business
processes and selecting systems since March last year.
For example, Tesco's director of international space, range and
display, Janet Smith, is working on the project to create standard
processes for allocating goods to stores and displaying them.
In Smith's area, the business will standardise on 10 different
applications, including four from JDA, with the rest being
proprietary systems.
The people running Tesco's global standardisation
programme
The programme is being led by Tesco's operations development
director John Browett. The supermarket group's CIO Colin Cobain is
responsible for developing the systems that have been chosen and
from the business David Hobbs is in charge of delivering the
standardised processes. Both report to Browett.
Each of the eight or nine different areas of business process
standardisation is led by a director from the business and a senior
member of the IT team. The IT managers report to Cobain and the
directors to Hobbs.
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