UK merchant and home improvement retailer Travis Perkins has selected IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud as part of its Highway to Cloud initiative, which intends to move all key applications to the cloud within the next three years.
The company is using IBM iBPM on Cloud through an IBM Cloud data centre in London.
The move will allow the British builders’ merchant and home improvement retailer to better manage and optimise its data collection by data quality and connecting several sets of product data.
Customers will now be allowed to place orders online using Travis Perkins’ new click-and-collect service and pick up those products from their nearest branch.
IBM said it benefits builders and DIYers who use mobile devices to order supplies from job sites.
A new report has revealed that ordering something online and then picking it up in retail stores or other locations is hugely popular in the UK.
Almost 3 in 4 online shoppers (73%) say they have used click-and-collect services and other 10% of UK consumers plan to use the service in the near future.
Travis Perkins plans expand its use of data analytics and cognitive technologies to identify purchasing trends and customer behaviours for creating better target marketing campaigns.
The company has more than 2,000 outlets in the UK and Ireland with over 28,000 employees. It sells general building materials, tools, and landscaping materials.
Travis Perkins group data director David Todd said: “Before managing our business processes and data collection using iBPM on Cloud, we lacked visibility of change requests and data validation, which is needed to ensure that our customers get the best possible data to inform shopping experience.
“IBM iBPM on Cloud gives us more flexibility, scalability and performance options to deliver a better solution to improve our data processes and support our in-store colleagues across our 2,000-plus UK stores.”
IBM Europe general manager for cloud Sebastian Krause said: “By combining analytics solutions like business processes with the IBM Cloud, Travis Perkins can address its customers’ ever-increasing requirements with greater levels of personalisation both online and offline.”
