Carphone Warehouse speeds internal links

Carphone Warehouse is overhauling its IT infrastructure to cope with rapid expansion and meet future demand from business partners and customers.

The retailer is introducing Tibco service-orientated architecture and business process management software in stages to improve operations across the firm.

The software will support new products as well as improve delivery times of existing services. Tibco middleware has already replaced in-house software to cope with the strain of expansion.

‘It has made quite a difference,’ said Carphone Warehouse architecture director for Group IS David Byrne. ‘There is an immense amount of functionality being delivered and we can find and fix problems much more quickly. We get faster delivery and debugging .’

The software enables Carphone Warehouse to improve communications between related services, such as sales and billing, and it hopes the new software will also improve the efficiency of its IT structure.

Tibco software will also be integrated into order management and retail services, including stock management.

‘It has created an opportunity to re-organise a lot of the application landscape we had built for ourselves,’ said Byrne.

‘We have been able to use our outsourcing partners a lot more effectively. It is really a drive for a more agile IT architecture to support fast moving business.’

Byrne says the software is also much more reliable.

‘It simplifies the changes but it multiplies the benefits – it is a pretty exciting IT function to be part of at the moment.’

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Further reading

Tibco opens SOA deployment

Mobile provider takes more calls with IP centres

Carphone Warehouse buys AOL UK