Jaeger plans front-to-back IT revolution to make retailer fashionable again

Jaeger CIO Cathy McCabe talks to Computing about her plans to take the fashion retailer's IT from the 1980s into the era of mobile computing

When a company has been around for as long as high-end fashion retail chain Jaeger, it should be little surprise if some of its processes and IT systems seem like they come from another era.

Indeed, while Jaeger's IT might not be quite as old as the "Sanitary Woollen System" that launched the company back in the 1880s, it certainly might be familiar to anyone who has worked in IT since the 1980s.

CIO Cathy McCabe, however, was brought in at the end of 2014 to instigate a digital revolution at the 131-year-old retailer, intended to make the company's IT as up-to-date as customers' expectations.

"It's not just about the point-of-sale in-store, it's also about looking at our technology roadmap overall. So, we were looking at what we need to do from a customer perspective in terms of strategy and our vision in order to transform the consumer experience," says McCabe.

Many of the organisation's systems, which had grown over the years in an ad hoc manner, had become somewhat clunky. This was particularly apparent at the front end, where staff might need to login to different systems in order to complete what ought to be a straightforward process.

"If you were looking up a person who was part of our loyalty programme, you had to go into one part of the screen, then they may want to buy something online and you'd have to go into another part and place the order," says McCabe.

In addition, while Jaeger generates between 60 and 70 per cent of its business in-store, the board not surprisingly wants to drive growth via the online business, which is also intended to spearhead the company's international expansion. The result, though, should ensure that UK customers enjoy a seamless service between online and in-store.

Digital drive

To make that transition, McCabe's strategy involves starting with the customer, improving all systems connected to customer relationships and the shop floor, and working back.

Top of the list, says McCabe, was a shake out and standardisation of long-ingrained business processes: if a business process does not confer a proprietary business advantage, it's simpler and cheaper in the long run to standardise it.

"We have worked really hard with the business to simplify our processes and to look at how we can empower our sales teams to enable them to do their jobs even better," says McCabe.

This in turn, she says, makes it easier to implement packaged software, deviating from its out-of-the-box settings only for the features and functions that will confer competitive advantage for Jaeger.

"We also have a very bespoke enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. That is on my 'roadmap' for next year; this year is all about customer-facing systems," says McCabe.

As part of the revolution in customer-facing systems, McCabe is planning to implement three software packages from retail systems specialist Omnico, which is also owned by Jaeger's parent company Better Capital. These include Omni Engagement, which will effectively form the basis of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system; Omni Basket, which will support a mobile point-of-sale system in-store; and Omni Stock, for tighter and more effective control of stock management.

This ought to fix some of the clunkiness of the company's current ERP system by making it easier for shop-floor staff to get a single view of the customer. At the same time, with Omni Basket, McCabe plans to take away the anchor of the fixed cash till, providing staff with the tools enabling them to take payments on mobile devices anywhere on the shop floor - and to do much more for the customer in-store.

McCabe envisages that the new systems will also enable sales staff to look up customer accounts, and check the distribution warehouse and other branches for stock in front of the customer - instead of scurrying into the shop's own back office to check out such details on a standalone PC, leaving customers to walk off if it takes too long.

[Please turn to page two for Jaeger's ERP update and big data plans]

Jaeger plans front-to-back IT revolution to make retailer fashionable again

Jaeger CIO Cathy McCabe talks to Computing about her plans to take the fashion retailer's IT from the 1980s into the era of mobile computing

At the same time, Omni Stock will enable the company to both serve customers better and cut costs by managing its inventory between online, distribution warehouses and its retail stores more tightly - making sure stock is where it ought to be and not languishing in the warehouse when it is flying off the shelves.

"It helps improve the service proposition: being able to get stock to people quicker and delight them in that way," says McCabe.

Close relations

The top-to-bottom IT refresh at Jaeger follows the acquisition of the company in April 2012 by Better Capital, the venture capital fund headed up by Jon Moulton, which purely coincidentally also owns Omnico.

After tackling the customer-facing systems this year, McCabe will turn her attention next year to the core ERP system and analytics. At the moment, she says, the company isn't in a position to do anything in big data, but when the Omnico Engagement platform is implemented, that will provide the foundation for improved customer analytics.

"Next year will be more about what other data we need to bring in to start augmenting the factual, transactional data from customers who are making purchases," says McCabe. The ultimate aim - which is unlikely to be implemented before 2017 - is to create a more big-data-oriented analytics capability at Jaeger.

"We want customer and customer insight to come to the top in everything we do, so that we can measure by any media that we do, any events, any press, new products, how many 'looks' we get of new products, how many people are purchasing. All of that data can be very insightful," says McCabe.

The first steps towards that vision, though, were only taken this year, and the first of the Omnico products won't be fully implemented before the autumn. But as competition heats up both in the high street and online, it won't be a moment too soon for the 131-year-old company.