Paul Coby: John Lewis Partnership investing in new merchandising, order management systems, and web front-ends

Invest in automated warehouses and logistics, but make the most of legacy ERP systems rather than junking them, advises Coby

The John Lewis Partnership is investing in new merchandising and order management systems, as well as more intuitive front-ends, as it looks to become more agile and responsive to customer demands.

That's according to John Lewis Partnership CIO Paul Coby, in an exclusive video interview with Computing, coming soon to www.computing.co.uk.

"At one end is a large-scale investment in core systems. So we are putting in new merchandising systems, both in John Lewis stores and Waitrose.

"We are doing a new order-management systems, and we are investing in all the ‘big stuff' that makes this work," said Coby. "The other thing we're investing in is the front end: Retail and grocery are fast-changing worlds.

"The way we all shop, the way we interact with John Lewis and Waitrose, the way we interact online, in-stores is changing very quickly, so we need to adapt to those changing customer needs. We need to understand where our customers want to go and help them to get there," said Coby.

At John Lewis, the popularity of the website has seen online sales more than triple in just five years. "JohnLewis.com is now between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of our sales - and more than 50 per cent on ‘black Friday' last year. We are investing a lot in making the front-end really usable. We are investing in mobile, ‘responsive' and apps as well," said Coby.

"But it's not just about nice front ends. It's really important to have good front ends, but it's about the whole end-to-end experience. So you can order on JohnLewis.com, then pick up - click-and-collect - your fashion item or your home item in John Lewis or Waitrose at 2pm the next day," said Coby.

Hence, the company's investment in order management and distribution, including warehouses designed to service the company's website, and automated as far as current technology enables.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean junking the ERP system implemented 20 years ago, added Coby. "They are probably debugged and depreciated - make the most of them, but understand how you can build on top of them and then have a laser-like focus, with business colleagues, on what the customer wants," advised Coby.

However, trying to anticipate what the customer will want, and what the world will even as soon as 2020 - just three years hence - isn't easy, added Coby, so organisations genuinely need to be agile. Not just the CIO, but the whole organisation, and the way in which the CIO works with colleagues, said Coby.

Computing will bring more of this interview later this week, and stay tuned for the full video interview which will be published on www.computing.co.uk soon.

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