Managing the Strain of Chop Chop Delivery Services
Dec 05, 2016 Comments (0)
The ever-increasing public tendency towards express, convenient services is bringing around a new trend of 1 hour delivery in the retail market.
Originating with online market giant Amazon and their Prime 1 hour delivery service, the added expedience on offer to customers is proving to be a very much in-demand service, with other retailers taking steps to adopt a similar approach. This demand is only going to expand in the future, which means that companies looking at how 1 hour services could improve their business should be lining up IT and maintenance solutions to enable such an extensive undertaking.
The UK’s second-biggest supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is one of the latest examples of the rise of the 1 hour service. Their trial, which began in June, was originally localised to a three-kilometre radius around Wandsworth, but has already been expanded to include the areas of Chelsea, Westminster, Fulham, Wimbledon, Southwark and Battersea. Using a specialised app, customers are able to order up to 20 items, which are then delivered by bicycle within the hour.
Leading supermarkets have been making efforts in recent years to make customers’ shopping experiences simpler and more convenient, introducing such services as Click and Collect and home delivery, which started off as trial runs at large and flagship stores, gradually rolling out. Such integral changes warrant a close look at what IT and maintenance requirements will be needed to support extra workload.
Sainsbury’s 1 hour delivery service involves the use of a specially-designed shopping app for use by customers. This, of course, results in increased electronic workload, meaning that the company will have given focus to store service level agreements, and their capacity to handle an increased workload. Companies looking at establishing similar services should call in the expertise of IT service and management providers, who will be able to professionally advise on the most suitable service level agreements that meet all requirements and enable any expansion to occur successfully.
A common error when supervising the IT systems of a chain company is to give larger stores the lion’s share of the attention when it comes to system updates. However, their size alone makes them better equipped to handle increased workload. A store with twenty POS checkouts is unlikely to be brought to a standstill by one malfunctioning till; a store with only two checkouts cannot say the same, and would find themselves in a highly compromised position in the event of an IT malfunction. With this in mind, stores with fewer IT systems in place should be prioritised when overhauling IT for a new service.
The introduction of a new shopping service to any company results in a considerably surge in IT-related input. Remote services such as 1 hour delivery will rely on far fewer IT systems than, say, installing new POS tills would. This is why it is essential to ascertain that newly-installed systems are able to handle the increased workload, as an overload after a rollout could have disastrous consequences.
While taking a business to the next level to accommodate more transactions is a desirable move, there are many technical and logistical considerations to be made. Barron McCann can take care of all your IT requirements and advise on best plans of action when considering new systems.
Fiona Cowlam
The blogs I will post will be from various member of the Barron McCann team. From the MD to our Service Managers, Workshop team and Engineers. We will be commenting on all the issues that our customers in retail and government face and share our expertise and experience as a major supplier of IT Service across the UK and Europe.
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