Recently, I had the pleasure of presenting with Richard Manners, Morrisons' Director of Retail Process Improvement, at TWLive Europe on May 15, 2013 to talk about how mobile has changed the face of retail forever, for consumers, in-store, and for operations.
In this fascinating talk, Manners discussed with attendees how the number four food retailer in the UK transitioned from traditional, paper order pads to an electronic order pad that runs on a browser. Currently, its staff are using tablets to run the program, but that could change easily as technology evolves. Working in an iterative, agile way with Thoughtworks by their side allowed Morrisons to find a way to deliver benefits rapidly, ensuring that they were on the right track.
"Our approach was to try it and fix it," Manners explained.
Manners noted that the end product was about 50 percent different from where the first spec started, but that the end product is exactly where it needs to be. One of the positives of a Continuous Deployment approach is that the need to do massive training is removed when you do frequent releases. And, Manners suggested that the electronic order pad will become a platform for future development.
Watch the highlights and let me know if you think mobile has changed retail forever.
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Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.
