Senior Technical Manager, Food Retail IS, Head Office
I work with a team of people delivering systems and applications directly in to our Food stores. I’m involved in the technical architecture and design of the applications that are used in store. My job is to serve the stores – they are my customers and it’s crucial that I understand the challenges they face day-to-day.
During my time at college, I gained some retail experience at the then Co-operative Retail Society and then went on to complete my degree in Computation at UMIST. I spent my year in industry working as an IT manager in a solicitor’s office before deciding to go back to the Group in 2001, this time in an IT role rather than in stores. The Co-operative Group offered me the opportunity for progression, and they haven’t let me down, having started as an Analyst in the support teams with 4 promotions leading me to my current role.
Technology is extremely fast paced, so it’s important for me to keep on top of changes in the field. We have recently implemented ‘green tills’, a system which saves energy at night when the systems are not used and then wakes them up when they need to receive information just ahead of trade. It’s important that we achieve projects on time and that the teams in our stores understand the new systems. We have a very close link with our retail operatives to ensure we maintain effective store level engagement.
The Co-operative Group is a very exciting and innovative business. We are able to deliver a quick turn around because we have an internal software programming development team. But when we do use any external suppliers, we need to make sure that they meet our ethical standards.
The last few years have been a period of significant change within our Food business. The business has learnt to evolve in order to re-establish itself as a serious contender in the marketplace and being part of the team helping to deliver this change has been rewarding. Looking back at our stores 5-6 years ago, they were not stores to be ecstatically proud of but today they really are. Knowing that the projects I have delivered are improving our store operation nationwide gives me great satisfaction to witness and be a part of.
I have been involved in lots of exciting projects including the Alldays takeover, legacy EPoS replacement in over 1100 stores, and currently on the United Co-operatives merger. These projects deliver a new foundation into stores delivering huge benefits both in terms of reliability and efficiency. The in house EPoS system (called In Control) gives us a great amount of flexibility to develop it even further over the coming years and customers can really see the difference.