IBM builds on cloud business with Travis Perkins deal

IBM is helping building merchant Travis Perkins move key business processes into the cloud, improve data quality and help reach customers through every channel.

Travis Perkins, which is a group of 21 businesses, is using IBM Business Process Manager (iBPM) on Cloud via an IBM Cloud data centre in London to better manage multiple data governance processes for data collection, coordination and approvals.

This cloud solution is part of Travis Perkins’ ‘Highway to Cloud’ initiative, which aims to move all key applications to the cloud within the next three years. By improving data quality and connecting multiple, diverse sets of product information, the retailer can better manage and optimise its data collection to be more efficient and agile.

“Before managing our business processes and data collection using iBPM on Cloud, we lacked visibility of change requests and data validation, which is needed to ensure that our customers get the best possible data to inform the shopping experience,” said David Todd, group data director, Travis Perkins.

“IBM iBPM on Cloud gives us more flexibility, scalability and performance options to deliver a better solution to improve our data processes and support our in-store colleagues across our 2,000-plus UK stores.”

Customers will also soon be able to use Travis Perkins’ new click-and-collect service to place orders online and then pick up those products from their closest branch. This is particularly useful for builders and DIYers using mobile devices to order supplies from job sites.

Travis Perkins hopes to continue improving its customer experience by expanding its use of data analytics and cognitive technologies to identify buying trends and customer behaviours to create more customised target marketing campaigns.

Sebastian Krause, general manager, cloud, IBM Europe, said: “By combining analytics solutions like business processes with the IBM Cloud, Travis Perkins can address its customers’ ever-increasing requirements with greater levels of personalisation both online and offline.

“IBM’s global cloud data centre presence includes 48 highly-scalable and security-rich data centres in 17 countries on six continents.”

@AntonySavvas