Overview
Homebase is a home-improvement and garden-center retailer with stores across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1979 by Sainsbury’s and GB-Inno-BM. Most recently, Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers sold Homebase for £1 to turnaround specialist Hilco after a failed takeover. Today, with more than 150 stores and over 5,000 team members, Homebase has returned to profitability and is the third-largest home improvement retailer in the U.K.
Supernova Award Category
Tech Optimization and Modernization
The Problem
The Homebase customer/order back-end system is managed in SAP, which makes creating a modern website a substantial challenge. At the same time, new business practices such as click-and-collect shopping had to be implemented to make Homebase a modern retailer. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.K., Homebase was a brick-and-mortar retailer with a website and had to reinvent itself as a pure online business with its own delivery outlets—its stores. Within days, implementation of click and collect moved from “nice to have” to enterprise-critical.
Homebase was challenged with having to upgrade mobile devices for its store personnel, a major expense. It opted for a “bring your own device” (BYOD) strategy, in which team members would use their smartphones to operate the retailer’s new click-and-collect system—a substantial capex saving. At the same time, Homebase had a tenured IT team that was well versed with back-end processes, but not familiar with mobile application development. It was clear the IT team would have to be trained, simultaneously providing a much-desired and necessary upgrade of IT and software development skills.
The Solution
In fall 2020, the team set out to build the click-and-collect application under very challenging circumstances: The U.K. and the Republic of Ireland were operating under lockdown and work-from-home regulations, making it necessary to remotely train team members with the skills required for using Neptune. Not only that, but also the IT team had to work remotely to build the application itself. Nonetheless, the team built the new application in less than eight weeks—an application that was crucial for Homebase to survive commercially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, creating the app was faster than standing up the overall hardware and service infrastructure for operating and rolling out the app—a testament to the developer velocity organizations can achieve with Neptune, even with novice developers on their first project.
The results
It is rarely the case that a low-code/no-code application is mission-critical for an enterprise, but in the case of Homebase, its click-and-collect app became more than mission-critical: It became survival- critical for enabling the retailer to remain open and operate during the COVID-19 lockdown in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland.
Today, Homebase stores enjoy multiple modern applications used both as web applications and on mobile devices. BYOD has allowed employees to access the Homebase apps from the device they are familiar with, thus avoiding any delays related to training. The BYOD approach has also allowed Homebase to save on hardware requisitions—a further cost saving.
On the more tangible ROI side, the recent release of an application that allows Homebase to ring-fence stock has freed up a dedicated resource. And the new vendor/supplier portal frees up substantial call center capacity for other and more value-adding tasks.
Metrics
Less than 8 weeks to build an ecommerce app with a novice team, 10x faster than with original platform, resource savings in planning / Ops and Call Center thanks for Neptune.
The Technology
Neptune DXP
Disruptive Factor
A team with 0 Neptune DXP skills built a complete e-commerce app (click-and-collect) in 8 weeks.
Shining Moment
Low code from Neptune provided key new automation necessary to succeed during Covid lockdown and beyond.