Marks & Spencer Maximizes Agility via Cloud-Based Planning
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- United Kingdom
Product
- Blue Yonder’s demand and fulfillment solutions
- Blue Yonder’s workforce management
- Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning solutions
Tech Stack
- Cloud Computing
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Procurement
Use Cases
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Inventory Management
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Marks & Spencer is a leading multinational retailer based in London. The company specializes in clothing, home products, and food, mostly private-label. With nearly 1000 stores, the company's 2020 revenues exceeded $13 billion US. For years, Marks & Spencer has relied on Blue Yonder’s demand and fulfillment solutions, as well as workforce management, to optimize processes, manage complexity, and support responsiveness. The company needed to migrate all its Blue Yonder solutions to the cloud for higher levels of agility and increased supply chain speed to provide the best service for customers.
The Challenge
Marks & Spencer, a leading multinational retailer based in London, has been relying on Blue Yonder’s demand and fulfillment solutions, as well as workforce management, to optimize processes, manage complexity, and support responsiveness. However, the company needed to migrate all its Blue Yonder solutions to the cloud to achieve higher levels of agility and increased supply chain speed to provide the best service for customers. The challenge was to minimize business disruptions during the cloud migration as Blue Yonder demand and fulfillment is one of their mission-critical applications, which generates orders for their downstream systems. The company could not afford for their stores not to be replenished each day.
The Solution
Marks & Spencer successfully migrated to the cloud, with support from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Microsoft. The new software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model maximizes speed, capacity, and innovation. The company's new cloud delivery model has delivered many benefits. They are not encumbered by the cost and complexity of running data centers, and they have immediate access to any new functionality that can help their users do their jobs more effectively. There are lots of exciting innovations in the Blue Yonder pipeline, and they can access those right away. Blue Yonder’s demand planning capabilities consolidate and synchronize demand signals, as well as external variables, across Marks & Spencer’s nearly 1000 stores. The retailer leverages prescriptive recommendations to make more accurate decisions, from inventory staging to maximizing turns.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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