Modernizing a retail tech foundation to spur new growth and scale

Grocery store employee in a red apron checking inventory on a tablet near freezer cases.

Enterprise Solutions

Vervint’s client is one of the largest privately-owned retailers in the U.S., operating a chain of supercenter stores concentrated primarily in the Midwest.

After the rapid pivot required by the pandemic left the retailer’s tech stack disjointed and undocumented, Vervint’s technical debt and infrastructure modernization team conducted a thorough assessment to diagnose the root causes behind recurring service disruptions and build a remediation roadmap that aligned business and technical priorities.

Primary goals for Large Privately-Owned U.S. Retailer

Lowering costs

Create more efficient systems to control costs on a long-term basis.

Reducing downtime

Build reliability into the tech environment to reduce unplanned outages and downtime.

Improving CX

Optimize technology to create a reliable, efficient, seamless online experience for customers.

When speed outran structure

In 2020, like many retailers, this company faced enormous pressure to pivot to a drastically changed, highly competitive retail landscape, rolling out new features and functionality as quickly as possible. That short-term strategy worked, until it didn’t: the company was left with a disjointed, application-dense environment, split across on-premise and cloud, with little documentation and no strategic optimization. A few years later, recurring technology issues were disrupting service and hurting customer experience, and without documentation, root cause analysis of any given issue was nearly impossible, so the same problems kept repeating.

A clear-eyed assessment, a clear path forward

Vervint conducted an in-depth, three-week assessment of the client’s technology environment, both on-premise and cloud, starting with a review of existing technical documentation, followed by stakeholder interviews with business and technology teams, and finally read-only access to the client’s systems to uncover undocumented dependencies between applications and processes.

The result was a findings document with detailed, prioritized recommendations for lowering costs, increasing functionality, and improving customer experience, built as a single roadmap that aligned business and technology objectives rather than treating them separately.

With a clear roadmap for reducing technical debt, this retailer is positioned to keep pace with its own growth, giving customers the reliable, seamless experience they expect every time they shop.

“Improving reliability of the tech environment helped create a system that was resilient, scalable and performant, and which led to a better customer experience.”