Leroy Merlin knows when not to do-it-yourself

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“We are a DIY company; not an IT company.”

Sergio Casado Castejón  knows where his priorities lie. The Technology and Innovation Manager is firmly focussed on meeting the customer service and operational demands of Europe’s largest home improvement brand, Leroy Merlin. “We believe our staff should dedicate their time to understanding and answering business challenges; improving employee and customer interactions with the brand, not maintaining infrastructure.” 

This is a perfect example of the changing role of IT. Businesses like Leroy Merlin, which is part of the Adeo Group, are recognising the need for greater integration and are eager to realise the full potential of IT across their enterprises.

Together Colt’s infrastructure and networking services have enabled Sergio and his colleagues to devote their time to customer service and business evolution across Leroy Merlin’s 47 Italian stores.

 A platform for customer service

The majority of Leroy Merlin’s 66,000 global employees – including its 5,750 strong Italian division – depend upon the ability to check stock information and answer customer queries seven days a week and deliver fast, responsive customer service.

“Customer retention and our reputation depend on IT reliability,” explains Casado Castejón. “Customers buy direct from our do-it-yourself hypermarkets, which are often located out of town. If they cannot access product information when they arrive, they may not return to us.”

Server reliability and connectivity are paramount. Following an extensive review of the marketplace, Colt emerged as the clear leader; with the right combination of managed services, wholly owned data centres, excellent connectivity and multiple infrastructure solutions including a resilient disaster recovery provision – a comprehensive service with the additional benefit of simplicity and efficiency that comes from working with a single supplier.

Seamless transition

“We recognised that we needed a fully managed service, from a dedicated team with the knowledge to handle it. Colt offered all of this, and at a competitive price,” explains Sergio.

Colt applied its ADIOM (Assess, Design, Implement, Orchestrate, Manage) service model to identify and deliver a solution to meet Leroy Merlin’s specific requirements. An enterprise class cloud service and additional colocation environment was created, with full connectivity between Leroy Merlin’s headquarters and the new data centre, including a firewall and controller to manage access points for security, as well as storage and backup for business continuity.

The fully monitored environment gives Leroy Merlin the desired peace of mind and freedom to pursue new projects, ensuring uninterrupted service 24/7.

‘We have a lot of confidence in Colt’s people – from both a technical and customer service perspective,’ adds Sergio. “The transition was achieved seamlessly, with no disruption to customers or employees. We now have a flexible solution that can be rapidly scaled according to our changing business requirements.”

Putting the focus on business development

Leroy Merlin staff can now access all the information they need to service customers, at any time. Crucially, the IT department is able to devote its time to understanding the business and increasing turnover, as Casado Castejón confirms:

“I think the future is to outsource data centres and focus on the data itself, in order to react to changing consumer demands and develop new applications. That’s what generates growth, not infrastructure,” states Casado Castejón.

“Our recommendation would be to trust a specialist supplier with the necessary network and infrastructure capability, plus the expertise to manage it more efficiently and cost-effectively.”

Connectivity and reliability will again prove essential for Leroy Merlin’s next project. With Colt’s assistance, the company is in the process of creating a hybrid cloud as part of a new eCommerce venture, as well as evaluating to extend collaboration with Colt on other areas

Casado Castejón sums up the special relationship: “We are very happy to work together with Colt. We no longer refer to our ‘provider’. Now it's ‘our partner.’”