Bunnings assembles a tech team of 700 in four years

Bunnings has assembled an internal team of 700 people across five technology-oriented domains in less than four years, shifting from an almost completely outsourced operating model in the process.

In this week’s episode of the iTnews Podcast, the architect of that shift, chief information officer Leah Balter, discusses the progression and maturation of the digital, technology, data, architecture and innovation functions at one of Australia’s most iconic retailers.

When Balter joined in late 2018, she led the ‘Best Experience Program’ or BXP - essentially, the transformation that would take Bunnings online.

BXP brought together a cross-functional group of 60 people from its stores, as well as from functions like store development and marketing, but it was immediately apparent to Balter that more digital and technology experience was required.

“I went and found that up the road, there was a team of 12 digital people that I pulled out of a basement and combined with the BXP team,” Balter recalled.

“I then found that we had an outsourced partner that we were working with that had about 150 people, so I brought the team to physically sit with our team to share the knowledge and was very explicit with a strategy to internalise our intellectual property. 

“From there, we broke into squads across the customer journey, and developed a strategy for what ‘best’ looked like. Each squad focused on a different component of the customer journey, and as they built the strategy, we started to hire and bring onboard an internal team, but we worked very much in partnership with our outsourced provider at the time. 

“So it was a great transition, but an opportunity for us to bring in some incredible talent.”

The insourcing effort did not stop with BXP, and so less than four years later, Bunnings now has “north of 700” people that sit in various technology-related functions under Balter.

These functions are digital, data, technology, strategy planning and architecture, and an innovation lab.

The single largest function is technology, which “largely sits in Perth” and is “responsible for all hardware infrastructure and services that support all of our team members”. 

This includes a fleet of over 20,000 Zebra devices used by staff members to manage in-store inventory and to pick orders from in-store. Approximately 2500 additional devices were rolled out to the store network in the last financial year.

The second-largest function is digital, which “manages everything from the API layer up. It includes all of the websites that we've got, the apps across consumer, commercial and our team member apps, and also runs the online store,” Balter said.

There is also a data team responsible for data analytics and insights; it is particularly focused on “getting to know our customers better” and increasing personalisation, Balter said.

The strategy, planning and architecture team has built out a five-year roadmap for Bunnings, while the innovation lab is a smaller function aimed at proving out new technologies with a view to deploying them across Bunnings’ operations.

Balter acknowledged the broad functional spectrum under her remit, but added that the mix of skills is crucial to Bunnings as the retailer continues to undergo “a substantial period of change”.

In-store changes

That change continues, as outlined at a recent strategy day, with the retailer deploying an extra 2500 Zebra handheld devices with specific inventory management and stock picking apps to its store teams.

“The technology team is really looking at how to make it easier for our team members in store, to help customers find what they want, but also to check out quickly and easily,” Balter said.

“We've now rolled out over 22,500 Zebra mobile devices for team members to use. It helps them search for products, and to manage the stock in-store.

“It's got apps such as a picking app and inventory app where if there's a gap on the shelf, a team member can scan the gap and then we know that there's none of those products available right now, which is fed into the inventory management system.”

The retailer has also rolled out over 400 new mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) units to stores, which allow customers to transact without having to queue at the main registers.

In addition, it has deployed new wifi access points at stores, both for team members using Zebra devices as well as customers that need an internet connection when using Bunnings’ Product Finder app.

Customers can use the app to make a shopping list of items in advance and see where in-store the items are located.

Balter said that push-to-talk technology is also being deployed in stores to reduce “noise over the overhead speaker system”, and enable team members to contact one another to “call on expertise quickly” to help a customer, or for assistance with moving heavy items, for example.

“It really provides a better connection between team members all over the store,” Balter said.

Core systems destined for cloud

Bunnings is increasingly adopting a range of cloud-based systems from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Workday, Salesforce and SAP. 

Balter said the retailer is favouring software-as-a-service and cloud-based solutions for a range of core systems.

She said the data function, for example, is shifting to an Azure-based enterprise data platform that will also enable it to create a single view of the customer.

Balter also said that moving payroll and HR to the cloud-based Workday had created improved experiences for the company’s staff.

The migration to SaaS and cloud will continue progressively.

“We're looking at … when's the right time to switch out [our existing systems] to move towards best-in-breed cloud-based systems, because we can't do everything at once,” Balter said.

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