Debenhams: Case Study

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Debenhams is one of the UKs leading department stores groups, with 153 stores throughout the UK and Ireland plus 49 international franchise outlets. The company has a strong presence in womenswear, menswear, homeware, health and beauty, accessories and childrenswear. Debenhams exclusive own brands, including Designers at Debenhams, differentiate the store from its competitors. The companys first shop opened in 1778 as a drapers store selling expensive fabrics, bonnets, gloves and parasols. Debenhams owned Harvey Nichols from 1920 to 1991 and was part of the Burton Group from 1985 to 1998.

Maximising sales during an economic downturn

Despite the current economic climate, Debenhams is continuing to expand and plans to open seven new stores in 2009. Its strategy for coping with the economic downturn is to recognise changes to consumer spending patterns, ensure tight management of stock, costs and capital expenditure and invest prudently in projects with a high return. Technology is key to helping Debenhams meet these strategic objectives. The company has implemented a number of IT systems over the last 12 months that will help to automate core business processes. As a result, the retailer will be able to free up store staff from back office tasks to focus on serving customers.

Although these new systems will help to improve efficiency, the daily operations of Debenhams stores and three distribution centres are now much more reliant on IT availability and performance levels. As Jason Lovegrove, Service Support Manager at Debenhams, explains, If our key systems suffer extensive downtime, customer service levels or even sales can be severely impacted, particularly during a peak period, such as Debenhams renowned Blue Cross sales. As not all stores have onsite IT personnel, Debenhams needs an efficient IT support model. Lovegrove comments, If staff at our stores become embroiled with IT problems, then it limits their time on the shop floor. We must ensure it is easy for staff to report IT incidents and that we provide a rapid response.

Debenhams recognised that by adopting ITIL-based support processes, it could not only speed up its response to IT problems but also take advantage of cost savings. Following extensive research, Debenhams identified that it could reduce its first line support head count by 25 per cent by automating core aspects of its support provision. Although Debenhams existing service desk tool was adequate, it did not have the capabilities to support new ITIL-compatible processes without significant investment.

Adopting an ITIL strategy for incident and problem management

To help align its IT support operation with ITIL best practice, Debenhams turned to trusted IT partner CA and its CA Service Desk Management solution. Debenhams was already using a number of CA solutions, including CA Clarity Project & Portfolio Management, with great success.

As well as featuring out-of-the-box ITIL capabilities, CA Service Desk Manager is Web based, which means we would not have to install additional software on users desktops around the country, comments Lovegrove. The implementation was carried out in partnership with CA Services, who assisted with infrastructure decisions and configuring the solution to ensure that it met Debenhams needs. The service desk component of CA Service Desk Manager went live in August 2008 - just five months after initial discussions began. The implementation of the Service Desk Management solution was accompanied by the adoption of ITIL best practice processes, which have helped to streamline and automate core tasks.

Enabling self-service support

CA Service Desk Manager is used to track around 1400 incidents a week, which are logged either by the retailers 220-strong IT department or end users. CA Service Desk Managers self-service tools mean that users can log issues and incidents directly, which reduces the IT administration burden, comments Lovegrove. Up to 25 per cent of all incidents are now logged via self-service. Were hoping to increase this to 45 percent in the near future.

By leveraging the knowledge management component, Debenhams has also been able to provide users with access to information and advice that helps them resolve their own IT issues. This has massively increased the efficiency of Debenhams IT support operation; it is estimated that up to 15 per cent of problems are now resolved without direct involvement from the IT department.

Issues that do require assistance from the IT department are automatically routed to the appropriate team via CA Service Desk Manager to ensure a rapid response. As well as streamlining IT support, CA Service Desk Manager provides centralised metrics to enable Debenhams to analyse incident data and identify recurring problems. This means the retailer can take proactive measures to reduce the number of incidents and enable continuous service improvement.

Maximising the time staff spend helping customers

With a more efficient IT service desk, Debenhams can ensure that its strategic IT systems continue to offer high levels of performance and availability. As Lovegrove explains, CA Service Desk Manager enables a faster response to IT issues. This means we can limit the downtime or degradation that users experience on core systems, which are key to controlling both our costs and stock levels. By combining CA Service Desk Manager with ITIL best practice, Debenhams has also been able to:

Reduce its first line support head count by 21 per cent within nine months.
Improve employee productivity and satisfaction.
Free up store staff to spend more time with customers.

CA Service Desk Manager has enabled us to reduce our operating costs while improving the quality of IT support. This in turn helps to enhance the customer experience in our stores, which gives up a competitive edge in a challenging retail climate, comments Lovegrove. Due to the success of CA Service Desk Manager within Debenhams IT department, the company has also rolled out the solution to its food services helpdesk where the solution is used to track broken and faulty devices, such as fridges and ovens, in staff and customer restaurants.

CA Service Desk Manager is also currently being rolled out to Debenhams finance service operations centre to centralise the appointment of temporary agency staff and facilities services, such as electricians and plumbers. This will help to increase efficiency across the company and the return on investment from the CA solution.