When Waitrose met ICON

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: When Waitrose met ICON.

When major supermarket Waitrose found their usual information management system was becoming unmanageable and unproductive, they acted fast and scanned the market place.

Bernard Novell, Building Standards Manager at Waitrose, explained: We knew we had to find a solution quickly that would optimise future projects and manage existing stores.  As a consequence, we began scanning the market place to find a data control and integration system which would provide the scope and flexibility we needed, and ICON was the best of six alternatives we considered.

The ICON solution was tailored specifically to our needs.  Based on good database driven methodology, it was already successfully being operated by other organisations in a similar way to our own needs. That gave us the confidence that it would deliver for Waitrose. ICON, based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, specialises in construction information management via its secure web-based product, The ICON System. The system allows the management of construction information during the three key stages of a buildings lifecycle:

         The design and specification of buildings
         The project roll-out of new builds and refurbishments
         The ongoing management of built properties (comprising planning, construction, maintenance and disposal)

ICON has been developed in conjunction with design standards and project managers. It provides access to accurate, real-time information for all members of the project delivery team, resulting in improved confidence, communication, safety, efficiency, product quality and budgetary control.

Bernard Novell finds, in his role as Building Standards Manager for Waitrose, that the ICON System a very helpful tool for keeping up to date and ahead of the game with the latest building standards.

The key benefit of the ICON System is that users know the data is reliable. When something is changed in one place, it changes everywhere, without fail.

Novell concluded: The ICON team never say No, we cant do that. Their motto seems to be We will find a way. As we push forward with our Delivering Growth plan, it would be very difficult for us to meet these ambitious plans without the accuracy and reliability of the ICON System.

They really understand our issues and would recommend it to any organisation wanting to manage construction and design projects efficiently and effectively, he added.