Robust service platform and closer collaboration with Evidi has accelerated the digitalisation work in REMA 1000
Ranja Ovedal
REMA 1000 and Evidi have collaborated since 2007. Now, the two companies have begun to work even closer together as one integrated team. This has provided great results.
Competition in the grocery market is fierce. That’s why it has been important for Rema 1000 to have an IT infrastructure and a service platform that allows the company to quickly adapt and come up with new services and solutions, both for employees and for end customers.
Previously, REMA 1000 hired consultants from Evidi on a traditional project basis. However, in 2019, the two companies signed a new agreement that now allows Evidi and REMA 1000, to a much greater extent, work as one team.
Josefine Kragerud is product owner for REMA 1000's integration platform and is pleased that she now has eight developers and architects from Evidi who work together with REMA 1000's own developers.
- After we got the new agreement in place, we are now one team where we do not distinguish much between internal and external resources. This works very well, especially since we have a small development department ourselves. Having skilled professionals, we can ask for advice and learn from is very good, says Kragerud.
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One team makes it easier with continuous improvements
The close collaboration between Evidi and REMA 1000 means that Evidi can be involved as advisors right from the idea and requirments phase. Thus, the ideas can be swiftly translated into technical solutions that create value for the retailers in REMA 1000's almost 700 stores across the country.
– Working in a team together with the customer, in this way, is the way we prefer to work. In close cooperation with REMA 1000's product owner, we now take responsibility for small and large needs, ensuring the right prioritization. This means that the deliveries match better with expectations and that the end result matches REMA 1000's wishes and needs, says Anders Bråten, Senior Architect at Evidi.
It is not only the large projects that are important to REMA 1000. It is equally important to continuously develop and improve existing solutions. Josefine Kragerud, in REMA 1000, says that the goal is to work more smoothly but also that the Evidi/REMA 1000 team can improve work processes and routines, as well as think more long-term in order to make the right priorities.
– We receive an extremely high number of requests from different parts of REMA 1000. There may be different departments that want small or large changes that can make everyday life easier. In order to provide good feedback on when we might be able to take on these tasks, it is important that we have the opportunity to plan more long-term, says Kragerud.
Service platform speeds up digital development
Rolf Albretsen, Sales Director at Evidi, is impressed by the digitalisation journey REMA 1000 has had since they started working together in 2007.
– REMA 1000 has professionalised IT to a much greater extent than before. They work holistically with IT architecture and have routines for project and portfolio management. Thus, it has been easier for us when we now, as part of the team, can help to continuously develop and improve both the platform and the work processes, says Albretsen.
Together with REMA 1000, Evidi has built a robust and reliable service platform. This is located at the bottom and collects data in one place and ensures the necessary integration between REMA's various systems.
– The service platform centralizes data about stores, employees, merchandise and more in one place, so it's easily accessible. Once that investment has been made, it is much faster and easier to build new services for the company later, says Albretsen.
Examples of solutions built on top of the service platform are the "Æ" app, which gives REMA 1000's customers a price reduction on a personalised selection of items when they pay at checkout. In order to build such an app, it is necessary to retrieve data from different locations, and ensure the data can be shared across the board.
Another solution built on top of the service platform is an HR system that has dramatically simplified the process of employee onboarding. What previously could take days, now only takes a few minutes with the new solution. The costs of getting new hires into the necessary systems has been effectively cut and the former paperwork when employees leave has been replaced with paperless offboarding.
Josefine Kragerud looks forward to continuing to work with Evidi as a united team.
– We greatly appreciate working with someone who is so service-minded. Evidi shows up, even outside agreed working hours when things are really burning – which it can do from time to time, concludes a satisfied Kragerud.
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