Coles expands its consulting collaboration with Accenture
Australian retail company Coles has established a long-term strategic partnership with global consulting firm Accenture to help implement its recently signed cloud-based digital transformation agreement with Microsoft. Under the new partnership, Accenture will also help modernise Coles’ digital operations.
Coles signed a deal with Microsoft just earlier this month, with the objective of digitalising an increasing share of its operations and making life quicker and easier for its employees and customers alike. Accenture’s global partnership with Microsoft – the two giant have been working together for years on the delivery of Microsoft solutions and products – makes it the ideal consultancy to help facilitate this process.
The retail giant has recently embarked on a Smarter Selling initiative, which looks to make strategic enhancements across its organisation to the extent that it will help reduce costs by $1 billion by 2023. Alongside implementing Microsoft’s cloud-based digital transformation programme, Accenture will work on various aspects of the smart selling scheme.
This includes working in collaboration with automation specialists Wiltron and Ocado to help modernise the Coles supply chain, in addition to integrating SAP solutions at the procurement, human resources and finance stages, among a number of other transformative efforts.
Other efforts entail automating manual tasks at the front and back ends, increasing the efficiency of checkouts, and leveraging artificial intelligence and data analytics to enhance resource and energy efficiency at the firm. Accenture has a substantial presence in the Australian market, and has previously highlighted the importance of AI in the business environment.
The consulting firm has been working with firms in a number of sectors across Australia to help integrate technology in their operations to increase competitiveness. Meanwhile, this is not the first collaboration between Coles and Accenture. The firms have already worked together to make strategic changes to Coles’ supply chain and operations.
Commenting on the partnership, Steven Cain, CEO at Coles said, “The partnership with Accenture will enable us to deliver the efficiencies we need for long-term sustainability, and provide the agility to respond to rapidly-evolving consumer needs. This is a vital part of Coles winning in its second century.”
Coles’ Chief Information and Digital Officer Roger Sniezek added, “Accenture is a global leader in the digital space and in working together over the past years across a wide range of areas of Coles Group, we have each come to understand each other’s businesses, strengths, and ways of working.”
Last month, Pollen Consulting Group, a local consultancy dedicated to the retail and FMCG sectors, launched a Technology arm to help its clients embrace the rapidly growing opportunities offered by emerging technologies.
