Co-op drives efficiency and innovation with a strategic partnership

Partnership overview:

• A dedicated team of engineers, cross-discipline consulting services, and innovation workshops drive scalability and operational efficiency.

• Streamlining of Co-op's engineering operations enables the efficient delivery of critical business projects.

• Partnership with Zühlke helps Co-op optimise an ecommerce platform, stabilise a smart POS, automate inventory management, and create a POC for a cashless store.

Co-op’s Head of Engineering, Gary Wardley, chose to partner with Zühlke after evaluating several suppliers because of our successful collaboration on the product roadmap of the Co-op Funeralcare website and supporting systems.

Embracing a strategic partnership to deliver lasting value

‘We began our partnership with Zühlke in the Funeralcare space. This collaboration revealed our similar ways of working and a shared understanding of quality engineering. So, we knew that evolving our relationship into a true partnership, rather than a supplier-contractor dynamic, would bring mutual benefits and be quite frictionless,’ says Gary Wardley, Head of Engineering & Foundation Services at Co-op.

To empower Co-op’s engineering team with the flexibility to adjust its resources and access a wide-ranging pool of experts in software engineering, data and AI, cloud technologies, and more – we proposed a ‘dedicated engineering team’ approach.

The dedicated team model is designed to address the unique long-term needs of an organisation with a tailored and seamlessly integrated team of engineers from a trusted partner. For Co-op, this model provided support across various products and services with the flexibility to scale capacity up or down as needed.

Creating a thriving partnership

From the outset, we jointly assessed the skills and experiences required for the engineering projects within Co-op, enabling us to define the optimal team structure.

Once the team structure and necessary skillsets were identified, we set about filling the required roles. This allowed Co-op’s team to leverage international experts and continue effectively supporting the entire business with its technical needs.

To enable a seamless onboarding process and smooth collaboration between the dedicated team and Co-op's stakeholders, we established a strong governance structure to track overall progress and ensure Co-op’s needs were being met.

Specifically, our engineers worked jointly with Co-op's specialists on the following areas of the business:

• Ecommerce platform: optimisation of the Co-op website and app, minimising application downtime and lowering operational costs.
• Partnership platform: integration with UberEats and Deliveroo to streamline the shopping process.
• Smart point-of-sale system: web system upgrade to improve reliability, predictability, and stability, ensuring critical till operations and confidence in future deployments.
• Inventory management: automation of tasks, implementation of new features, and set up of pipelines for importing live data, resulting in cost savings, a significant reduction in administrative work, and lower stock leakage.
• Frictionless stores: in just four months, the joint team of Co-op and Zühlke specialists took a POC for a cashless store from a concept to the first working frictionless shop, allowing colleagues to just walk-in, pick-up products, and simply walk out thanks to automatic payments.
• Unified commerce platform: ensuring smooth operation of the Azure-based platform crucial for developing Co-op retail applications.
• Digital experience for members: implementing an efficient member registration process, resolving third-party issues, and delivering pipeline templates to minimise engineering efforts and increase repeatability.

Partnership value: going beyond a ‘client-supplier’ relationship

Our partnership with Co-op has evolved far beyond a traditional client-supplier relationship. By effectively embedding ourselves within Co-op’s team and aligning closely with their goals, we've established a true strategic partnership.

Time saved and reduced overheads have streamlined Co-op's engineering operations, allowing them to innovate and deliver critical business projects more efficiently. With our partnership underpinning 25% of the company’s engineering needs, Co-op can plan for the future confidently and ambitiously. 

We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Co-op and keep delivering value to its members, employees, and customers.

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(*) "Co-op opening in Rochdale" by The Co-op Group / CC by 2.0.

(**) "Co-op tote bag" by The Co-op Group / CC by 2.0.