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Boots Opticians deploys Openbravo

After a comprehensive technology benchmarking exercise we reached the conclusion that Openbravo offered the best solution to address the needs of our Boots Opticians business in the UK. It provides a highly flexible technology platform that is very easy to deploy, integrate and customize, and a broad set of advanced POS features that have enabled us to respond quickly and completely to all our business requirements.

Anthony Roberts, Global CIO Walgreens Boots Alliance

Delivering premium levels of service and clinical care standards

Boots Opticians is a leading chain of opticians in the UK with more than 600** branches across the country. The company is a subsidiary of Boots UK, which operates about 2500 stores and is the UK’s largest pharmacy-led health and beauty chain. Boots Opticians is part of the Retail Pharmacy International Division of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc, a global leader in pharmacy-led health and wellbeing retail. Boots Opticians provides eye tests carried out by experienced optometrists and sells prescription glasses, sunglasses, contact lenses and the associated products customers need to take care of their eyes. It stocks a comprehensive range of men's, women's and children’s eyewear from leading brands as well as its own Boots range. It also stocks a complete range of contact lens products, including daily, monthly, bifocal and varifocal lenses.

 

** Figures as of August 31, 2018 excluding equity method investments

Challenges

Easy deployment, lower IT cost, seamless integration, and greater scalability and performance

Following its merger with another optician chain, Dolland and Aitchison, the company wanted to standardize with a single management system that could support future growth and digital transformation plans for its branches. The new system was needed to help improve overall business efficiency as well as reduce IT complexity and costs.

 

As one of the key components of this new system, Boots Opticians required a new web POS solution that was easy to deploy, could seamlessly integrate with other systems and offered an enhanced in-store customer experience. Scalability and performance were also key requirements to adequately support the current sales activity in its 600+* branches and to allow for future business growth.

** Figures as of August 31, 2018 excluding equity method investments
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Openbravo has exceeded our expectations in terms of scalability and performance and it opens up new possibilities to continue improving our customer experience in the Boots Opticians stores. We are confident that the Openbravo solution will be a key enabler for our digital strategy and business plans for the coming years.

Anthony Roberts, Global CIO Walgreens Boots Alliance
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Solution

Superior scalability and interoperability, simplified deployment

The company chose Openbravo for its superior scalability as well as its flexible architecture which simplifies deployment, facilitates integration with existing systems, and supports easier and faster customization to cover its business-specific requirements.

Advanced retail features

The company valued Openbravo highly for its set of advanced features to support all the required POS processes. A comprehensive quotations management feature allows associates to easily create quotations and later convert them into confirmed sales orders, while a broad set of assisted sales capabilities prompts store associates to recommend complementary products or inform customers of special promotions. The system supports multiple payment methods, including products subsidized by the UK’s National Health System, and is integrated with Boots’ central customer data repository and with the loyalty platform managing the Boots Advantage Card.

Results

Dependable and robust performance in 600+ branches

Openbravo has delivered reliable and robust performance and today it supports business activities across more than 600** branches. When operating at full capacity, the software handles thousands of POS tickets each week on around 6,000 POS terminals.

** Figures as of August 31, 2018 excluding equity method investments

Enhanced customer experience and the possibility of future mobile scenarios

With features like quotations management and the assisted sales capabilities, Boots Opticians can now deliver an improved service to its customers. Openbravo’s unique architecture also opens up many possibilities to roll out new retailing scenarios in the future, such as the adoption of mobile devices to assist customers everywhere in the store.

Agile product, price and discount management, more flexible tax setup

Products, prices and promotions are now centrally managed in Openbravo, which makes for greater agility and consistency, and avoids data duplication. Change are now easier to manage because the architecture makes them available transparently and rapidly on each terminal, and there is a flexible tax engine to support different tax configurations.

Improved real-time visibility and sales analysis

Detailed daily sales information from all branches is now available at headquarter level in real time, which improves the control and monitoring of the business with key sales indicators and other important information generated directly by Openbravo.

Accelerated end-user adoption

The windows of the Openbravo interface have been adapted to meet the corporate visual style and are fully embedded in the user interface of the new management system, which has helped accelerate adoption by end users significantly.

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