Coles taps Microsoft to accelerate digital transformation

Coles has signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft aimed at accelerating the company’s digital transformation, arranging to make Azure the retail giant’s cloud platform of choice.

Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate to build an enterprise data platform on Microsoft Azure that will be used to provide advanced analytics and enable the deployment of AI technology across physical stores and through the supply chain.

Coles will use customer insights collated from the platform to drive business decision-making and help tailor its range to meet the needs of customers.

Coles will also deploy a range of tools in its stores to help employees improve efficiency by removing manual tasks for repetitive activities such as stock management.

In addition, the company will use Office 365 and other products within Microsoft’s Modern Workplace suit, as well as Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 enterprise resource planning suite in its Coles Express and meat manufacturing businesses.

Microsoft will meanwhile provide tailored training for Coles’s digital and technology teams, and provide engineering resources for the Coles Innovation Lab to support the lab’s purview of developing next-generation retail solutions.

“As the retail industry continues to undergo massive transformation, forward-thinking companies are exploring how to leverage technology to better serve their customers and employees,” commented Judson Althoff, EVP of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business.

“We are excited to bring our global retail experience to Coles. Through our partnership, we will support Coles to provide personalised, seamless experiences for shoppers using AI, offer a more productive workplace for team members through modern collaboration tools, and help them unlock better business insights through our advanced analytics solutions.”

Image courtesy Coles

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