Logicalis

Major retailer chooses Logicalis for its database marketing

The Client

John Lewis Partnership has turned to Logicalis to provide a fully managed service for its database marketing communications. The motivation is simple. Logicalis takes away the technical problems and leaves the marketers to do what they do best.

With a £4 billion a year business, John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is in the top tier of UK retailing. Running 136 Waitrose supermarkets and 25 department stores in the UK, JLP has earned an enviable reputation for its unrivalled selection of products, and for its good service and value.

Central to JLP's strong relationship with its customers has been communicating a message of quality, value and integrity.

The Challenge

Keeping pace with the marketing activities at John Lewis Partnership is always a challenge.

For every new initiative, marketeers are keen to deploy sophisticated targeting and customized campaigns. A SAS analytical application and the Chordiant Online Marketing Director campaign management tool, combine to constantly interact with an Oracle database.

The business model is ideally suited to closed-loop marketing campaigns. The key ingredients of highly valued customers, account card payment and a wealth of rich transactional information create immense marketing potential. For instance, personalised email is now a standard method of communication to the Partnership's customer base.

The Solution

John Lewis Partnership's ambitions do not stop at bringing eclectic data feeds together. The Partnership is determined to realise the return on its investment in new technology.

The marketing solution Logicalis has assembled for John Lewis Partnership comprises a High Availability IBM RS/6000 cluster using shared SSA disk technology, mirrored for additional resilience. A Sun Microsystems Enterprise server is deployed as the application server.

A replica development environment has also been constructed for thorough application testing. The development environment is also the preparation area for new initiatives such as web personalization techniques and scripts to merge new business units – such as a recently acquired online business.

Logicalis has provided the infrastructure and support skills that allow John Lewis to focus clearly on the company's core communication strategy.

Among the host of global blue chip companies using Chordiant Online Marketing Director, John Lewis Partnership is generally perceived as one of the most progressive users within Europe. Logicalis has supported this extensive deployment by constructing a team that provides UNIX, DBA, Business Analysis and Project Management skills.

With Logicalis taking care of the technical considerations, the marketers can clearly focus on the company's core communication strategy Sherif Darwish, Technical Director at Logicalis, comments: "Logicalis' approach to managed services is based on a business-centric service provision. "No two businesses are the same, so why should one size fit all? Whilst we have standard managed service offerings, these are designed to form a ‘best practice' foundation to a service that is tailored specically to a business's needs.

"The John Lewis Partnership solution is a prime example of how a managed service can add value to a fast developing organisation. In this case JLP's marketing department set the business parameters and service expectations and Logicalis customised a hardware, software and technical resource solution, thereby allowing the customer to focus on their business."

Nic O'Brien at Logicalis explains: "Logicalis has been the quiet partner in bringing together data across the Partnership, to bring into focus a single view of the customer. The results so far have been evident in the highly sophisticated direct marketing programmes JLP have been able to deploy to targeted customer groups."

The Bottom Line

John Lewis Partnership has turned to Logicalis to provide a fully managed service for its database marketing communications.  Logicalis has been the quiet partner in bringing together data across the Partnership, to bring into focus a single view of the customer.  With Logicalis taking care of the technical considerations, the marketers can clearly focus on the company's core communication strategy.