The Warehouse Group is moving its IT systems to the cloud as part of its digital transformation to improve customer experience.

The Group has selected IBM Cloud in New Zealand to host its core mission-critical IT systems.

This will include customer-facing apps, the main website, point of sales systems, inventory and financial systems for all of the retail group's brands, including Noel Leeming and Torpedo7.

Timothy Kasbe, The Warehouse Group chief information officer and chief digital officer, says the move is part of an infrastructure modernisation to enhance the customer experience in-store and online.

“Shopping with us increasingly involves a digital component, such as online shopping using our site or app, browsing on a mobile device while in-store, or click and collect. To be able to keep pace with customer expectations, we need fast and reliable systems that are flexible enough to integrate new mobile-based services.

This move will see a consolidation from ten multi-vendor data centers to two and will make it easier and more cost effective to manage Group IT infrastructure.

As part of the managed cloud service, IBM will provide a single view dashboard for more efficient management, standardised billing and dynamically matching resources with demand.

This agreement with The Warehouse Group looks to be mutually beneficial as IBM's continued focus on cloud services has gone some way to making up for the shortfall in growth over the last few years.

Mike Smith, IBM New Zealand managing director, says moving to the cloud will improve IT system reliability and speed, enabling The Warehouse Group to become mobile-first so that customers can buy whatever they want on any device of their choice.

“IBM Cloud will host the core systems for some of New Zealand's best-loved retailers, connecting customers with the products, knowledge and services that the Group's brands provide.