Retailer on recruitment drive as part of ‘big investment’ in technology.

 

Officeworks is planning to create more than 100 new roles across its IT operations over the next 12 months as part of a “big investment” in technology.

 

Speaking at a recent Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo for APAC, the retailer’s general manager of technology, Damien Ballesty, said: “Our business has been on a fantastic growth trajectory and we’ve set five strategies in place to drive this business forward. 

 

“The evolution of how we modernise our processes, how we enable our processes with data, how we deploy digital tools for our customers as well as our team members is at the heart of that, so you’ll have found us doing quite a number of major investments in the way that we serve our customers, in the way that we enhance the experience for our team members, and in the way that we use and exploit data more,” he said.

 

According to a report in IT News, Ballesty said that Officeworks is “making big investments in IT” and would create “over 100” new roles in its technology operations this year “to double down on our technology offer within our business.”

In one example of expanded use the ServiceNow software platform, Officeworks has deployed a virtual assistant called ‘Penny’ and mobile app to its retail store staff. both.

 

Underpinned by ServiceNow, the virtual assistant reduced the number of support calls logged by retail staff by 67,000 a year.

 

“For the team members it means they can self-serve, fix issues themselves, get the guidance at their fingertips out in the stores and not have to wait for the IT helpdesk,” Ballesty said.

 

“Equally, for the IT helpdesk, it means that we’re not spending our time answering frequently asked questions, so we’ve been able to give career opportunities to people who would have been handling calls,” he said.