Franprix takes up the omnichannel challenge

DIGITAL FACTORY AND NATIVE CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE

Onepoint intervened in two areas:

• Construction and execution of a digital factory organisation
• Design of a digital architecture based on native cloud patterns

The goal is to offer the company a system for the design and continuous deployment of innovations within a digital architecture that meets the market’s challenges of scalability, robustness and robustness.

FRANPRIX MUST BECOME THE PARISIAN’S KITCHEN

With onepoint, Franprix has found a partner capable of supporting the company in its transformation by providing the technical and functional skills needed to design and implement an omnichannel platform. This project allows the company to meet the omnichannel challenge through an agile organisation and a continuous deployment of new features. Franprix has been as an emblem of local commerce in French town centres for over 60 years. Since March 2015, the brand has been ahead of the proxy format thanks to its new ‘Mandarin’ concept. Its goal? Transform geographical proximity into relational proximity and make shops a vibrant place.

The brand is positioned on the credo of ‘the new proximity’ or ‘precision marketing’. What counts now is everything that cannot be sold: welcome, comfort, pleasure, trust and service through its network of more than 800 points of sale (mainly concentrated in Ile-de-France). The implementation of new ‘Mandarine vitaminée’ (dynamic mandarin) concepts in 2017 boosted the existing concept followed by the Darwin project, presented in 2018, which confirms the responsible image of the brand by improving the organic and certified offer, increasing bulk and reducing packaging. In a few words: Franprix wants to become a key player in the life of a neighbourhood. This ambition is supported by the launch of a mobile application in the same year, enabling users to take advantage of delivery services and dematerialised offerings. In order to extend its universe beyond physical journeys and thus reach more consumers, the retailer must be able to easily multiply and extend buying journeys through all available channels (website, mobile application, voice assistant, external partner applications/sites) but also manage these operations efficiently.

EXTENSIVE AND HARMONISED EXPERIENCE WITH CENTRAL CONTROL

THIS NEW SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY ENABLED THE COMPLETION OF MAJOR PROJECTS IN RECORD TIME, SUCH AS:

• The design and deployment of synchronised services between physical reality and the digital space such as home delivery, click and collect and ship from store as omnichannel enhancers.
• The fast and secure integration of internal partners in the CASINO group or external partners for CRM, loyalty, payment, order preparation and delivery solutions.
• The deployment of the company’s new loyalty programme: Bibi!, innovative in its intelligence and openness. The aim is no longer to reward just the act of purchasing but the entire relationship with Franprix (purchases, rating of the application, consumption of responsible products, etc.). It is also open to external generosity by offering many benefits from external partners (culture, sport, wellness/beauty, etc.).
• The creation of a back office for 360° management of the commercial activity: from centralised order management to sales promotion.
• The implementation of a Datahub for centralising and hot processing data related to the activity in real time as well as making it available to the business and external partners. Its role is to correct, enhance and give meaning to the data and make it available to the business. This solution allows the brand to create a personalised, real-time, omnichannel customer relationship with new forms of generosity to meet the current demands of its customers.
• The merger of the two Cdiscount x Franprix platforms provides an ultra-fast delivery, non-food offering in the French capital.

All these solutions are powered by the latest product and service innovations from our partners Microsoft and Redhat with their Cloud Azure solutions and its managed services, Redhat Openshift Container Platform, Redhat 3Scale API Management, and Redhat Decision Manager, all delivered and integrated in a Dev{andMore}Ops and Scrum approach. To achieve these ambitions, onepoint has federated for this challenge all the synergies of the South-West, Atlantic, Paris and Luxembourg communities as well as its communities of expertise TechStud.IO, Architecture, Cloud-OP, Brain (Big Data/AI), Linkup, TRUST (cybersecurity). All these skills combined have enabled the first Openshift box to be deployed on Azure in France and an MVP to be released within 8 months without any interruption of service. In addition, micro-service based development, automatic orchestration of third party partner services, and agile project organisation means we can deliver a new version of Franprix services every 3 weeks. Finally, the project now makes it easier for the brand to extend this proximity beyond the physical points of sale and at any time of day. Whether the customer is at home, at work or with friends, they can enjoy a varied and consistent experience by taking advantage of delivery services, in-store pick-up and drop-off services, but also the ultra-personalised Bibi! loyalty programme. All this acts as a real vector for customer acquisition and loyalty. The scalable, robust architecture implemented gives Franprix a competitive advantage, making it ultra-reactive in responding to retail market volatility.