Morrisons Revolutionizes Data Infrastructure for Real-Time Insights and Customer Satisfaction

Challenge

Morrisons, a leading UK-based food retailer, aimed to modernize its data infrastructure to elevate customer experience, transition to Google Cloud with Looker for enhanced reporting, access real-time data, improve online picking efficiency, and ensure on-shelf product availability. The move away from their legacy Oracle Exadata data warehouse required a shift to Google BigQuery as the centralized data repository. Morrisons needed a solution to connect disparate systems and deliver critical datasets in real time to enable faster decision-making and improve operational efficiency.

Solution

Morrisons leveraged Striim to connect its separate systems and ingest critical datasets into Google Cloud, specifically BigQuery. Striim facilitated real-time data integration from the Retail Management System (RMS) and the Warehouse Management System (WMS), providing immediate visibility into stock levels and core business metrics. This integration allowed Morrisons to power their reporting transformation using Google Looker, ensuring that data-driven insights are readily available for operational excellence and future business initiatives.

Results

  • Enhanced real-time visibility into stock levels and product availability.
  • Significant improvement in on-shelf availability, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
  • Improved inventory management through timely insights.
  • Empowered senior leaders and store colleagues with real-time operational data.
  • Increased efficiency in the online picking process through live-pick decision-making.
  • Established a data-driven culture that supports agile business initiatives and growth.
"Retail is real-time. We have our online shop open 24/7, and we have products moving around our distribution network every minute of every day. It’s really important that we have a real-time view of how our business is operating ... Without Striim, we couldn’t create the real-time data that we then use to run the business ... It’s a very fundamental part of our architecture"
Peter Laflin
Chief Data Officer at Morrisons