Major department store modernizes workforce management

Case Study
 

Requirements

One of the top high-end U.S. department stores was running on legacy, home-grown workforce management software for managing employee and contractor schedules and organizing/ deploying their labor force efficiently. Of course, in a retail company, this is of huge impact. The legacy workforce management software had previously been moved to the cloud (GCP) through a lift-and-shift migration. The software still reflected, however, the legacy architecture.

The application environment was inconsistent across channels, was often fragile and rigid, and was costly and time-consuming to operate and maintain.

The company wanted a more agile, robust, and user-friendly system. As part of the need for agility, they particularly needed to implement various state law requirements around employee hours and work rules.

Solution

Celsior Technologies was selected to work in a collaborative partnership with the company to modernize the application. Instead of a time-and-materials staff augmentation approach, the company chose to work with Celsior using a fixed monthly cost approach.

Software development was done using DevOps/Agile and leveraged Celsior’s App & Cloud Innovation solution stack. This provided cost-effective developers, other expert technical resources, and a solution framework. The process of modernizing the application accordingly used the latest technologies and practices.

Development was done on GCP using refactoring to move to a microservices-based, native cloud architecture. Various security features were also added. Finally, significant work was done to enhance the user interface for the stores’ employees.

Result

The app modernization is an ongoing project that is now in its third phase.

Using the DevOps/Agile approach, significant value has already been realized and further benefits are expected. In particular, with changes already implemented, the company is able to more efficiently manage its workforce and avoid over or under staffing. This contributes to improved customer service in the stores, happier employees, and reduced workforce costs.

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