Build a platform to integrate a new program across all locations
7-Eleven was looking to add another 5,000 stores to their network following acquisitions. As part of the integration, 7-Eleven sought to merge lessons learned from both companies to maximize efficiencies across the new, larger brand.
In contrast, the 5,000 new stores already employed an in-house maintenance model, where employee/technicians were assigned to a set of stores and handled all maintenance and service requests for their assignments, with no outside contractors.
Cask was brought on to build a platform that would integrate a new program for in-house maintenance across all locations, taking what was already partially in use and making it larger and more efficient due to the increased number of stores needing to be serviced.
The team set out to build an easy-to-use centralized portal to request maintenance support and supplies for stores, with portal and approval workflow for new vendor onboarding. The executive team also wanted to gain visibility to the vendor approval process, with vendor knowledge management and vendor reviews in one central repository.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s Cask and who’s us… We’re all one team.”
A 7-Eleven Representative
“We did not approach this as a process redevelopment,” Cask Account Executive Eric Jones said. “We had to bring it in as a holistic solution to solve multiple dimensions of the problem that they were facing.”
Cask built out the vendor onboarding process workflows, along with the workflows for the store maintenance needs on the ServiceNow network. Next, the team worked closely with the retailer to identify the look, feel, and functionality they wanted in their new portals via detailed design sessions, focus groups, wireframes, and creative concepts.
In contrast, the 5,000 new stores already employed an in-house maintenance model, where employee/technicians were assigned to a set of stores and handled all maintenance and service requests for their assignments, with no outside contractors.
Cask was brought on to build a platform that would integrate a new program for in-house maintenance across all locations, taking what was already partially in use and making it larger and more efficient due to the increased number of stores needing to be serviced.
“Prior to the acquisition, we spent nearly $2 million a day on maintenance for our stores, working with direct service providers; sending a maintenance request or work order out, and asking [these giant consolidators] to figure out who to send where.”
A 7-ELEVEN REPRESENTATIVE
“The Cask team has been the most effective at user adoption, at developing [what we needed to get the job done],” the 7-Eleven representative said. “I mean, truly, we’re not sitting stuck. We’ve got the flexibility that’s needed, particularly for a fast-changing enterprise like ours. The project has been hugely successful because of the Cask team and their willingness to journey with us. [It feels] less like working with a third-party contractor and more like we’re augmenting our team with Cask.”
The team set out to build an easy-to-use centralized portal to request maintenance support and supplies for stores, with portal and approval workflow for new vendor onboarding. The executive team also wanted to gain visibility to the vendor approval process, with vendor knowledge management and vendor reviews in one central repository.
“We did not approach this as a process redevelopment,” Cask Account Executive Eric Jones said. “We had to bring it in as a holistic solution to solve multiple dimensions of the problem that they were facing.”
Cask built out the vendor onboarding process workflows, along with the workflows for the store maintenance needs on the ServiceNow network. Next, the team worked closely with the retailer to identify the look, feel, and functionality they wanted in their new portals via detailed design sessions, focus groups, wireframes, and creative concepts.
Inventory reconciliation was another large problem for technicians, who kept thousands of dollars worth of parts and inventory in their trucks, which acted like mobile offices. Technicians can now manage their own truck inventory in the portal and view another technician’s inventory in real-time. Requesting orders for replacement parts or specialty parts is all done through the system as well. If a technician working nearby has a part that is needed on a jobsite, workers can request the part from another technician, rather than ordering and waiting for delivery. The retailer saves time and money on excess inventory and maintenance costs.
“It’s a fairly cost-efficient model once you really get into it. The more efficient we can keep our technicians, the faster they can work, the more work orders they can do, the more we’re keeping stores open for business,” the 7-Eleven representative said.
Cask took a multi-streamed implementation approach, assigning some of the team to work on application development to get a grasp of the kinds of application changes that needed to be made. This approach was able to create the workflows as needed and was able to track those inventories. Other Cask members worked on the UX/UI team, spending a couple of days shadowing maintenance workers, and understanding how they would ultimately interconnect and interact with the solution on an ongoing basis. Previously, it took technicians 25-30 minutes to close out a single work order. Today, that time has been cut significantly based on the preliminary user experience work done by Cask.
“The UX/UI components of what Cask does is something that we haven’t seen elsewhere,” the 7-Eleven representative said. “You don’t get the same kind of return on investment if you’re not willing to invest in making sure that your user experience and interface design and all of that is really on par with your user. In this instance, these technicians are our customers, our stores are our customers, so if it doesn’t make their day easier, better, faster- we’re not doing it.”
“The portal allows a technician to do everything they need to do to complete a work order,” the 7-Eleven representative said. “We get them that work order automatically and then the portal picks that up. They can then complete work, look at attachments [related to the job], and add their parts and their time and do all of that [in one place].”
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