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Executive Briefing Monday October 3rd , 2011

HP and Microsoft Confidential.

Migrating the Co-operative Group membership

system to SQL Server

Chris Sproston - Development Manager

The Co-operative Group

3.

The Road to Sunlight

Chris Sproston – Head of Software Development

3rd October 2011

Agenda

• Who are the Co-operative Group?

• Background to Previous Solution

• Rationale for Change

• Delivering the New World

• Summary

The Co-operative Group – A brief history

• In 1844 The Rochdale Pioneers Society

was established, starting a period of

phenomenal co-operative growth.

Based on their eight 'Rochdale rules',

including distributing a share of profits

according to purchases that came to be

known as 'the divi'.

• Dividend Stamps introduced in

1965 as an alternative to the

traditional methods of paying the

'divi', and as a response to the

adoption of trading stamps by

other food retailers.

The Co-operative Group – A brief history

• In 2007 the merger successfully

completed between The Co-operative

Group and United Co-operatives. The

original Co-op 'clover leaf' logo adopted

by United is now obsolete, superseded

by The Co-operative logo throughout

the family of businesses.

The Co-operative Group – A brief history

• In 2009 The Co-operative Group

acquires Somerfield, adding over 800

outlets to the Food store portfolio.

Combined with Somerfield the business

now operates more than 3,000 grocery

stores as the fifth largest food retailer in

the UK with a market share of

approximately 8%.

• Britannia becomes part of The Co-

operative Bank. This merger brings

together Britannia's extensive high

street presence and savings and

mortgage product strength, with the

personal and corporate banking,

insurance and fund management

expertise of The Co-operative Bank,

Insurance and Investments.

The Co-operative Group – Present Day

The Co-operative Group – Present Day

• UK’s fifth biggest Food retailer, the leading convenience store operator.

• UK’s biggest Farmer.

• UK’s third biggest Pharmacy retailer.

• UK’s biggest provider of Funeral services.

• Extensive high street presence in Travel retail.

• We are a major financial services provider, operating The Co-operative Bank,

Britannia and The Co-operative Insurance.

• Also interests in Legal services, Motors, Security, Clothing and much more!

• The Group operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets, employs more than 110,000

people and has an annual turnover of £13.7bn.

• It is arguably the UK’s most diverse business with more trading outlets than any

other retailer on the UK high street and a presence in every Post Code area across

the UK.

What makes us different?

• The Co-operative Group is the UK’s largest mutual business, owned not by private

shareholders but by almost six million consumers.

• As well as having clear financial and operational objectives, the Group has also set

out its social and sustainability goals in its groundbreaking Ethical Plan, which

specifies almost 50 commitments in these areas.

• Ethics, Values and Principles are part of our DNA, and always have been.

The Co-operative Group – The Future

Who we are – Group Software Development

• Dedicated pool of skills developing in-house solutions across our vast range of

diverse businesses.

• Specialist skills in Data Warehousing and Enterprise Level SQL Server solutions.

• Best known for our in store EPOS solution – InControl Evolution.

• Trading in over 4,000 UK Stores

• Across 14,000 Lanes

• Turnover in excess of £200m per Week

• Completing 1.5bn transactions per Year

• One of the most used In-Store Systems in the UK

• Fully utilises the Microsoft stack and Microsoft SQL Server

InControl Evoluton

• Manages “the divi” of the 21st Century

• One of the largest loyalty schemes in the UK.

• Huge reputational reliance

• Interfacing with all our disparate businesses

• Fully managed service with a 3rd party including contact centre

• Fundamental in the delivery of the core principle from The Rochdale Pioneers!

Previous Solution

Why change

• The existing system worked from a technical perspective…

• However it did have some downsides.

– Messaging with Hub and Spoke

– Downtime for payout

– Very poor Business Intelligence

– Crown jewels with a 3rd party provider

– Charring model

Decision to change

• Right deal at the right time? – YES!

• Brand new landscape!

• Need to re-evaluate the future strategy. – 20/20!

• Crystal ball into the future…

Introducing Project Sunlight!

• Couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

• Therefore Sunlight was probably the best direction to aim for!

• Key guiding principles

– Keep it simple

– Lift and shift the processes and interfaces we already have

– However still incorporate lessons learnt from the existing solution

– Re-use as much from the existing solution as possible, without degradation

– Pick a scalable cost effective platform

– Bring the solution in-house

Why Microsoft SQL Server?

• Experience within the Development Team

• Strategic direction of the business

• Scalability – Although we did have some disbelievers to win over!

• Agility to meet the requirements of the Business.

• Value proposition – Full suite of tools bundled in

– Database Engine incorporating the enterprise scale product enhancements introduced and refined

in SQL 2005 and 2008, such as table partitioning and data compression.

– SQL Server Integration Services now enterprise ready due to it's in-memory architectural design

from 2005 onwards, refined in 2008.

– SQL Server Reporting Services incorporating self service report design and deployment tools

(Report Builder 3.0).

– SQL Server Analysis Services adding BI and slice / dice capability through our investment in Excel

2010.

• Also utilised proven HP Hardware.

Creating the new solution

• Solution made up of 4 core components:

– Central Database Core with Interfaces (SQL Server 2008)

– Contact Centre (C# ASP.Net)

– External facing Membership Website (C# ASP.Net)

– Business Intelligence (SQL Server 2008 /SAS Business Analytics)

• Worked with HCL Technologies to speed up delivery

– Co-operative Group Programme & Project Management

– HCL provided Development resource

– On Shore in Manchester rather than Off Shore

– IPR and Source Code transitioned over to the Co-operative internal Development Team

Delivering the new solution

• Long project but with a definitive end date

– Project kick off start of 2008

– Go live June 2011

– Originally planned to go live in April 2011

• Tool to facilitate Lift & Shift – SQL Server Migration Assistant

– Transfer Database Structure, Stored Procedures and Data

– Create a starting platform for Development

– Used to migrate data during the go-live phase

• Achieved the original objectives

– Reduce the running costs of the service

– Create a scalable solution for the future, in both ability and cost

– Bring the solution ownership back in house

What did we learn along the way

• Lift and Shift projects still need to embrace elements of change

• Spend the time to get the Database Architecture right

• Be willing to be flexible with technology on the journey of a long project

• Don’t underestimate the knowledge transition process

What’s next

• Signed in June 2011 after years of analysis and negotiation

• Bring the Desktop technology stack up to current releases

• Windows 7 and Office 2010 rollout

• Enterprise deployment of SharePoint 2010

• Defined strategy for future waves

What’s next

• Focus on Business Intelligence

• Currently evaluating the use of the Business Decision Appliance (BDA) to support

the membership marketing team

• PowerPivot - allowing Excel power users the ability to explore large data volumes

offline without impacting the back end servers

• Introducing collaboration through the deployment of PowerPivot sheets to the portal

• Using the portal to provide a single point of entry for viewing corporate data

• Speedy deployment

• Known metrics

• Fits in with Strategic direction

• Supported by Enterprise Agreement

What’s next

• Unity Project initiated in November 2010

• Bring together the Co-operative Trading Group and Co-operative Banking Group

• Key mantra of putting the customer at the heart of everything we do

• Provide a view of our customer across all our channels rather than silos

Unity

• Currently working with 3rd Party to understand what we can gain from our data

• Requirement to pull ALL transactional information from our disparate channels into

one place

• Reviewing various Hardware and Software solutions including Microsoft + HP

Appliances

Summary

• Successful delivery

• Objectives met

• Simplified by the use of Microsoft technologies with SQL Server 2008

• Supported by the SQL Server toolset

• Ready for the next part of the journey

Thanks for Listening

Questions