Case Studies

Virgin Retail Ltd.

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↓ Virgin Retail Case Study

Virgin Retail Ltd, which comprises the Virgin Megastore chain and Virgin XS, form a major part of the entertainment element of the world-renowned Virgin Group, headed by Sir Richard Branson.  With nearly 130 retail outlets throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, Virgin Retail employs approximately 4000 people and is headquartered in London.

Increased competition in the entertainment retail sector, primarily from large supermarkets and the internet meant that Virgin Megastores needed to reduce its cost base to remain competitive.  Based at HQ, Tony Johnson, IT Director, had been tasked with implementing an ambitious three year cost saving plan whilst at the same time improving service levels.  Tony had completed phase one of this plan by re-engineering the company's network during late 2004 and had moved on to review a large number of IT Service contracts at the beginning of 2005.

At the same time Tony was approached by CCL and after several meetings with Andrew Krauze, CCL's Managing Director, CCL were retained to conduct an IT Services Review.

The first task for Colin Inglis, CCL's Managing Consultant, was to design, write and issue an RFP (Request for Proposal), based upon a full scope of services as agreed with Virgin.  Colin worked closely with Virgin to identify a list of suppliers (including 2 incumbents) capable of responding to all aspects of the RFP.  The services included in the RFP were:

  • Hosting for legacy systems
  • Application support of legacy applications
  • Network management
  • Desk Top support
  • Help Desk

Tony Johnson commented, "Colin Inglis brought with him a wealth of experience of similar projects and was quickly able to move things forward.  Colin took on a lot of the legwork himself, thereby not tying up valuable internal resources.  It was made clear to all the suppliers who received the RFP that their main point of contact was Colin.  After some initial reluctance from certain suppliers, this worked very well and again served to ensure that Virgin resources were not overly distracted from the ongoing day to day management of IT."

After reducing the number of suppliers to a shortlist of three, Fujitsu Services were selected, and the agreed solution was for Fujitsu to manage all the technical services, whilst Virgin Retail would take the applications support back in-house.

Several months on, the cost savings are on target and service levels are improving.

Tony Johnson concluded, "Colin Inglis was an excellent cultural fit for our business...his relaxed, yet professional approach meant the whole CCL project has been a positive experience.   I would be happy to use CCL again in a similar situation."

Tony Johnson, IT Director

Virgin Retail Ltd