CUSTOMER CASE | RETAIL
Stockmann invests in automation to enhance customer experience and productivity
Author
PAIJU KOIVULA
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For several years, Stockmann has utilized automation to streamline its operations. Through automation and artificial intelligence, the company aims to optimize operational efficiency, support employee well-being, and improve customer experience. As a result of automation, Stockmann has reduced the amount of manual work, improved data accuracy, and freed employees from repetitive routine tasks. This allows employees to focus on more strategic and meaningful tasks, increasing productivity and employee satisfaction.
Investing in automation and digitalization is one of Stockmann’s key strategic goals, and the company is already leveraging a variety of technologies in digitalizing its business.
“With automation and robotics, we aim to streamline workflows, save employees' time, and free up resources for development projects, while enhancing overall efficiency,” says Pauli Dahlbom, Head of Data & Analytics at Stockmann.
“We’re also boosting efficiency by building better integrations and improving processes. We are optimizing our overall architecture to ensure effective data flow, which supports decision-making. Additionally, we’re utilizing predictive analytics and generative AI. Our goal is to solve increasingly complex processes on a larger scale by combining various technical capabilities,” Dahlbom adds.
Automation supports overall process development, as automation requires precise standardization and documentation of processes before implementation. This step helps to optimize processes for maximum efficiency.
Currently, Stockmann has around 15 automations that enhance the management of the global supply chain, HR functions, and financial administration. In supply chain management, automation improves product information management, in HR, it supports payroll integration, and in finance, it is used for various reconciliations.
The goal of automation is to improve productivity and enhance employee satisfaction
Stockmann has a clear understanding of what it aims to achieve with automation and where it should be applied.
“Automation truly saves significant amounts of working hours. It also improves data quality: machines are excellent at finding errors and perform this task tirelessly and consistently,” says Dahlbom.
In addition, Dahlbom emphasizes the use of technology to improve well-being at work and to make tasks more meaningful.
“The most important thing is what can be done with the time saved. Reducing repetitive routine tasks makes work more enjoyable and frees up time for supporting internal clients and development work for example,” Dahlbom explains.
Dahlbom believes that business should be designed in such a way that employees are provided with the prerequisites and tools for productivity and quality service. And as work becomes more meaningful, the company can attract new talent and retain current employees more effectively, which also impacts the quality of customer service. The goal of automation is not to reduce the workforce but to optimize task distribution so that employees can focus more on value-creating tasks, which enhances their experience and enables them to provide better value to customers.
“The relationship between machine and human should be viewed from a new perspective: not as humans working for machines, but as machines working for humans. Humans must take the leadership role and direct the machine to the desired results; that’s the right way to look at this equation,” Dahlbom concludes.
Stockmann will continue to scale automation and leverage AI in the future too
Stockmann plans to continue leveraging automation and AI in order to improve productivity without compromising on the quality of customer service.
“We see many opportunities to increase automation and intelligence throughout the organization, which will help us enhance productivity and improve our ability to meet our customers' needs in a more personalized way,” says Dahlbom.
Utilizing technology provides an opportunity to develop the workforce and bring people, processes, and technology together in a way that delivers real value to customers.
“Technologies and their capabilities are essential, but it’s equally important to consider culture and people. Technology cannot be viewed in isolation from people; employees must be involved and understand their role as part of the whole. The purpose of technology is to help employees grow and perform better in their jobs,” Dahlbom continues.
One example of this is how Stockmann uses AI in its processes.
“We use generative AI to enrich product information. With our vast volume of products, writing high-quality product descriptions for 50,000 items is a massive task to do manually. This is where we have incorporated generative AI – with the help of the AI solution, our specialists can work on a large number of product descriptions at once instead of one by one. Productivity has increased significantly, and the product descriptions are more comprehensive. The collaboration between humans and generative AI has resulted in higher-quality product descriptions, which directly impacts our online store's conversion rate. Customers also benefit from having more detailed information about the products,” Dahlbom explains.
Stockmann plans to offer Citizen Developer training to its employees, with the aim of further expanding automation across the organization
Stockmann also seeks to develop its internal automation expertise.
“Our goal is to build the skills of our experts so they can independently handle process definitions and development. Our automation partner, Sisua Digital, will provide support to developers as needed and ensure that the development meets quality standards before moving into production,” Dahlbom explains.
With support from Sisua, Stockmann intends to organize Citizen Development training for its employees. In these trainings, employees with no prior coding experience will learn to automate the company’s processes. The goal of the training is to further extend the use of automation.
“Our plan is to form a team of experts from different business areas who can identify automation opportunities within their units. We intend to equip them with the skills needed to develop solutions independently. Process automation requires understanding the processes, and with internal automation expertise, we can more effectively identify potential use cases, prioritize and orchestrate implementations, and ensure they meet development standards,” Dahlbom adds.
Collaboration with Sisua Digital began when Stockmann was looking for a new service partner during a switch in automation technology
Stockmann chose Sisua Digital as its service partner when transitioning from Blue Prism to UiPath technology.
“We had reached the limits of our previous technology, and it was obvious that moving back to a time without automation wasn’t an option. Since the automations had to be rebuilt anyway, it lowered the threshold to switch to a different technology. We had the opportunity to start with a clean slate and assess which technology would best serve the future. After comparing technologies, UiPath emerged as the winning choice, as it would continue to have available developers in the future,” Dahlbom explains.
Sisua Digital was selected as a partner due to its strong expertise in automation and UiPath.
“We wanted a partner that specializes in robotics, rather than one where it’s just a side line within a larger offering. We also felt that Sisua would provide us with dedicated service,” Dahlbom explains.
In the process, Stockmann also changed its delivery model: Sisua Digital now provides licenses and automation maintenance as a service for the company.
“Previously, we owned the licenses ourselves, but at this stage, we saw that it would be easier to purchase automation as a service,'” Dahlbom says.
Sisua Digital's international service center enabled exceptionally fast development
Sisua Digital rebuilt Stockmann’s 10 existing automations on a new platform in just 1.5 months by combining Sisua’s local development team with their international service center through a flexible division of labor.
“At the beginning of the migration, we had multiple developers working on several automations simultaneously, which helped accelerate development. The migration had a very tight schedule, as the licenses were expiring, and the automations needed to be in production by then. The schedule was met successfully, and after that, we have expanded automation with Sisua,” says Dahlbom.
“Sisua also provides us with regular monitoring and maintenance. Everything has gone well, and we received comprehensive, standardized documentation for the automations. Now we have the necessary understanding of how the automations operate, allowing us to manage system changes more effectively,” Dahlbom concludes.
What was achieved
Automation benefits
- Improved customer experience
- Increased employee satisfaction
- More time for development projects
- Hundreds of working hours saved per month
- Increased productivity and efficiency
- Fewer errors and better data quality
About the company
Stockmann
Stockmann, founded in 1862, is a marketplace for a good life. Its department stores are known for their high-quality selection of fashion, beauty and home brands. In the Baltics, Stockmann’s selections also include premium food products and drinks. Stockmann has eight department stores in Finland and the Baltics and an online store stockmann.com. Stockmann is part of Lindex Group Oyj, listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.
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