Halfords Is Cycling in Juniper’s Intelligent and Secure Network With Advanced AI-Driven Capabilities

Introduction

0:01 hi my name is Jamie pitchforth and I am

0:04 head of strategic business at Juniper

0:06 Networks here in the UK I'm delighted to

0:09 have Neil Holden the Chief Information

0:10 officer from Halfords with me today hi

0:13 Jamie climate change or changing in

0:16 business Dynamics is is going crazy

0:18 across all of our customers at the

0:20 moment uh just coming here today and and

0:22 seeing the new outfits you know the the

0:25 outfits of the future is is very

0:27 exciting how has that change affecting

0:30 you with your customers but also how is

0:33 that changing you in terms of your

0:35 investment for your new network

0:37 infrastructure what's different yeah

0:39 it's a good question so so the store

Halfords store

0:41 that you're in today and the environment

0:43 that you see was a concept pre-pandemic

0:47 um so this was designed 2080 2019

0:52 um and obviously we had a big world

0:54 event that kind of interrupted our plans

0:56 through that through that process so we

Post pandemic

0:58 did have to kind of rethink post-war

1:01 during pandemic and post-pandemic of

1:04 what still stands from this are the

1:06 Investments still uh credible

1:09 um do we need to kind of pull back on

1:10 one and maybe do a bit more with another

1:13 and clearly what the pandemic showed us

1:15 is the online

1:17 um shopping and customers uh some

1:20 openness to digital technology increased

1:22 exponentially it has normalized a little

1:25 bit now so as I'm sure you've probably

New digital boom

1:27 seen from your other clients as well but

1:29 we really wanted to embrace that

1:30 opportunity of there's a there's another

1:32 digital boom here off the back of a a

1:35 bad crisis but we wanted to not waste

1:38 the crisis for Halfords and kind of make

1:40 use of that so so a lot of our

1:42 investment went online uh in terms of

1:45 digital experience in terms of the

1:46 products and services we're offering and

1:48 how we curated those online but what we

1:51 quickly realized was

1:53 um as customers came back into stores

1:55 and garages physically that that digital

1:59 stickiness was kind of still there yeah

2:01 so we wanted to find a way to Bridge the

Customer feedback

2:04 digital experiences that we'd created

2:06 with the physical environment and the

2:09 Investments that we're now making in

2:11 networks really lay the foundations for

2:14 all of that enablement to start to come

2:15 through we've developed apps we bought

2:18 new devices now we're bringing all of

2:20 that together with the network in a

2:23 number of our stores and garages with

2:25 middle mid roll out at the moment and

2:27 for customers it's just such a different

2:29 experience than they used to with

2:31 Halfords we're getting some great

2:33 feedback so I know that when you started

2:35 that process of pre-pandemic you looked

Why Juniper

2:37 a lot of diligence looking at all the

2:39 different vendors probably an extended

2:41 diligence period because of what

2:43 happened with the pandemic but coming

2:45 out of that you chose Juniper yeah why a

2:49 number of reasons I don't I don't think

2:51 I could just say one

2:53 yeah the the process was more extended

2:56 than would have we'd have liked it to be

2:58 but as you say we started pre-pandemic

3:00 and then that was all interrupted what

3:02 it did do though was give us a real

3:04 opportunity to because we had a proof of

3:06 concept running with juniper is to run

3:08 it in real terms in fact this is the

3:10 location that that trial was run in so

3:13 we had over a year of day-to-day

3:16 experience of the network being active

3:18 here

3:19 um so that was great because great for

3:22 us because we could put your promises to

3:24 proper test with his two sides to that

Feedback from colleagues

3:27 story you've got the sort of internal

3:28 operational side and then the customer

3:31 experience side so what feedback have

3:33 you had from you know your colleagues

3:35 internally in terms of the adoption and

3:38 the operation of the new infrastructure

3:40 quite honestly they said it's game

3:42 changing

3:43 um which isn't a word I think we should

3:45 use too lightly our ability to then

3:48 deliver technology into our colleagues

3:50 hands and for them to have confidence

3:53 that I have something here which enables

3:55 me to do my job better

3:57 um is game changing colleagues are

3:59 really excited about

4:02 um not only do they then have that

4:03 utility that I've talked about before

4:04 but we've introduced some applications

4:07 there are more to come so they're

4:09 looking at what they've got so far and

4:11 thinking this is incredible this is

4:12 amazing I can now do these things and

4:15 not only can the colleague do them to a

4:17 better standard but the customer sees

4:19 that as well gets confidence in what

4:21 we're doing and then a trust

Trust

4:23 relationship starts to build which

4:25 particularly with services and

4:26 particularly with motoring Services

4:28 trust is a really a big part of what

4:30 we're trying to build okay with

4:32 customers because inherently it's an

4:34 industry where there's a lack of trust

4:36 due to lack of knowledge so if we can

4:39 get that consistency and information

4:41 through devices and the applications and

4:43 the network we've now have

4:45 that's a real game changer and how about

4:48 on the customer side I mean obviously

4:49 it's relatively early doors in terms of

4:51 delivering new customer services but how

4:54 do you see that evolving and how do you

4:56 see the customer experience changing in

4:59 terms of digital engagement over the

5:01 next two three four years it's a huge

5:04 part of our strategy we've talked

5:06 publicly about this before in terms of

5:09 our digital transformation and the

5:10 journey that we've been on

5:12 um we are part way through so by where

5:14 by no means done in fact I'd say we're

5:16 more at the start than at the end which

5:18 is great because we've got all that

5:19 potential still to come so that

5:21 personalized experience is is key to you

Loyalty Club

5:24 moving forward that is exactly where

5:25 we're going the personalized kind of

5:27 curated experience for you specifically

5:32 um our loyalty Club the industry first

5:35 loyalty Club gives us a great platform

5:37 to also talk to our VIP clients about

5:39 VIP customers about the specific needs

5:43 that they have and that personalization

5:45 is really something I think

5:47 um Halfords will and Halford's customers

5:49 will greatly benefit from again in an

5:51 industry where that is it's just been

5:54 lacking in the past so in terms of you

5:57 know the crystal ball what does the

5:59 future look like from from your

Future Priorities

6:00 perspective what are the kind of key

6:02 priorities where you think or you you

6:05 understand that this technology is

6:08 really going to make a difference to the

6:10 organization as a whole what would be

6:12 your sort of number one priority you

6:14 want to achieve

6:15 so a a big objective for us as a

6:18 business is to connect all of our assets

6:21 yeah across our full estate whether that

6:25 be the 390-ish

6:28 um resale stores there are over 600

6:31 garages the over 700 Vans whether that

6:35 be B2B or b2c so if you translate that

6:38 into real terms in this town that we're

6:40 in today we have a retail store we have

6:43 a garage and we have Vans which service

6:45 this area

6:46 the network is a Cornerstone part of the

6:50 connectivity of each of those assets and

6:53 how we communicate between those assets

6:55 in terms of the jobs that we have to do

6:58 the customers that that we have to serve

7:00 and the way that customers enter into

7:03 our ecosystem and then can see all of

7:05 the breadth and depth of our products

7:08 and services and can access them

7:10 seamlessly and with one identity and we

7:13 talk to you across all of that plethora

7:16 of services as you as an individual I

7:19 get quite excited about this because

7:20 it's the real uh it's the it's the real

7:24 kind of skill of Halfords and and the

7:26 reason we're a market leader is that if

7:28 we can really make all of that work

7:30 which we are and we're starting to do

7:32 that I think the future is incredibly

7:34 exciting so if you had a message for the

Key Message

7:38 other cios that are that are you know

7:40 about to go on their Journey about to

7:42 evaluate the markets um

7:45 what would be the key message that you

7:47 would tell them having gone through that

7:49 process yourself as any CIO would say

7:52 and I do I do talk to many of my peers

7:54 it's really really key to understand

7:58 your business

8:00 and not just from a technical point of

8:03 view what it is you think you need yes

8:05 we had out of date hardware and yes they

8:06 just needed to be replaced but if that

8:09 was our only requirement that we went to

8:10 Market with well you know pick anyone

8:13 sort of thing yeah no absolutely really

8:14 needs to understand our business in the

8:16 direction of the business and that's

8:17 obviously unique and specific to

8:19 whichever business that that you're

8:20 operating in what I would say is to be

8:23 very open

8:25 um work with Partners as we did with

8:28 connected ID work with the vendor

8:30 themselves as well because I know uh

8:33 some organizations tend to want to do

8:35 one or the or the other

8:37 um I'm not sure that that works

8:38 particularly well I think having a

8:40 transparency about this is what we're

8:42 here to do this is what our business is

8:44 about these are our specific

8:45 requirements and clearly commercially

8:48 they'll be

8:49 um specifics around that as well but

8:51 transparency openness

8:54 um and then drive it as as hard as you

8:57 can absolutely maybe not trial it for

8:58 over a year unless you're really meeting

9:00 absolutely but the foundational pieces

9:04 are in play the future looks very bright

9:06 for Halford it's very exciting you've

9:08 now got that platform where you can

9:09 innovate and and drive forward so

9:11 congratulations on that I'd like to say

9:13 a big thank you for taking the time out

9:15 to meet with us and spend some time with

9:17 us today this is truly impressive in in

9:20 terms of how Halfords are evolving and

9:22 developing so thank you very much thank

9:24 you Jamie