AO selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 for many parts of the supply chain, managing inventory both centrally and in-store. There was already an integration with the system the organisation use for inventory forecasting and replenishment, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 was also selected as the system to underpin the warehousing operation for the stores trial.

Carl Phillips, Group Technology Director for AO commented,  “We’re excited that we are able to keep the core of the product “evergreen”, whilst at the same time, being able to extend through the API’s and, as big users of Office 365, Power BI and Teams, we’re really looking forward to seeing how all the parts can come together to offer a really first-class, connected experience for our colleagues across the business, and how we can leverage these to make our customers even happier”.

AO has recently launched its first ever in-store trial, opening-up in a select number of Tesco stores in the UK, with Microsoft Dynamics powering the retail and mobile point of sale systems for the trial.

Another aspect that attracted AO to Microsoft technology was the hosted services provided by Microsoft Azure. “We’re confident in the performance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and that we could quickly scale up if we needed to”, commented Phillips.