7-Eleven Australia taps Wipro for major SAP deal

The Australian arm of convenience chain 7-Eleven has engaged multinational outsourcer Wipro to overhaul its technology, using SAP.

A statement from Wipro said that the work is "one of the first implementations of the SAP for Retail solution portfolio on the SAP HANA platform across Asia Pacific and Japan".

Michael Peck, CIO at 7-Eleven, said: "One of these projects is the implementation of new infrastructure so we can flex our development environments on demand to support multiple business initiatives. In addition, we are upgrading our current IT environment to run the latest versions of SAP software."

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Wipro stated that 7-Eleven will undergo an "organisation-wide retail process re-engineering" that will allow the retailer to "launch new merchandise categories, improve the efficiency of existing merchandise categories, initiate real-time targeted promotions and easily on-board new processes during mergers and acquisitions".

Manoj Nagpaul, Wipro's chief sales and operations officer for APJ, said: "7-Eleven is the leader in its category, and this engagement will enable it to deliver a superior end-customer experience with every interaction and enhance customer loyalty."

The global consulting firm stated that the reforms would set the basis for 7-Eleven to execute "predictive customer analytics" in the future to "forecast and manage the retailer’s future business requirements".

Peck said that 7-Eleven and Wipro's relationship has been ongoing since November 2012.

"We are pleased to be working with Wipro on this project, which we anticipate will deliver positive outcomes for our franchisees and customers."

7-Eleven is an international brand with more than 600 stores in Australia, racking up about $3.4 billion in annual sales. The company said that it opens "approximately six stores per day somewhere in the world".

Wipro employs over 1200 in Australia from a global workforce of 145,000 people. The consulting and outsourcing firm is headquartered in Bangalore. The company underwent a restructure in April that included an executive level reshuffle.