INDUSTRY RETAIL. TECH

Showcasing innovative technology in the retail sector

The category celebrates outstanding partnerships that have delivered significant value through effective collaboration, innovative use of data and AI and measurable outcomes.

The shortlisting follows a major Digital Transformation program that saw The Perfume Shop migrate from a legacy robotic process automation estate to a modern intelligent automation and data platform powered by Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Copilot.

Working directly together without the support of a third-party systems integrator, The Perfume Shop and Microsoft reimagined key business processes across the retailer’ s operations. Rather than simply replicating existing workflows, the partnership focused on redesigning processes around clean, trusted data, creating a scalable foundation for automation, analytics and AI.

The collaboration has already delivered significant operational improvements across the business. In one of the most impactful examples, inventory availability management for more than 1,000 SKUs can now be completed autonomously in under four minutes, compared to a process that previously required hours of manual effort.

During the Christmas trading period alone, the solution helped save approximately 3,700 hours of colleague time across more than 1 million inventory stock units.

Other measurable outcomes include increasing Supplier Set-up completion rates from 63 % to 91 % and improving New Line Forms success rates from 36 % to 77 %, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new intelligent automation approach.

Hardik Dave, Head of Business Systems Transformation, The Perfume Shop, said:“ This shortlisting recognizes the strength of our partnership with Microsoft and the impact that collaboration can have when organizations share a clear vision for innovation. This transformation represents an important step forward in our move towards more data-led operations. By redesigning processes around clean, trusted data and adopting Microsoft Power Platform, we have improved efficiency, reliability and visibility across key areas of the business. With Microsoft Fabric and Copilot supporting our workflows, we are building a scalable foundation that will enable us to enhance decision-making, strengthen operational resilience and continue improving outcomes for both our colleagues and our customers.”

Andy Saw, IT Director, The Perfume Shop, said:“ Working with Microsoft, we’ ve reimagined how technology serves our business. Our migration to the Power Platform has democratised automation across our teams, while Microsoft Fabric and Copilot have unlocked a new era of connected data and AI-assisted productivity. The result is a more agile, capable and future-ready Perfume Shop and a team energized by what’ s now possible. This recognition reflects the dedication of both teams and reinforces our commitment to creating smarter, more agile ways of working for our colleagues and better experiences for our customers.”

The DataIQ take place on September 17. •

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