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Wilko Case Study

Supporting Wilko’s IBM i applications

De-risking Wilko’s IBM i applications by outsourcing their support & maintenance to Proximity
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About the Company

From humble beginnings to a staple of the UK high street

Before they went into administration in 2023, Wilko carried over 14,000 own brand products and offered over 200,000 products online, powered by many IBM i applications in their back-office.
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IBM i skills gap

Significant business risk identified due to dwindling IBM i skills.
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Flexible support & development

Tight-knit team with diverse IBM i expertise and option to TUPE existing team.
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Flawless onboarding

Robust knowledge & onboarding process means support SLAs exceeded.
“The AS400, i Series, IBM i, or whatever you want to call it that’s been with us since 1989. Historically, the IBM i has run everything apart from our Point of Sale (POS) systems. So from purchasing, through to warehouse management, through to stock control, retail stock control, as well as finance, HR, marketing, everything. Over the years, the applications running on the IBM i have been enhanced and developed to meet our business requirements. The whole time I’ve been at Wilko’s we’ve never had a problem with the AS400. Like most companies, we’ve had problems across our IT infrastructure, but nothing that’s really been AS400-led. So that’s how important this system has been to us. ”
Wilko
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IBM i applications at the core of Wilko’s retail operation

When James Wilkinson and his fiancée Mary Cooper opened their first shop in 1930 in Leicester little did they imagine that the company would have, before its sad demise, a 419-strong store estate across the UK with a turnover in excess of £1.5 billion in 2019/20. Many of Wilko’s back-office applications were powered by IBM i.
Department store
Changing IT strategy

A move from IBM i to bespoke, ‘off the shelf’ packages

As with many other businesses, Wilko started moving their heavily bespoke, in-house developed applications from IBM i and migrating to ‘off the shelf’ packages instead. Many functions, however, were still underpinned by IBM i, including their warehouse management system (WMS), stock management and delivery processes.
Warehouse management system in operation
IBM i expertise

IBM i application development skills drain presents significant risk

Wilko had a significant in-house IBM i development team of six people in the 1980s, however, that team reduced over subsequent years. There was an ever widening skills gap as new developers joining the business didn’t have IBM i programming skills, compounded by retirements and redeployment to other projects.
Three IBM i developers working
Outsource IBM i support

On the journey to outsourcing IBM i support & development

At the start of the procurement process, the Wilko IT team decided to begin with the focus on development support as well maintaining the overall IBM i system and infrastructure. After a rethink, Wilko decided just to focus on the IBM i development support element.
IBM i support staff
Flexible support options

Why choose Proximity for IBM i application support?

Wilko went through a rigorous procurement but eventually selected Proximity due to having “a close knit group of people that worked well together” and “their IBM i technical knowledge and competence was beyond a doubt”. Another determining factor was the willingness to TUPE Wilko’s development team as part of the process.
Computer programmers working together
Robust onboarding process

Knowledge transfer and onboarding at the height of the pandemic

COVID-19 demonstrated the wisdom of transferring Wilko’s team. The pandemic did not have an impact on the support provided. In fact, Proximity were unable to go on site for the first six months of the contract, but were able to onboard smoothly and exceed monthly SLAs for support.
IBM i programmers in a meeting
“With retirements and some developers moving onto other roles, there’s been a natural reduction on the internal IBM i skill set. It’s become more of a maintenance function, as well as small changes, as opposed to delivering big chunks of functionality, though there are still occasional requirements for that. There was a realisation at a senior level that we must mitigate a future skills gap”
Wilko