Low Code. High Impact

At Jumbo, we put our customers first. In our efforts to live up to that promise, we pay special attention to supporting our colleagues in the supermarkets. Because, when they can do their job better, they can help our customers better. That works in two ways: we either help them save time on certain tasks, like the ones we can automate using software robots, or we give them the tools to better serve our customers. This is a story about that second scenario. Mostly.

It’s all about the user

“We wanted to make the apps for our colleagues more user friendly. So, they’re a better fit for the way and the moments they use it. We couldn’t really do that using the tools we had in the past.” Elmana Dekker is a Product Owner explains in what we call the Store Domain. She is joined by Jelle Leermakers, who is a team lead at Jumbo Tech Campus. He explains what changed: “We switched to Mendix, which is a ‘low code’ platform. It helped us to build apps for our colleagues that are easier to use. But what’s even more important: we can build much faster now.”

Modelling over programming

Jelle: “As the name implies, Mendix uses little code. It’s more about modelling than programming. It takes a little getting used to and I find it a little more restrictive because it’s more abstract. But the advantages totally outweigh these small disadvantages.”. Elmana agrees: “We’re always looking for ways to speed up processes, but also to make sure solutions and applications work the ‘Jumbo’ way. Because an organization like ours is much more complex and needs solutions that are made to measure, more than any other business.” Jelle: “Combining speed and a pleasant user experience always was a serious challenge. But with Mendix, we think we nailed it.”.

From Excell to acceleration

Elmana: “There was a team that still worked with excel and e-mail to manage their tasks. Not because they wanted to, but because there simply was no other way. As a kind of exercise for ourselves, we created an app that made life very much easier for them.” Jelle laughs as he adds: “Yeah, that turned some heads. We also gave a demo to a group of managers, showing what we could achieve using Mendix. That resulted in quite a bit of requests to create more apps.” Elmana has similar experiences. Not a week goes by without a mail requesting a customized app.

Better apps for even better service

For now, the focus lies on creating apps that colleagues in the supermarkets really like to use and that help them improve the shopping experience for their customers. Like the new “Product Initiative” app, that helps manage initiatives regarding Jumbo’s assortment. The team was able to build an app that manages and monitors these initiatives, provides more details, takes less time to use and support and is much less prone to errors.

In apps that play a key role in both user and client experiences, every detail counts.

As we all know; an app can be absolutely brilliant in its functionality. But a subpar interface will prevent people from using it, rendering all hard work useless. The results achieved using Mendix showed that this illusive ideal combination can be achieved.

Just getting started

Now that the first few apps have been created, Elmana, Jelle and their team have really gotten a taste for the possibilities that Mendix has to offer. Elmana: “We want to start small and learn more. That’s why we’re focusing on the Belgian stores right now. They’re already on SAP S4, whereas here in the Netherlands we’re still in the middle of the transition to that version. Developing for two different versions makes things complicated and, in our quest to make things easier, that feels counterintuitive.”

A job for those who like a challenge

Jelle: “The next step is to expand our team. We’ve already started looking for new colleagues. But as always in the field of IT, we’re not the only ones.”

But as an employer Jumbo has a lot of extra’s to offer. And the most important one is the highly challenging complexity. The kind that motivates you to be extra creative and see things from several perspectives. Jelle explains: “Working with Mendix for Jumbo calls for a few different competencies. Affinity for IT is one of them, of course. But a feel for the business side helps a lot, as well as a general idea of technical processes.”

Lucky Belgium

So, if you want a job that really tests and sharpens your skills, you know where to look now. And in the meantime, Elmana and Jelle will keep spoiling Jumbo’s Belgian colleagues with their Mendix-made apps. Elmana: “Exactly. Nothing personal, dear Dutch colleagues, but Belgium gets the coolest apps first.” Jelle: “But the good news is; as soon as we have completed the transition to SAP S4, you will get access to many new and improved, but also tried and tested apps .

So, there is a lot to look forward to!”.

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