Retail employees get faster, smoother onboarding across nine brands
A prominent US-based retailer overseeing nine consumer brands faced significant complexity in scaling IT operations across business units. Multiple acquisitions and a fragmented tech stack increased pressure on the IT team, who needed to handle a growing workload without expanding resources.
To address these challenges, the client partnered with us to deploy a Workato automation framework that streamlined onboarding, optimized access provisioning and integrated critical platforms. Resulting in faster IT operations, unified workflows and a seamless commerce experience for employees and partners alike.
The Challenge
As the retailer expanded through acquisitions, their IT operations grew increasingly fragmented. Manual onboarding processes across systems led to delays, inaccuracies and rising SLA breaches. The IT team, already stretched thin, was expected to support a 43% increase in workforce without additional headcount.
These mounting demands made it difficult to maintain service quality, highlighting the urgent need for scalable automation to unify operations and streamline employee onboarding.
The Solution
To enable agile, scalable IT operations, we implemented Workato’s automation platform to orchestrate workflows and standardize integration across brands.
- Adopted the Workato automation platform to replace manual tasks with orchestrated, end-to-end digital workflows
- Integrated Workday and ServiceNow to automatically trigger equipment requests for new hires
- Automated access provisioning for on-prem and cloud apps like Box and Slack, improving consistency and compliance
- Streamlined approvals and notifications via Gmail to support rapid, secure onboarding across brands
- Enabled scalable operations through Workato’s on-prem Agent, ensuring integration across hybrid environments
The Impact
The Workato-led transformation enabled the client to shift from reactive operations to proactive, scalable IT delivery. With intelligent automation at the core, IT teams achieved faster turnaround times, improved service quality and frictionless onboarding without additional staffing.
- Onboarding and offboarding became 16x faster, improving employee experience
- VPN provisioning dropped from 2 hours to just 9 seconds
- Email provisioning became 50x faster, improving first-day readiness
- IT team supported a 43% increase in workforce with no headcount increase
- 6,500 hours saved monthly by automating all Level 1 IT support calls
- Accuracy of IT requests improved significantly, reducing daily complaints
- Automation enabled 50% of the workforce to return to the office and facilitated enterprise-wide contact tracing
Beyond the Numbers
With our guidance, the retailer turned their decentralized operations into a connected, automated ecosystem. The shift empowered IT teams to scale quickly, freed up bandwidth for strategic initiatives and created a seamless experience for employees across brands.
This foundation supported growth, resilience and long-term operational agility in a fast-moving retail environment.
Celebrating Success
Our partnership with this multi-brand retailer demonstrates how intelligent automation can transform IT operations and enhance Total Experience at scale. The Total Experience Report highlights that 46% of organizations have seen improved employee engagement, 46% report a stronger ability to attract talent, 44% have enhanced teamwork and 43% have increased staff productivity by investing in scalable, personalized experiences.
These outcomes reflect the client’s success in streamlining IT workflows, enabling faster onboarding and empowering teams to deliver seamless service across retail brands.
