Since 2011, Leroy Merlin has trusted Ilex International IAM platform with implementing contactless authentication and SSO on shared workstations in its stores. Today, Leroy Merlin continues to modernise its employees’ work environment by providing them with the same user comfort on tablets.
The solution implemented:
Sign&go Mobility Center
Strong authentication, access control, SSO and identity federation for mobile devices/applications.
The challenges
- Modernise the work environment of sales assistants
- Facilitate mobility for sales assistants within the stores
- Improve the quality of service and customer experience
Leroy Merlin, a dynamic company with increasingly modern stores
As the founding enterprise of GROUPE ADEO, today Leroy Merlin is the leading DIY company in France on the market of home and living environment improvement solutions.
Groupe ADEO is the third worldwide actor in the DIY area and the first in Europe. Leroy Merlin has more than 20,000 employees in France over more than 120 stores.
At Leroy Merlin France, employees are the main actors of the company’s future, and their well-being is at the heart of the company’s HR policies.
In 2011, the Information System Department (ISD) completely revisited access management for its sales assistants in order to free them from the IT constraints they faced in their daily lives, and optimise the quality of service for its customers. This project, called “Mon Bureau Mobile” (i.e. My Mobile Desk), was a great success with the personnel (97% of satisfied users according to a survey conducted in the company) and the ISD, and it achieved all its goals! The sales assistant can now access its business applications very quickly with a contactless badge, from any workstation operating in kiosk mode in the store. No more shared work sessions opened all day long!
In 2014, assuming that every sales assistant must be mobile to be able to accompany customers throughout the purchase process, Leroy Merlin goes further in the modernisation of its personnel’s work environment by declining the “Mon Bureau Mobile” project on tablets.
Tablets in the stores to assist customers
all along their shopping trip!
Following the success of workstations in kiosk mode, Leroy Merlin’s IT department quickly understands that sales assistant mobility is a key business issue, which helps optimise personnel efficiency as well as customer experience. The IT team then starts looking for a solution to provide sales assistants with shared tablets in stores authorising access to their work sessions and business applications in a simple and secured way.
Basically, a tablet is designed for individual use. Therefore, making it switch from a user context to another, quickly and securely, was a real challenge for the ISD. Discussions focused on strong authentication management on mobile devices and on SSO for mobile applications.
The idea is simple: sales assistants will have tablets available for them to assist customers all along their shopping trip! They must be able to retrieve a tablet at each strategic location in the store via a secured terminal and unlock it by presenting their badge. Thus, they will automatically access their personal work session and all their business applications safely, without having to enter their password!
Shared tablets, contactless authentication
and SSO: Ilex International, a relevant choice
Following a successful collaboration on the Mon Bureau Mobile project, Leroy Merlin decides to capitalise on the expertise of Ilex International, a software provider specialising in IAM (Identity & Access Management) and on its Sign&go Global SSO software suite, a unified solution combining strong authentication, access control, global SSO (Web SSO and eSSO) and Identity Federation.
« Given the particularities of our project, we considered launching specific developments. But Ilex International presented us with Sign&go Mobility Center, a module completing the solution which we had already implemented and which would help us port our authentication and SSO kinematics to our mobile applications on tablets. This would ensure a continued and fluid user experience between the existing systems. The solution met all our requirements and our teams already mastered Ilex International technology. So it became an obvious choice for the ISD! »
Concretely, the Sign&go Mobility Center solution allowed us to implement a contactless, strong authentication via the sales assistant’s badge in order to unlock the tablet and let the assistant access his or her virtual work session safely. Thus, while security and access traceability have not been overlooked, the tablets can be shared within the stores, just as the workstations.
Leroy Merlin approaches access management in stores in a unified way, whatever the type of equipment used (a fixed workstation or a tablet) or type of applications (virtualised, mobile applications).
« We have developed an abstraction layer in order to simplify the integration of the Mobility Center into mobile applications as much as possible, and to standardise the user experience in terms of authentication/identification process. Ilex International’s teams have always been helpful and responsive with our requests. We have been working together for more than 5 years and we have built a real trust relationship! With this kind of large-scaled project, it is important to be able to rely on the software provider. »
The ISD was able to use this solution to address another increasing internal request: the implementation of single authentication on smartphones for the employees’ access to Leroy Merlin’s mobile applications. A real breakthrough in terms of efficiency, ergonomics and user comfort.
From the prototype to the experimental store
After some hardware adjustment, the ISD is currently testing a dozen prototypes in various stores.
An experimental storewill soon be equipped with these prototypes. The reopening of the Douai store (Northern France) is an ideal opportunity for the ISD to install the terminals and to support sales assistants with these new tools.
« This experimental store will help us see whether the technical solution we had in mind fits the actual situation in the field, and make necessary adjustments to satisfy employees. Beyond the solution, we will accompany sales assistants so that they can make the best of the changes in their work tools. »
The benefits
- Data security and confidentiality
- Employee mobility
- New ergonomics