Woolworths

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It's what supermarkets were designed for: put a wide variety of attractive goods under one roof and customers will love the convenience.

Woolworths has taken that concept one step further with an in-store electronic banking service that, through an alliance with the Commonwealth Bank, lets shoppers organise their financial transactions at the same time as buying dinner.

Implementing Ezy Banking involved transferring all of Woolworths' banking business from the National Australia Bank to the Commonwealth Bank. Consequently, all 18,000 EFTPOS devices in supermarkets, Big W stores, Foodstores, Plus Petrol and Crazy Prices stores in Australia had to be reloaded with new software - a huge logistical exercise. Following a competitive tender, Woolworths awarded Fujitsu the contract to supply the rollout services needed to complete this upgrade.

With EDS operating the Commonwealth Bank EFTPOS network and Ingenico providing the EFTPOS software, a strong team approach to the upgrade was critical.

For security reasons, the new software can only be reloaded by Ingenico, off-site. This required Fujitsu to maintain a rotating pool of devices ready loaded with the Commonwealth Bank software. Fujitsu installation teams could then swap them over in the stores, remove the devices loaded with the old software and send them off to Ingenico for reprogramming, testing and future installation in other stores without disrupting business.

For Woolworths' customers the immediate benefits of Ezy Banking are obvious: fee-free banking for up to a designated number of withdrawals each month from Woolworths or Big W plus another five free withdrawals from elsewhere. Customers also have the convenience of a single card for both credit and transaction accounts, and a reward points program for using it. For Woolworths, the service offers the opportunity to attract time-poor shoppers drawn to the simplicity of an all-in-one electronic bank account that does not require them to visit a bank branch. It also allows the company to develop an ongoing relationship with customers via its loyalty scheme.

Ezy Banking also sets the scene for Woolworths to deliver future e-services at the point of sale, further bridging the divide between traditional physical shopping and the world of e-Business.

Although Fujitsu won the Ezy Banking roll-out contract in a competitive tender, Woolworths has had a commercial relationship with Fujitsu for more than 20 years, during which time Fujitsu has installed three different sets of back office point-of-sale systems for the retailer. Fujitsu also provides total managed maintenance for Woolworths. Whenever a hand-held scanner, cash register or any other such device breaks down, Fujitsu is on site to repair it.