Irish builders merchant chain Chadwicks, part of the Grafton group, is undergoing a digital transformation strategy with data technology provider InterSystems.

The move means Chadwicks Group can move away from siloed legacy IT systems to a modern, cloud-first infrastructure, using InterSystems’ IRIS data platform.

Colm Scannell, head of IT, Chadwicks Group, says:  “This is a key strategic initiative for us, and our digital transformation was dependent on getting the foundations right. Chadwicks has a long history of making it easier for time-strapped customers to do business with us, so we needed a modern, highly performant integration solution that could be understood and supported by our own internal IT team. With InterSystems IRIS now a fully-live and critical part of each of our infrastructure, we’re able to rapidly build new solutions, which enables us to get new projects up and running quickly and maintenance is very simple.”

The group needed to be able to facilitate real-time exchanges of complex information between new and legacy systems, and accommodate all types of interfaces and standards from web services, to JSON and FTP.

Graphical tools within IRIS allow the internal IT team to visually diagram processes, transformations, rules, and workflows. This allows them to focus on the logical interactions between systems, rather than coding, resulting in faster development of solutions that meet business requirements, and easier modification of existing applications.

All data is automatically stored in the embedded database and available for real-time reporting and analysis.

Currently, Chadwicks Group has gone live with three new systems – a new accounts payable solution to handle high volumes of transactions, a steel mill test report system, and a product management system, to digitally transform departments across the organisation. The new systems were implemented by InterSystems’ Dublin-based systems integration partner, Grapevine.

As well as going live with the three new digital projects and exploring new developments in its ecommerce platform, an electronic proof of delivery system is currently being piloted.

John Kelly, Sales Manager, InterSystems UK&I, says: “Chadwicks Group has been the cornerstone of the merchanting industry for 200 years and this digital transformation project will ensure it continues to adapt to the changing requirements of its customers and benefits from a more agile IT infrastructure. The reliability, scalability, and performance of InterSystems IRIS, as well as its ability to facilitate data exchanges in real-time, will be crucial as Chadwicks pushes on with the creation of an online transactional website and captures this lucrative market.”