Paragon delivery routing software supports Tesco home shopping expansion

Paragon’s leading delivery routing software is being implemented at a further 84 Tesco stores across the country in support of the major supermarket chain’s roll-out of its internet-based home shopping service.

Following a successful two-year trial, Tesco is expanding the service to other locations as a key element in maintaining its market lead in the highly competitive retail grocery sector. Tesco’s aim of having over 100 stores on-line by the end of the year will require that Paragon is installed at every one of these sites.

Paragon’s proven capability to meet the challenges of home delivery operations was a key factor in its selection by Tesco, as was its ability to integrate smoothly with its existing systems.

Home shoppers simply log onto the dedicated area of Tesco’s website, select their purchases and identify a two hour time window for delivery to an address of their choosing. The system can offer a same day service for orders placed by a cut-off time in the morning for delivery that afternoon or evening. Once the cut-off time has passed, the order is allocated by postal code to a local store where the data is transferred to Paragon to plan the delivery. Paragon then transmits the necessary information back to the other Tesco systems to generate picking lists and delivery sheets for the driver. Paragon functions completely automatically at individual store level with no operator required to monitor the system on a daily basis.

Home shopping is not Paragon’s first association with Tesco – the company has provided software for the routing and scheduling of both groceries and fuel since 1987. It first became involved in the home shopping project in 1996 when the concept was in its infancy. Following an initial trial the service was rolled out into ten stores with orders planned from one location. A year ago the decision was taken to introduce separate scheduling systems into each individual store. Working closely with Tesco’s home shopping project team, further enhancements were made to the original Paragon system to ensure a smooth transition whilst meeting Tesco’s exacting requirements for an effective, dynamic scheduling solution. Paragon is continuing to support the retailer on future roll-outs of the home shopping service as well as working with the Tesco project team with strategic planning.

“We were impressed with the commitment shown by all the Paragon personnel involved in the development discussion stages. One of our objectives as a company is to do everything better, simpler and for less and this is where Paragon supports us by helping to reduce our costs of delivery to our customers.” Paul Lancaster, Project Manager, Tesco Direct