Albertsons and Microsoft Partner on Cloud Adoption to enable Digital Transformation

The Albertsons Companies family of brands engaged Microsoft Industry Solutions to help migrate Albertsons’ on-premises data center to Microsoft Azure. As COVID-19 began spreading across the country, online orders skyrocketed 240 percent in a matter of months, accelerating Albertsons’s modernization plans. To squelch competitive pressures, the need to operate and innovate faster was clear. Reducing costs while leveraging inherent Azure capabilities such as scalability, flexibility, resiliency, and agility will enable Albertsons to quickly pivot based on market demand. In the third quarter of Fiscal 2020 alone, Albertsons reported an increase of 12.3 percent in Identical Sales Growth and an astounding 225 percent rise in digital sales.

“Innovation is why we’re going with a cloud-specific architecture. Having on-demand capabilities has been helpful. Azure Kubernetes Service, security, and best-in-cloud capabilities to modernize our business are key to our success. I've seen our relationship with Microsoft Industry Solutions strengthen overall. Microsoft takes great care to understand our core objectives and brings the technical skills we need. We thank them for all they do to make us successful.”

Jim Saber, Group Vice President of Cloud IT and Operations, Albertsons Companies

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Founded in 1939 and based in Boise, Idaho, the Albertsons Companies consists of more than 2,200 supermarkets, under 20 banners across 34 states and in the District of Columbia. The company is the second-largest supermarket chain in North America and is one of the largest retail employers in the United States today, with approximately 300,000 employees.

When Albertsons decided to go all in and migrate its entire data center to Microsoft Azure, it called on long-time collaborator Microsoft to help deliver a flexible omnichannel platform to support growth and innovation. The first step was to lay the foundational technology infrastructure needed to pave the way for a successful digital transformation across the entire business.

“From a technology perspective, Albertsons plans to be out of the data center and completely cloud-based by 2022, so we can operate and innovate faster. On the business side, we’re focused on leveraging new cloud capabilities to enhance our omnichannel experiences with more personalized customer marketing,” explains Jim Saber, Group Vice President of Cloud IT and Operations at Albertsons Companies.

Fast-tracking to scalability, flexibility, agility, and resiliency

As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the entire globe, Albertsons, as a critical business during this crisis, saw a significant increase in the number of customers using its digital e-commerce platform. With online orders increasing 240 percent, time was of the essence to migrate and modernize their e-commerce platform. In just over nine months, the Microsoft team executed an agile, holistic, and comprehensive Azure Cloud Foundation program. Albertsons met their customers' needs in the safest manner possible with options such as Drive-up and Go, curbside pickup, and home delivery during the pandemic.

The Microsoft Modern Service Management (MSM) team also did their part to ensure the right processes were in place for Albertsons to operationally monitor and support the technologies and digital e-commerce platform.

In addition, Microsoft provided training to help make the transition to Azure as frictionless as possible. The training took a multi-pronged approach tailored to Albertsons employees. One method provided the opportunity to shadow and learn directly through experience. The second entailed meetings and engagements with product teams. The team also offered formal classroom-style training to show users how they could get certified on Azure.

Meeting technology and business objectives on time and on budget

The Microsoft Industry Solutions engagement paves the way for Albertsons to accelerate its migration to Azure, which will save costs, time, and other valuable resources when all the infrastructure building blocks and security enhancements are in place.

Additionally, Albertsons plans to significantly leverage Azure and Microsoft technology like containerization, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep analytics to foster near real-time decision-making, enhance customer communications, and improve the in-store and online shopping experience. The Cloud Foundation Albertsons built will also help enable future business scenarios and innovative ways of meeting customer needs.

"Innovation is why we’re going with a cloud-specific architecture. Having on-demand capabilities has been helpful. Azure Kubernetes Service, security, and best-in-cloud capabilities to modernize our business are key to our success,” says Saber. “I've seen our relationship with Microsoft Industry Solutions strengthen overall. Microsoft takes great care to understand our core objectives and brings the technical skills we need. We thank them for all they do to make us successful."