Retailer Sonae accelerates productivity and streamlines HR processes with Power Automate

Discovering the ultimate agility enabler

One company in the Sonae portfolio is Sonae MC. As a leader in the food retail sector, Sonae MC offers multi-format outlets including e-commerce, urban hypermarkets, a range of supermarkets, and growth businesses reaching consumers wherever their lives take them. The company’s culture embraces change and having the agility to meet ever present challenges head on. They are on a digital transformation journey to enable their constant drive towards progress.

Workplace Design, a team of the Business Information Technology (BIT) department, is a group of innovative IT professionals responsible for workplace collaboration tools and their adoption, among other priorities. Helder Teixeira, IT Specialist, leads the charge to maximize adoption of Microsoft 365 capabilities. 

Teixeira abides by the team’s philosophy to fully explore all options already accessible before adopting new technologies or systems. Exploring Microsoft Power Platform and specifically Power Automate, proved to be an accessible option that has started an avalanche of progress. Concurrently, Sonae’s People Management & Development team and long-time process improvement advocates, was leveraging Power Platform to address complex, time-intensive processes. 

Initial assessment of low-code potential paves the path for quick wins

Sonae MC universally adopted Microsoft 365 in 2016. Over the next two years, the Workplace Design team migrated email to the cloud and introduced OneDrive. The team began looking closely at the full suite of Microsoft offerings and were intrigued by the capabilities Power Platform offers. 

“We quickly realized that Microsoft Power Automate was very simple and intuitive, very visual. We didn't need to write a single line of code. It did not require additional investment. Licensing was already included in our plan” shares Teixeira. However, with no dedicated staff for ongoing development support, the Workplace Design team needed a way to attract potential users. 

After weighing risks and benefits, the team believed the best path forward was to test the concept of low-code automation themselves. 

The Workplace Design team used Power Automate to build their own award-winning solution enhancing their already prestigious Sonae Contacto Traineeship Programme. Sonae runs a sought-after trainee internship program attracting ambitious talent to work across the Sonae brands in all functions. Since its inception in 1986, the program has received more than 48,000 applications. 

Sonae desired digital solutions to attract, retain, and integrate selected candidates. Teixeira set out to ensure the interviewing scheduling process reflected the high standards of the training program overall, without highly-intensive manual intervention. Three full-time HR employees spent a week using Excel spreadsheets, post-it notes, emails, and constant communication to schedule interviews of nearly 300 preselected candidates with Sonae business leaders. While much effort and focus went into the scheduling process it was still wrought with human error and rework.

In 2020, the desire for improvement coincided with the necessity for virtual scheduling and interviewing due to COVID-19. Teixeira had three weeks to come up with a solution. 

Results leading to international recognition and a legacy of improvements

Teixeira mapped the entire process and then used Power Automate to eliminate the repetitive, manual nature of scheduling. He created a SharePoint page where candidates could book meetings with available leaders. Candidates went to the SharePoint, searched for their desired business leader to interview with. A flow that runs in the background ensure only available appointments are visible. The candidate selects the “Book Now” button to schedule an interview. That triggers an automated flow in Power Automate to check availability, avoid double bookings, schedule the meeting, and notify all participants. The flow cumulates in a Teams meeting sent to both the candidate and the business leader. To help manage the solutions, Teixeira created an Office 365 group housing all the flow implementation shortcuts and a SharePoint list with all log activity from the flows.

The process has been a huge success. HR intervention is no longer required. The process that previously took three employees a week to execute now happens in 30 minutes with no intervention and zero errors. Savings include 120 hours of meeting scheduling and 100 hours of processing meetings (sending invites). And while the productivity gains are significant, the major win is quality. Potential candidates’ first impression of Sonae is one of effortless ease. Business leaders have no down-time as their schedules are accurately filled with qualified candidates. “The biggest benefit was in the quality of the process—fast, without error, and entirely digital,” said Teixeira.

The innovation led HRO Today Association, North America, to distinguish Sonae for the digital transformation of the recruitment and selection process for the 2020/21 Contacto Program. The group also received the HRO Today Awards, EMEA, for the Best in Class category: Candidate Experience & HR Technology. 

The solution was used again this year and even when interviews can be handled face-to-face, Sonae will continue to utilize the Power Automate flow to manage scheduling. In fact, the flows Teixeira created for this use case have multiple reapplications with Sonae for scheduling events.

Focus on collaboration and process improvement

Large development budgets are hard to come by and fully resourced project teams take a long time to come up with solutions. Teixeira has a reputation as a problem solver. He wanted a way to make lasting but quick impact. He knew that Power Automate would benefit many by automating repetitive tasks and therefore improve the lives of his partners in business. He had developed winning solutions like the afore mentioned Sonae Contacto Traineeship Programme automation. He wanted to scale efforts and enable digital transformation across the company.

Teixeira started with Microsoft Excel power users to test the hypothesis that many elements in important, yet routine processes could be automated. As Teixeira puts it, “We already had many experts in Excel that created files that would scare an IT Team!” 

Focusing on mapping processes rather than training on technology helped citizen developers see that Power Automate enabled them to digitize projects, replacing error-prone, highly manual steps. They also steered the use of Power Automate towards straight-forward processes providing immediate productivity improvements. It proved to be a motivating and rewarding path.

“Power Automate is a collaboration tool. We challenge colleagues not to think about technology but to focus on actions taken by people. We show how to create a flow from scratch. Little by little, we’ve created a community that starts to influence other colleagues. We can increase adoption with little effort from IT,” confirms Teixeira. 

The Workplace Design team held regular webinars and training to get the word out. The impact has been significant and continues to grow. Collaborative solutions are helping improve the lives of employees by automating the repetitive, time consuming tasks—freeing up time for more strategic pursuits.

Intelligent automation provides immediate relief in human resource processes

The People Management & Development team, led by Area Manager Pedro Rodrigo Coelho, has the critical role of leading human resources shared services. For the last several years they have leveraged tools that allow for easy customization and rapid development to meet their top priorities. Edgar Simoes, Projects IT4HR Analyst, went through the internship process and then subsequently joined the People Management & Development team. Simoes natural curiosity and capacity for learning was highly encouraged as he developed Power Platform solutions where speed and security were fundamental requirements. During the pandemic, Simoes' new skills were put to the test.

Sonae MC on-staff physicians received all COVID-19 test results via email. In as close to real time as humanly possible, they needed to review results and take a variety of actions, including reporting, based on the test results. Results came in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making for a serious, exhausting workload for the Occupational Medicine team led by physician Filipa Rocha. For every thousand tests that needed to be read and appropriate action taken, it was taking more than 25 hours/month of medical staff time and more than 17 hours/month of technical staff time.

Simoes mapped the process identifying several opportunities to automate sub-flows within the process. While the company had other automation options, Power Automate’s capability to trigger a flow was critical for his solution. 

Digging deeper for the right solution

One issue could not be automated with the existing toolbox. COVID-19 results arrived in the form of a pdf. The team needed a way to read outcomes of the test listed on the pdf, specifically positive, negative, and inconclusive results. 

Simoes proposed using a function of Power Platform that Sonae was not yet leveraging, Microsoft AI Builder. AI Builder is a Power Platform capability that allows for AI to easily be infused into automations and apps. Edgar leveraged the AI Builder Form Processing capability that uses AI to extract data in PDF or image format. “AI Builder was the missing link to help fully automate our process. Once I discovered that AI Builder could learn to read PDF images and extract the needed information, it was quick and easy to incorporate it into our critical solution. We were able to release highly strategic resources back to their priorities and have a solution that is completely hands-off and error-free,” says Simoes. The use case on incorporating AI Builder to read the PDFs proved successful with zero errors. Dr. Rocha and her team were ecstatic.

Sonae has strategic partners to create a bridge between IT and business units to accelerate getting the right support for optimal solutions. In this case, Susana Correia, Global IT Leader, saw the potential efficiency gains AI Builder could bring and quickly paved the way for usage. Simoes built his solution in less than two days. Simoes shares, “AI Builder was very easy to use. I tested ‘breaking’ the flow, but it always worked. It made me look like an IT expert!” 

Correia says, “I know the department’s (HR) projects, initiatives, and goals. I know IT’s architecture, applications, and processes. We take the best from both teams. We are keen to achieve digital transformation within the business and focus on enabling self-serve solutions when possible.”

More than 7,500 tests have been processed with no intervention needed to date. The Sonae doctors and nurses have been released to perform their duties without excessive after-hours requests. Results are communicated on-time with the ability to track and trace results.

What’s next?

Broadening reach, strengthening governance, and deepening exploration

The Workplace Design team continues to enable the company’s digital transformation journey and supporting low-code automation. They see their collaboration with the People Management & Development Team as a shining example of how tangible, superior results come from fusing IT and business, and applying technology like Power Automation. Knowing where successful pockets of automation are thriving, they will continue to amplify examples that are working and empower businesses to create their own solutions. Correia challenges teams to “automate and accelerate.” 

Both Teixeira and Correia see the power in providing training and outreach to business teams, but even more so see the power in sharing specific successful examples of business teams resolving their own issues with the application of technology. “Little by little we create supporters and ambassadors of these tools. Who better than end users to recommend Power Automate?” states Teixeira. He is exploring creating an internal community of Power Platform users, an internal “champions” program.

Sonae MC continues to expand the breadth of Power Platform solutions and is currently exploring Desktop Automation and Power Virtual Agents.

As the automation revolution continues to build critical mass, Sonae MC will explore developing an even more robust governance model. This governance model could provide greater guidance to current champions like Simoes.

Champion users going further

In addition to the COVID-19 results solution, Simoes has built several additional solutions including a ticket manager (4YOU) and activity planning on Power Apps. His latest development is building a process to facilitate safe and efficient return to onsite work locations. The Better Return Working Models App, has the potential to impact 3,000 employees and save more than 85 hours a month in the manual aspects of helping employees return to their physical work locations from a remote environment.

The People Management & Development team is also building their use case to leverage RPA for the last step in the COVID-19 reporting process. Simoes is testing Power Automate Desktop to communicate results to the National Health Association as required. He is also building his use case to begin using Microsoft Dataverse. His current solutions work well but sees the potential for Dataverse to expand capabilities.

Utilization of Power Platform advice and know-how is highly sought from the People Management & Development team. They are a shining example of using low-code solutions for process improvement. “The future will be teams like ours, very focused on innovation and problem solving, challenging the status quo and seeking new solutions that can be rapidly implemented and customizable to our needs,” shares Coelho.

Simoes thoughts on Power Automate best summarize where he plans to take things in the future. As he puts it, “I think Power Automate is going to change the company’s perception of what they think can be possible.”