Ren’s Pets: SharePoint Automation and Content Management

Ren’s Pets is a Canadian pet store chain with retail locations across the country. In the midst of an ambitious growth plan to significantly increase their store count nationwide, the company recognizes the importance of implementing foundational systems and scalable, digitally empowered business processes that can not only accommodate, but fuel this rapid growth.

As part of their ambitious growth journey, Ren’s Pets turned to MRS for help.

Integrating systems between office, warehouse and retail locations

Critical to any retailer is the need to integrate systems and coordinate business processes between office, warehouse and retail locations. For Ren’s Pets, in the midst of cross-country expansion, this became paramount as operations were increasing in complexity and the level of stakeholders was constantly growing.

For example, the management of information across nationwide retail locations was becoming increasingly cumbersome. Managers and employees would log information such as product issues and deficiencies, out-of-stock products, special orders and anything else critical to operations. However, there was no synchronization or collaboration between different retail outlets – an issue identified in Nova Scotia, for example, would not notify, unless done manually, retailers in other provinces. This made coordinating efforts and managing critical information across the country increasingly tedious, if not downright impossible as the level of retail outlets increased.

The company also wanted a solution that could streamline and enforce strict adherence to company procedures and best practices. For example, when a product deficiency is identified, detailed, accurate information has to be logged according to strict information requirements and best practices and, crucially, store managers in every retail outlet across the country have to be notified of this issue immediately – allowing the company to rapidly identify and address issues throughout every retail location.

Other key considerations for the solution involved having a comprehensive, cloud-based document library that all store managers, regardless of location, could access and the solution had to smoothly integrate and interface with the company’s existing ERP system for maximum efficiency.

The solution: SharePoint Online workflows and comprehensive cloud-based content management

Working in close collaboration with the Ren’s Pets team, MRS consultants identified SharePoint Online as the optimal platform to address requirements and accomplish critical business objectives. The cloud-based SharePoint application provides Ren’s Pets staff with user-friendly, personalized SharePoint sites and intelligent workflows built with Microsoft Power Automate and .NET.

The comprehensive system gives users the ability to handle critical information management processes, such as the aforementioned issue handling product deficiencies, with drastically increased efficiency and regardless of physical location – be it at offices, warehouses or retail outlets. Automated workflows and alerts ensure tasks and requirements are clearly defined, streamlined and strictly enforced, making for a far greater employee experience. And ultimately, all information is logged in cloud-based document libraries with detailed yet easily understandable taxonomy – empowering employees across regions with the knowledge and resources they need to succeed.

A scalable solution accommodating ambitious growth plans

With MRS SharePoint consultants, developers and project managers leading the initiative from start to finish – including on all critical tasks starting from envisioning and ideation to roadmapping, project management, software development, cloud architecture, onboarding and end-user training – the SharePoint Online solution achieved desired results and accomplished Ren’s Pets’ business objectives with great success.

The core objectives achieved were:

• significantly strengthened communication and collaboration between office, warehouse and retail locations
• enforces strict adherence to policies, procedures and best practices across locations
• streamlines core business processes and reduce manual labor with workflow automation technology
• modernized infrastructure with cloud technology

 

Ultimately, for Ren’s Pets, the solution synchronizes efforts from every employee – from management to the frontline – across the country and helps lay a foundation that can help fuel the company’s ambitious growth goals. From 30 stores to 100+ and beyond, the scalability of the SharePoint solution has Ren’s Pets better equipped for great success now and in the future.