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RS 06 RS June - July 2012 comment Until recently corporate social responsibility didn’t really land on my desk in the IT department. Pennies, the electronic charity box, changed all that, and our vision of CSR at Domino’s Paul Francis is head of commercial systems at Domino’s Pizza. From a software development background, he has led teams to overhaul the digital sales channels of some of the UK’s leading on-line retailers including easyJet and Figleaves Look after the pennies... Paul Francis, head of commercial systems at Domino’s Pizza, talks corporate and social responsibility I am responsible for extending and maintaining all web and mobile e-commerce channels. My role is very commercially-focused and I work closely with the marketing and operations teams to ensure the business gets what it needs to be a leading pizza delivery brand. Sometimes, this remit entails looking beyond the obvious, towards other areas of our corporate strategy which I may be able to help shape and influence. Such is the case with corporate and social responsibility (CSR). CSR has always been important at Domino’s and has, generally speaking, had two key areas of focus. The first is providing corporate funding for our chosen charities. The second area, one that is probably more familiar to the public, is through franchisee contributions to the communities that they work in. Therefore, until recently CSR didn’t really land on my desk in the IT department, unless it was in the form of a cupcake I had purchased at a head office bake sale! Pennies, the electronic charity box changed that, and our vision of CSR. It is a micro-donation scheme that was added to the Domino’s Pizza website in November 2010. With around 50 per cent of Domino’s delivered orders now coming via the internet, it was the perfect place to add Pennies. It was such a safe way of giving our customers an option to donate their change to charity if they wanted to. It’s always only pennies and customers have time to decide whether or not they want to give. As with anything new, there were initial fears that it would be complicated, though this was to prove unfounded. It was actually one of the quickest and most straightforward implementations of 2010. And even though it does land in IT as a technology based innovation, once it is up and running, there is very little work for us to do except watch those pennies add up. It’s stable, simple to operate and, given the number of people who choose to round-up, popular with our customers too. There have now been well over one million individual donations, so far raising £250,000. Domino’s was the first retailer to sign up to the scheme – always a nerve-wracking experience – but we are very pleased that we did. It was a fantastic feeling to be the first people to enable our customers to utilise this modern way of donating loose change. Since then a number of others have followed suit and the total of retailers using the system continues to grow. As the first adopter, we have had time to see those pennies put to good use in the charities we nominated to benefit from the majority of funds. Donations from Domino’s customers benefit a range of charities including Special Olympics Great Britain, which receives 75 per cent of the money raised in Great Britain, and the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice, which receives 75 per cent of the money raised in Northern Ireland. The remaining 25 per cent is shared amongst other UK charities, including Shelter, Together for Short Lives and the NSPCC. Special Olympics GB is the largest beneficiary of our customers’ donations through Pennies, with the donations helping to transform the lives of children and adults with learning disabilities through the power of sport. To date, Special Olympics GB has received £185,000. Over the next two years the charity will be reaching out to more than 3,500 new young athletes, 1,000 of these severely learning disabled, with innovative projects such as the Motor Activity Training Programme and a London 2012 Legacy Project, Project Unify, designed to activate children and young people to be agents of change through Special Olympics GB sports and education programmes. We expected to see some charity fatigue, but this just hasn’t happened and donations have in fact increased since we launched. The information we collate has made for some interesting local news stories too – especially in Formby, where our most generous customers live! Everyone at Domino’s is glad we took that first step into the unknown back in 2010. Everything in life moves on – yet charity tins hadn’t evolved. Pennies is changing that – and successfully too.
Click & Collect elsewhere John Lewis may extend its Click & Collect offering so customers can pick up their orders from other retailers The department store chain’s managing director, Andy Street, said he has begun discussions with several partners about the potential venture. “We are forging partnerships with others,” he said. The retailer already offers the service through its grocery chain Waitrose, allowing customers to order items from John Lewis but pick it up in a Waitrose store.John Lewis is not the first to try out the idea, ASOS offers customers the opportunity to collect their clothes from local convenience stores through the Collect+ service. Street added that retailers with an online presence will only need 60 to 70 stores to cover the whole of the UK. “The days of needing 200 stores to cover the UK are history,” he said at the British Reatil Consortium. Rob Wilson, market unit leader at Tradedoubler, adds: “John Lewis’ announcement that it is looking to extend its click and collect offering to other retailers highlights the way in which the online and ‘offline’ worlds are blurring when it comes to shopping. “We read so much about the death of the High Street as a result of internet-shopping, yet moves such as this confirm our belief that e-commerce, m-commerce and in-store shopping complement and enhance each other for the benefit of the customer and the retailer. “Our research shows that customers want their shopping experience to be seamless and tailored to their needs. Collaboration between retailers is a natural and complementary step.” IN BRIEF Mobile success Forty per cent of visits to a site launched by Claire’s Accessories in support of T4 On the Beach were from mobile devices. Digital agency, Fast Fwd Multimedia helped the jewellery store launch its mobile site and in-store QR codes. ukash deal Ukash has announced a new partnership with ekmPowershop.com, the UK’s largest e-commerce and email marketing platform. New and existing ekmPowershop retailers (the O2, Lotus Cars, PGA Golf and Michelin Tyres) will now have the option to accept cash online with Ukash. iT overhaul Dairy Crest, the UK dairy foods business, has chosen Avaya Virtual Services Platform 7000 to overhaul the company’s IT environment and deliver robust disaster recovery capabilities. June - July 2012 RS 07
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