Boots, founded in 1849, implemented the collaboration tool Huddle in 2008 to enhance internal communication and support critical business decisions by making customer insights accessible across the organization. This shift from email to Huddle improved efficiency by allowing teams to share and access the latest documents without clogging email systems. The tool has been embraced by staff, fostering creativity and suggesting a positive future for broader implementation across Boots' operations.

1. Case study
Boots
Boots Huddles up for efficient working practices.
About Boots
Founded in Nottingham in 1849, Boots is a member of Alliance Boots, an international
pharmacy-led health and beauty group. Alliance Boots employs approximately 70,000 people in
the UK. The organisation places its customers at the heart of the business and it is committed to
providing exceptional customer and patient care.
Location UK Challenge To ensure material created is
Sector Private sector accessibe to teams across the
Industry Retail globe, supporting critical business
decisions.
Boots, the international, pharmacy-led health and beauty group which operates Boots highstreet
stores, has transformed key aspects of its business to become more customer-led through the use of “The main change in working practices,
Huddle. The implementation, in August 2008, was Boots' first collaboration software installation and and a continual challenge, is to drive the
comprises 300 users within Boots' support offices. The tool was required by Boots to ensure the team to continually upload documents
customer was at the heart of all decision-making processes, for example, those involving trading and and refer users onto Huddle rather than
ranging decisions, through to creation of store layouts and marketing activities. clog up email systems and shared
networks. When material is uploaded and
“Huddle has radically changed the way our key business units operate,” said Martin Duffy, Contracts shared, there is no question about where
Manager in Boots' Customer Insights team within the marketing department, “in that our Customer the latest, most current version resides,
Insight material is now accessible by all teams all over the world via a simple web browser without so we don't waste time looking for it or
having to download anything onto individual computers. Our business units consult with each other waiting for our beleaguered email server
more efficiently through Huddle. The key benefit is that material now flows freely throughout the to download it.”
- Martin Duffy, Contracts Manager
business to support critical business decisions.”
Boots' Customer Insights team is the main engine behind the creation and delivery of all market and
customer insights. The team's research supports decisions that impact Boots' entire retail operation.
The end-result of the team's work therefore needs to be disseminated quickly across all support
offices and commercial business units to support Boots' wider retail operation. Email was becoming
an increasingly poor solution for distributing large attachments, to a lot of staff members, quickly.
Huddle's off-the-shelf collaboration solution supported Boots' vision of being truly customer-led by
allowing business insights material, containing key information about servicing its customers, to be
instantaneously accessed by all Boots staff. Access requires nothing more than a simple web browser
without needing major IT support. At present, Huddle is primarily used for internal communication and
collaboration, but with the workspaces being accessible across the firewall just as easily as they are
within the business, Boots has made some of its tender process documents available on Huddle to
be shared externally with potential business partners.
“Huddle has changed the way we work and reduced our reliance on email,” said Duffy. “The main
change in working practices, and a continual challenge, is to drive the team to continually upload
documents and refer users onto Huddle rather than clog up email systems and shared networks.
When material is uploaded and shared, there is no question about where the latest, most current
version resides, so we don't waste time looking for it or waiting for our beleaguered email server to
download it.”
www.huddle.com USA: +1 (415) 376 0870 UK & EU: +44 08709 772 212 sales@huddle.com

2. “Now, when people come to us with queries, nine times out of 10, they have already looked up
background research on the Huddle workspace, so less of our time is wasted explaining things. The
team at Huddle has been a joy to work with, offering flexible solutions with extremely credible account
servicing. Huddle has the ability to revolutionize the way you work as an individual, a team and
ultimately as a business, allowing effcient information transfer at very high speed. The main challenge
for Boots has been driving people’s working practices and engaging people, so that Huddle is at front
of mind when access to information is required,” said Duffy.
Huddle's flexibility and security was also paramount to Boots' success with the workspaces.
"We have hundreds of suppliers, and if they ever accessed the wrong data it could create a breach in
security. Huddle worked closely with us to ensure all the data is internal-only and we locked all IP
addresses. Data that needs to be protected includes customer data from Boots Advantage cards. So
this was a critical part of the implementation.
Alliance Boots references three reasons behind the Huddle implementation:
Huddle was a credible off the shelf solution
It was quick to implement
It catered to Boots' need to share documents and collaborate with teams located all over
“People take to Huddle like a duck to water. It's simple and intuitive. It even generates better ideas for
how to do things, because of how simple it is. People get creative with how they use it within different
parts of Boots.”
Duffy concluded: “The future of Huddle within Alliance Boots is very positive. There is a huge amount
of potential still to be tapped into. For example, some of our key trading areas have a vision to
develop increased ownership and usage of Huddle across the wider business, allowing more insights
and document sharing across more facets of the business. Where do we stop? Huddle could
potentially be rolled out to all our stores and operational units.”
www.huddle.com USA: +1 (415) 376 0870 UK & EU: +44 08709 772 212 sales@huddle.com