Asda reveals Walmart website nerve centre in Leeds head office

Asda is set to invest up to £500m bringing down more prices in its 590 stores on top of the £1bn it had already earmarked.

Chief executive Andy Clarke, who has just launched a state-of the art nerve centre to control all of parent Walmart’s websites from its head office in Leeds, said an announcement would be made next year.

In an interview with the Mail, Clarke said the £1bn of price cuts announced last year was just a starting point and will be ‘significantly’ increased in 2015.

Clarke also revealed that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has been building a covert nerve centre within Asda’s headquarters to control all of Walmart’s 11 existing websites.

The high-tech facility, not dissimilar in appearance to mission control at NASA, is the first of its kind in the UK and was launched last Friday. It will enable Asda and Wal-Mart to monitor all traffic and users on their global websites 24 hours a day seven days a week.

Clarke said: ‘The new system is expected to enable Asda and Wal-Mart to identify and address any issues with its websites five times faster than before.’

Technicians can see the volume of users and transactions on a bank of screens placed in a semi-circle on a wall. If a problem develops they are then able to mobilise staff around the world to help. There are two other similar centres.

Clarke said: ‘The new mission control operation hub will monitor the network for an eight-hour period before handing over to the next centre in sequence.’

Source : Rupert Steiner - Daily Mail
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2839622/Asda-set-invest-500m-bringing-prices-590-stores-1bn-earmarked.html