Jumbo Tech Campus

The most impactful changes are the ones that help us provide a better experience for our customers and/or our colleagues. And the result of this project has made a very significant and positive impact on the day-to-day jobs of our colleagues in our supermarkets. Meet Elmana Dekker, the Product Owner for the store employee experience teams. Elmana tells us all about this game-changing THT-app transformation. THT stands for "Tenminste houdbaar Tot," which translates to "Best Before" in English – the app is used by our store colleagues to ensure all our products stay fresh! 🛒 The previous version was a Fiori (SAP) app, and the new version was built on the Mendix platform. Elmana Dekker explains to us why the new app was created. "In late 2022, we asked our users about their experience with the Fiori app. The feedback poured in, highlighting some user-friendliness hiccups. So, we got to work to create a more efficient and user-friendly app." Now, the app is much easier to use and provides more insight into which products need to be taken out of the shelves and which ones have already been moved. It is also easier to correct mistakes, for example when you accidentally selected too many products or products that haven’t reached the Best Before date yet. Elmana continues: "It's not just about moving products nearing the Best Before date to a special bin and making sure all the products in the store are fresh. With this process in place the store is also able to identify those items that may not have reached the date to make sure that they will get sold before it reaches the THT date.  We introduced the app in Belgium first, where SAP S4 is already fully operating, but the Netherlands is next on the list". But there's more! We've added some extra features – For example, the app now forecasts tomorrow's workload. This way, our stores can plan accordingly, ensuring freshness for our customers. 🍋 The response from users to the new app is overwhelmingly positive. It scored a 8,5 as an introduction score. Now, Elmana and her teams are eagerly awaiting the moment they can start rolling out the app in the Netherlands and making a fresh impact on our other Jumbo stores.

Want to start the working day by working out? You can at the Jumbo Tech Campus! We have a full-fledged gym, complete with all kinds of equipment for any type of training. One of the people you’ll often find is Bernardo, Data Engineer. A while back, we interviewed him about his job. This time, we wanted his opinion on the gym. So, what do you think Bernardo? “I like it a lot and I come here three times per week. It’s right next to our offices and it has all the facilities you need. You can come in early in the morning or during lunchtime, and train however you want to. I like to start my day here, have a shower and get to work. There’s coffee, water and you can even have a bite to eat here. I like the atmosphere. There are trophies of all sport teams Jumbo sponsors everywhere. They give the gym that competitive feeling.” So, is training a solo or a group activity for you? “There are a few regulars here when I come in, but we don’t plan to work out together. Some colleagues do come in groups, but I prefer to work out alone. You know; clearing my head, get a fresh start.” To Bernardo, is one of his new year’s resolutions. He wants to stay fit and so he added working out to the other sports he practices during the week: “I guess I’m not the only one who got that idea. It’s more crowded now than it was at the end of last year. Although during the holidays you also see more people here. The Jumbo Tech Campus Gym is open from 7 until 20:00 every working day (fridays till 18:00). During the weekends it’s closed. Just like the Campus itself.

Last September the Jumbo Tech Campus hackathon 2023 took place. Together we gathered lots of innovative ideas for the Bricks & Clicks that make us tick💛 A few months further the winning teams of the “Jury Award” and the “People’s Choice Award” gathered at the Foodmarkt in Veghel to collect their prizes. One minute of pure chaos while collecting as many products as possible! The winners had a nice gesture to donate it to the Voedselbank 🛒

Imagine starting at Jumbo’s IT department in 1997. The Jumbo Tech Campus wouldn’t exist for another 21(!) years and store-automation was a very, very young domain. For John Oosterwijk van this ‘IT Stone Age’ was the starting point of his career at Jumbo, which – only interrupted shortly by a job elsewhere – continues today. Read along in John's growback 📓 When he joined Jumbo’s IT department, his predecessor told him that he would train him for two weeks. And after that, he would have to do everything on his own: manning the helpdesk, store openings, and managing the applications for the weighing instruments and the cash registers in no less than stores. Luckily for him the stores weren’t open on Sundays and there was only one evening per week on which some stores were open until 20:00 hrs. As Jumbo grew, John hired a few colleagues to support the growing number of supermarkets. He then switched Jumbo for another retail organization. After a few years, he picked up the phone and called a former colleague to find out if there was a job opening. There wasn’t, so they created one for John. He became a store automation application manager, implementing new software and adapting it to the business demands. John studied business information science. He had learned how to translate demands from the business into soft- and hardware products, keep improving on them and stay innovative. This background helped him helped him fulfill this completely new role within the IT department. He visited events, talked to suppliers, and kept his eyes open for relevant developments in his field to stay up to date. After one year he became the Team Lead for store applications, managing a team of 7. In 2010 he became Team Lead for all applications, except for SAP. As Jumbo grew, John started to specialize in this field even more. He managed several projects and in 2015 he became a consultant/analyst, responsible for, amongst others, cash register applications, self-checkout systems and self-scanning systems. His role was to analyze how to help colleagues adopt the new technologies, make sure everything ran smoothly and analyzing the optimal flow and use of all the data involved. Halfway 2023, he looked back and saw that his job was becoming too much of a routine. Another job opening caught his eye: Store Service Delivery Manager. He talked to the team manager responsible and basically asked “How hard can it be?” He became a service delivery manager. Now he analyzes contracts and actively looks for improvements in services, finding ways to do things more efficiently and with less costs. He also looks into procedures for fixing and preventing errors and much more. In everything he did and does, John has a simple, but powerful mission: “Improve continuously and keep things as simple as possible”⭐. We couldn’t agree more, John.

Sustainability and efficiency go hand in hand at the Jumbo Tech Campus. The less kilometers our delivery vans have to drive, the better it is for the environment. Plus: it also benefits our logistic operations. Frank Gerritsen is our Product Owner, Shopping and Last Mile. That last part of his title clearly hints at what this story is about. Find out how smart thinking and IT solutions can help plan better delivery routes more efficiently and flexible. And how we help and ‘nudge’ our customers to pick the time slots that help us reduce delivery movements 🚛

It’s the most beautiful time of the year! ✨ 'Tis the season for reflection, and we've captured the essence of 2023 in this video. While our focus typically lies in the future, this year was truly exceptional and deserves a moment of recognition. But still: we’ll keep this nice and short. In under one minute you’ll get an impression of what 2023 was like on our Jumbo Tech Campus. We hope you enjoy the highlights! We’re already back doing what we love to do most: look ahead and get even better every day.

Meet Ammar! Ammar Darwesh earned his bachelor’s degree in software engineering in 2015, graduating in Syria before moving to Hungary to pursue a master's degree. His goal was to work in the Netherlands because of the widespread use of English and the presence of friends who already lived there. Now, he’s one of our valued software engineers at our Jumbo Tech Campus 💛 Ammar was specific about his ambitions; he aimed to work for a leading company that uses the latest technologies, offering significant challenges and opportunities. In 2021, he began searching for a company that matched his ambitions and found ... us. He contacted us through LinkedIn, we responded, and after a short while, he had his first interview. In his own words: “I was shocked to hear that they offered me a job right after that. I didn’t believe it. I was waiting for someone to call me and tell me it was a joke.” But it wasn’t, and soon the relocation process started. The entire process took about 2 months, and Ammar describes it as “really smooth.” Now, Ammar lives in Eindhoven and has already formed friendships with other expats: “We have our own small expat community over there,” he says. “It’s a nice city with lots of people from other countries.” 🏡 From the moment he started working with us, he loved it. But adjusting to his new home was challenging. “Fortunately, the Jumbo people were very supportive”, Ammar explains. Once he got settled in, he focused on his work and found out quick enough what he really wanted. Being part of Jumbo Tech Campus.

Here’s a surprise, and it’s something new A poem for everyone at Jumbo Tech Campus and for you A true Dutch tradition, notably in the beginning of December This written present encapsulates a year to remember

Diversity and inclusivity are words we live by at the Jumbo Tech Campus. They represent values that are an integral part of our DNA. When you walk around our campus, you’ll’ meet people from all over the world, each with their own way of life, ideas, and qualities 🌍💛

Introducing Jumbo Bezorgeloos: A Seamless Blend of Convenience and Collaboration! 🚛   It’s both a new Jumbo proposition and a perfect example of cooperation between departments: Jumbo Bezorgeloos, an online grocery delivery subscription. The name is a fusion of Dutch words, 'bezorgen' (to deliver) and 'zorgeloos' (carefree). We listened to our customers, and one common concern was the delivery surcharge hindering their online orders. Enter Bezorgeloos! With a subscription customers pay a yearly fee and enjoy unlimited online orders without additional delivery charges. A great way to service our customers and to establish a long-term relationship with them.   Collaboration in action: Colleagues from marketing, CRM and IT joined forces to create the infrastructure, interface, and everything else required for this new service. For these kinds of cooperations, we have a process in place. First, the Business team describe their plans and wishes in a businesscase, which they summarize in a one-pager. They then present their ideas to the development team that will be responsible for turning that plan into reality.   Meet Arian, online developer at JTC: Arian Verschuren was a member of the team that created the ‘Bezorgeloos’ concept. He and his team members created a UX design to test and demonstrate the process they envisioned. From there a process of developing, testing, adding and finetuning functionalities started. According to Arian they worked as an agile, autonomous ‘cross-functional team, consisting of people from the business, he and other UX-specialists and IT-specialists.” Gosse Reinsma, Manager of Jumbo Tech Campus's Insight: While not directly involved, Gosse recognized the immense potential of Bezorgeloos and endorsed the collaborative efforts. He agrees with Arian’s take on the project: “This is something you can only pull off with a crack team, where everyone does what he or she does best and all team members really work and learn together!”   At Jumbo, we believe in pushing boundaries, creating the best customer experiences, and fostering a culture of great collaborations.