Reece’s Head of Business Systems Gabi Currin Unveils Data Modernisation Journey

Reece’s Head of Business Systems Gabi Currin discusses how one of the leading bathroom and plumbing product suppliers in the ANZ region ‘unclogged its pipes’, allowing the free flow of data to power its modernisation journey.

For a large part of Reece’s 100-year-plus history, the company has relied on its single-core system to do everything from payroll to finance and people experience. Over time, its strategy changed to find best-of-breed, off-the-shelf systems for key functions like HR, Finance and CRM. Reece formed a specialised Business Systems team to evaluate and implement these key software applications, headed by Gabi Currin.

Reece began lifting key capabilities out of its core platform, moving onto tier 1 cloud-based applications for key HR, Finance and customer enablement and interaction capabilities. But while Reece’s modernisation journey was taking off, a new challenge emerged.

Like many organisations today, its systems weren’t communicating with each other. Data was locked within the confines of each system, making it difficult — if not, impossible — to glean the insights needed to successfully move the business forward.

On a mission to remedy this application sprawl dilemma, Reece began assessing a number of different integration tools and iPaaS systems. The company became aware of SnapLogic, a leader in intelligent integration and enterprise automation. After performing an in-depth proof of concept with two systems, SnapLogic emerged as the clear winner, primarily due to its ease of use and strong UI visualisations.

“With SnapLogic, you can clearly see a pipeline of the flow of data and the way it will be transformed through the process in a very visual and easy-to-understand way. While powerful, SnapLogic also has simplicity at its core. It’s accessible, and that was a big attraction for us,” says Gabi Currin, Head of Business Systems at Reece.

“When it comes to set-up and implementation, SnapLogic was up and running in half the time it would’ve taken us if we were building the integrations ourselves and with half the people. If we were building it from scratch, we would’ve needed a team of 10 people. With SnapLogic, we only needed a team of five working on the integration. And by developing certain pipes, we are able to reuse them in other integrations, which saves us a lot of time as well.”

Today, Reece is running about 60 different integrations between all of its different platforms. And Currin admits she’s excited about the future, especially given the fact that SnapLogic now has a local team in place with the opening of its premier Australian office earlier this year.

“The opportunities we see with SnapLogic are endless since we’re constantly connecting things to each other,” she says. “Our appetite for data has grown enormously as a business. And our expectations of everything being connected have also grown exponentially. The ability to share data seamlessly between different systems is a huge advantage for us.”

James Campbell, Regional Manager, Australia New Zealand at SnapLogic, says, “Reece’s results excite us not only because we know similar challenges and opportunities exist among other global brands and organisations but because of our close partnership as well. Since opening our new Australian office, we’ve been able to provide dynamic, on-the-ground support further strengthening our relationship.

“We are delighted to see how SnapLogic has made – and continues to make – a huge difference to Reece’s thriving business, helping to unlock the insights and business value in its legacy applications while future-proofing its infrastructure and improving agility. The tremendous time savings and data flow improvements have had a profound impact on their business, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how this partnership evolves over time.”

About Reece

Reece Group is a leading distributor of plumbing, waterworks and HVAC-R products to residential, commercial and infrastructure customers through 800 branches in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Established in 1920 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: REH), Reece Group has approximately 8,000 employees committed to improving the lives of their customers by striving for greatness every day.

About SnapLogic

SnapLogic powers the automated enterprise. The company’s self-service, AI-powered integration platform helps organisations connect applications and data sources, automate common workflows and business processes, and deliver exceptional experiences for customers, partners, and employees. Thousands of enterprises around the world rely on the SnapLogic platform to integrate, automate, and transform their business. Learn more at snaplogic.com.