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Delivering a seamless retail experience starts with trust in every interaction.
As this European retail leader expanded across digital and in-store channels, the business faced a familiar challenge. Customers expected a consistent journey, whether they were browsing online, using click and collect, or visiting a supermarket. Employees needed simple systems that worked reliably. And the organisation needed to protect trust at every step.
Behind these experiences, core identity and access processes had become difficult to manage. Years of acquisitions created fragmented Active Directory environments with multiple legacy domains. Access workflows differed by team, interfaces were inconsistent, and older IAM platforms made it hard to keep pace with omnichannel growth. The company understood that continued expansion required a modern identity foundation that could improve security, strengthen governance, and reduce operational friction.
The Challenge: Identity Complexity Slowing Growth
Identity and access workflows had evolved through years of customisation. Store and corporate users worked across different interfaces. Legacy platforms limited flexibility and cloud adoption. Fragmented AD domains and their legacy solutions created visibility gaps that made governance difficult.
Security teams also managed critical vulnerabilities across thousands of systems. Manual remediation cycles increased operational risk. In parallel, engineering teams handled repetitive manual tasks that slowed response times and limited innovation. These ongoing issues magnified the need for a unified and modern IAM approach.
The Approach: Establishing a Modern Foundation for Identity
The company partnered with Persistent to build a scalable foundation for secure growth. Together, teams focused on four interlinked workstreams designed to modernise identity and improve operational maturity.
Identity Modernization
The organisation is transitioning identity governance to a new platform and access management to Microsoft Azure AD. This shift introduces cloud-native capabilities, integrated security controls, and scalable services aligned with the company’s omnichannel ambitions.
AD Domain Consolidation
A multi-year programme was initiated to consolidate legacy AD domains into one unified structure. Persistent designed the target domain architecture, created phased consolidation plans, and supported early execution. Persistent used its strong partnership channel to suggest them relevant tools which will enhance and quicken their AD consolidation journey. The effort aims to simplify administration, strengthen security, and retire outdated environments with minimal disruption.
Vulnerability Reduction
Persistent partnered with security teams to prioritise and fix critical vulnerabilities. Quarterly remediation cycles, scheduled patch windows, and re-scan validation improved compliance and reduced exposure. Architects from Persistent’s internal Centres of Excellence provided strategic guidance to support the client’s existing teams, strengthening the resilience of the broader identity ecosystem.
Engineering Automation
Manual IAM and security processes were evaluated for automation. Persistent developed scripts and tools to reduce repetitive work and improve consistency. These engineering solutions are part of a continuous improvement roadmap that increases speed and minimises operational overhead.
Alongside these initiatives, user interfaces were modernised to be more intuitive. Standardised workflows replaced inconsistent processes, while centralised governance enhanced visibility into access rights, audit readiness, and overall security posture.
The Outcome: Scalable, Secure, and Consistent Experiences
The identity modernisation programme has established a clear set of outcomes that define success and guide delivery across the organisation. These outcomes reflect what the programme has been designed to achieve as it progresses over the coming years, based on the organisation’s omnichannel growth priorities.
The programme is structured to deliver the following outcomes:
- Reduce critical vulnerability exposure by up to 70% through structured remediation, patching, and validation cycles
- Automate key IAM and security processes to improve engineering efficiency and reduce reliance on manual effort Modernizing cloud-native identity services that can scale across digital and in-store channels
- Enable cloud-native identity services that scale consistently across digital and in-store channels
- Establish a unified Active Directory architecture to simplify governance as legacy domains are retired
- Create a consistent employee access experience, reducing support demand and accelerating onboarding
Together, these outcomes provide a clear direction for the transformation, aligning security, operations, and user experience around a shared identity strategy.
Conclusion: A Foundation for the Future
By treating identity as a strategic capability, the organisation is strengthening its ability to grow securely and serve customers with confidence. With Persistent as a transformation partner, this European retail leader is modernising core systems, improving governance, and creating a stable foundation for innovation across every channel.
Bottom line: Persistent is helping transform identity from a back-office function into a strategic enabler, building trust, speed, and resilience for the future of retail.
