Boots wins The BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT approval
The BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT has awarded Boots IT Platinum Partner status.
In a LinkedIn post, Rich Corbridge, CIO at Boots UK & Ireland, said that this was in recognition of “the effort that goes into the continued professionalisation and development of the IT team here at Boots”.
He added: “Whether its Stores Day, InclusivIT, the IT Academy, the IT Awards, the IT Twins or our placement programme involvement, we go at this as one whole movement with a single minded goal, making IT part of our business to ensure our colleagues, patients and customers are supported by what IT does for them every single day.”
Corbridge went on to thank Sebastian James (President and Managing Director, Boots), Steve Rempel (SVP and International CIO, Walgreens Boots Alliance) and Francesco Tinto (Global CIO at Walgreens Boots Alliance) “who facilitate this effort”.
He also gave special recognition to Sue Hargreaves (Global IT Capability Senior Manager at Walgreens Boots Alliance) and Ann Hawkins (Director, Transformation Lead - Business Services at Walgreens Boots Alliance. Chair InclusivIT (UK). Global Inclusion Council Member) “who drive us forward on this”.
There was also a shout out to Andy Kinnear (a former NHS CIO), Rachel Dunscombe (a UK government policy advisor) and Maria McCann (an eHealth advisor and digital consultant) “who are my inspiration for being so passionate about this every single day of every single week”.
Recite Me
Earlier this year, Boots UK implemented Recite Me assistive and language support technology across its online store.
Director of E-commerce at Boots.com Paula Bobbett said: “We know that shopping online or in-store isn’t as easy as it should be for everyone.”
“Hence why we’ve launched Recite Me to make it easier for people to navigate our site in the way that works best for them. We have also worked on a Boots best practice guide for our suppliers to ensure they also have this front of mind.”
Boots was the first retailer in the UK to offer the Recite Me technology on its online store.
For customers who have visual impairment, new tools can change the font size, isolate sentences and swap the colour of the page to make it easier to read.
The Recite Me assistive toolbar also includes screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options and an on-demand live translation feature that boasts over 100 languages including 35 texts-to-speech.
Bobbett concluded: “We hope that Boots is for everyone, no matter who our customers are or the way they chose to shop. By partnering with Recite Me we are aiming to support our ambition to make Boots accessible to all.”
