For a retailer, the year is not flat. A handful of weeks carry a disproportionate share of the trading, and during them the systems that take orders, move stock and settle payments cannot afford a bad day. The in-house IT team knew its estate well, but it was sized for the ordinary months. Going into the peak at that size meant either people working unsustainable hours or a real risk that something would break at the worst possible time.
Hiring permanent staff to cover a few intense weeks would have left the team over-resourced for the rest of the year. What they needed was experienced cover for the season, from people who could be trusted near production without a long induction.
The challenges we had to solve
- The demand was concentrated in a short, predictable window each year.
- The work was on live systems during the period when mistakes were costliest.
- There was no time to bring people slowly up to speed once trading started.
- The team had to return to its normal size afterwards without a hangover of half-finished work.
How we approached it
We placed people who had worked retail systems under load before and understood that the priority during peak is keeping things steady, not making changes. They came in ahead of the season so they knew the estate before it mattered, joined the client’s on-call rotation, and were accountable to its operations lead through the busiest weeks.
We agreed the wind-down before the peak began, so scaling back down was a plan rather than a scramble. The same people are available to return for the next season, which means the client is not re-explaining its systems every year. That continuity is the difference between seasonal cover and a revolving door.
Where it stands
The retailer got through its busiest weeks without the team running on fumes and without a major incident during the period it could least afford one. When trading eased, the augmented capacity came off cleanly, and the in-house team went back to its normal rhythm. The arrangement has held across seasons because the people who return already know the ground.