ASDA transforms device management to boost productivity and service

After separating from Walmart, ASDA completed one of Europe’s largest IT migrations, including the transition of 55,000 devices with support from Omnissa Workspace® ONE UEM. The company achieved rapid and scalable migrations of up to 180 devices per site each night, while improving uptime, automation, and employee experience. With enhanced visibility, proactive support, and streamlined updates, ASDA has strengthened operational efficiency and established a solid foundation for future innovation across its retail network.

Creating a standout experience in a competitive market

ASDA is one of Britain’s leading supermarket chains, competing in a dynamic and highly competitive grocery market. It aims to distinguish itself by selling better value to its customers, providing legendary service, and improving the business every day. The company’s commitment to exceptional customer service is matched by its focus on building strong teams and delivering a positive colleague experience following its separation from its former parent company US retail giant Walmart.

Rebuilding ASDA’s IT foundations

Until the early 2020s, ASDA was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart. When Walmart sold its majority stake, ASDA had to separate its IT systems. The resulting initiative, known as Project Future, was described by ASDA as ‘Europe’s largest systems implementation programme.’ It involved the separation of more than 2,500 systems across 600 stores, 29 food depots, and tens of thousands of staff.

“We essentially had to rebuild the company from the ground up. Every system from finance and HR to payroll and CRM had to be recreated. This included the migration of 55,000 handsets to our own UEM system,” says Max Parker, lead engineer for handheld client and device management at ASDA.

Before Project Future, ASDA relied on Workspace ONE UEM to manage the extensive fleet of rugged, handheld devices underpinning its retail operations. These devices are essential tools for in-store, frontline employees, home shopping teams, and logistics personnel, even operating reliably in extreme conditions such as -18°C freezer environments. They also play a key role in enhancing the customer experience through ASDA’s popular ‘Scan & Go’ self-service programme.

As ASDA prepared to operate independently, ensuring continuity for these essential devices was an important part of the wider transformation. Project Future provided the chance to review existing systems and consider new options.

Empowering every employee with the right digital tools

After evaluating the market, ASDA decided to maintain its relationship with Omnissa and continue using Workspace ONE.

“Maintaining operational continuity during such a massive separation was critical,” says Max. “By staying with Workspace ONE, we could migrate up to 180 devices at a single site in just one night—and repeat that over several sites at the same time. And we could use the skill-set we had already built up, which was an extra bonus.”

Beyond the migration itself, Max’s team set out to make the most of the Omnissa platform’s capabilities, ensuring Workspace ONE and Omnissa platform services delivered maximum value to colleagues and customers alike.

For example, the team has started using Omnissa Workspace ONE® Launcher to deliver tailored, role-based access on handheld devices—ensuring each employee has exactly the tools and functionality they need for their role. “We rely on Workspace ONE Launcher to make sure our people have the right apps to do their job as efficiently as possible,” says Max.

ASDA’s support and service teams use Omnissa Workspace ONE® Assist to remotely access and troubleshoot devices in real time. Unattended mode is particularly useful for managing shared devices, as IT can resolve issues without the user needing to be present to approve the session. The teams also benefit from Omnissa Intelligence, which aggregates telemetry data across the digital workspace deployment to provide actionable insights and proactive support.

“We’re always looking at how we can improve support,” says Max. “Some of our devices have non-removable batteries, which can make maintenance more complex. By using the automation capabilities in Intelligence, we can identify devices with battery issues and trigger automated swap workflows—reducing downtime and extending device lifespan.”

The retailer is also leveraging Omnissa Workspace ONE® Relay Servers, which now plays an essential role in optimizing the distribution of new content and updates, even in stores with limited bandwidth. In some store locations, there can be as many as 180 Scan & Go devices that all need to receive operating system updates. “Performing these updates can be a major challenge,” says Max. “Workspace ONE Relay Servers helps us deliver even large-scale updates with restricted bandwidth efficiently and reliably so we can be sure that all our devices are up to date.”

Rapid updates, reliable devices, and empowered teams

With the migration successfully completed, Max has seen first-hand the positive impact Workspace ONE is having across ASDA’s operations.

Max’s team relies on Workspace ONE to proactively support colleagues by managing OS updates, patches, and application deployments remotely. Its self-healing and auto-retry capabilities ensure updates complete successfully, improving the reliability of devices across the business.

“Workspace ONE helps us improve the working experience of our colleagues so they can provide great service to our customers,” says Max. “It’s quick, it’s scalable, and it does what we need in record time. We can update several thousand clients within hours rather than days.”

What was once a basic device management process has matured into a sophisticated, intelligence-led approach. “With Omnissa Intelligence, internal teams now have custom dashboards that show real-time insights— such as device counts, app versions, and battery health,” Max says. “This enables them to make informed business decisions around rightsizing the device network and driving operational efficiency at each site.”

Max’s team ensured that the Workspace ONE environment was built for both immediate success and long-term scalability, giving ASDA the flexibility to expand into new markets, integrate acquisitions, and onboard new sites and devices with ease. “Omnissa’s support helped us make the transition seamless and establish a strong foundation for future growth,” says Max.

Exploring new ways to automate and optimize device management

Max is eager to see what’s next from Omnissa, particularly new features that will enhance device tracking and visibility. “Lost devices are a challenge,” he says. “A map-based view showing the last known location via Wi-Fi access points would help us minimize those losses.”

ASDA is also exploring how to use the Omnissa Workspace ONE® ITSM Connector to automate ticket creation and resolution, giving support teams real-time visibility and the ability to launch remote sessions directly from within service tickets. In addition, the team is exploring the check-in/check-out (CICO) feature in Workspace ONE to better manage its pool of shared devices, enabling secure, personalized sessions for colleagues.

Together, these innovations would help ASDA further streamline support, strengthen automation and enhance the end-user experience across its entire device estate.

“What I enjoy most about Workspace ONE is its simplicity,” says Max. “Once everything is set up, it’s easy to manage and maintain. For our users, it’s a zero-touch experience. They simply power on a device and it configures itself, connects, and is ready to use within an hour. It’s a perfect fit for the way we work at ASDA.”