About Wolseley UK
Wolseley is one of the UK’s leading specialist merchants in plumbing, heating, cooling, and infrastructure. The company operates around 600 branches nationwide and employs over 5000 people across its support centres in Ripon and Warwick. Wolseley’s brands, including Plumb Center, Climate Center, and Pipe Center, support a broad customer base ranging from tradespeople to large-scale contractors.
The Challenge
Wolseley had been operating within a global ServiceNow environment under its former parent company, Ferguson. After a demerger, the IT team needed to find a new ITSM platform that aligned more closely with the size and autonomy of the UK business. While ServiceNow had supported Wolseley during its time under Ferguson, the inherited global setup had become a blocker to progress. Even simple changes to forms or workflows required third-party involvement, often taking weeks or months to complete. The system also lacked local admin flexibility and had become increasingly expensive to maintain.
"It would take days, weeks, months sometimes to do a simple form change on self-service. It was really holding us back where we could push the technology to us as a department, us as an organisation, more importantly to our users"
— James Crotty, Service Desk Manager
With only 10 weeks for implementation, Wolseley required a flexible platform that could be implemented quickly and scaled across the business. It also needed to support a service operation of around 250 agents across multiple departments and include chatbot functionality so staff could request support without stepping away from customers.
The Solution
HaloITSM was selected following a competitive RFP process. Its clean UI, modular structure, and focus on no-code, low-code customisation enabled the team to move quickly without sacrificing functionality. Despite a strict ten-week deadline, the project was delivered two weeks early – a testament to both the Halo team’s collaboration and the simplicity of the platform
"Implementation was, dare I say, really easy. It was not like other stuff we’ve done. Halo was almost straight out of the box. It’s a no-code, low-code customisation.”
— James Crotty, Service Desk Manager
The team launched with a fully redesigned self-service portal, including approval workflows, automation, live chat, and chatbot features from day one. Live chat adoption has grown rapidly, enabling frontline staff to request support without interrupting customer service.
"People on the trade counters and branches are able to carry on serving their customers whilst having a quick chat with us.”
— Mark Abbott, Service Operations Manager
Live chat usage has grown by 15% since launch, driven by the simplicity of Halo’s unified portal experience.
"One of the key reasons is it’s all under one tin. It’s all under our self-service portal—no need to click another link. That’s been probably one of the biggest wins for us.”
— James Crotty, Service Desk Manager.
With the success of the IT rollout, other departments, including Finance, HR, and Distribution Centre helpdesks, have adopted Halo, supported by IT through shared guidance and administrative best practice. A consistent user interface and reporting structure have helped streamline rollout across teams.
The Results
HaloITSM has transformed Wolseley’s ability to deliver fast, efficient support – both within IT and across the wider business.
Wolseley’s ITSM implementation was completed ahead of deadline, reducing risk and delivering value faster. The team now has full administrative control over the system, enabling faster updates and internal ownership of configuration.
Live chat usage has increased by 15% since launch, improving support availability across branches and allowing multiple customers to be served simultaneously. Customer satisfaction has remained consistently high, with feedback scores across all channels now sitting at around 95%.
Beyond IT, departments including Finance, HR, and DC helpdesks have successfully adopted Halo. The consistent portal experience and central reporting have enabled better visibility and alignment across teams. With multiple business units now live, Wolseley is laying the foundation for a broader enterprise service management model
Having built a strong relationship with Halo’s team, Wolseley is now focused on the future. AI features, including predictive ticketing, summarisation, and virtual agents, are being explored as the next step in improving service delivery. The IT team continues to collaborate closely with Halo to identify and test new opportunities, ensuring that innovation is guided by real business needs.
“Halo’s already ahead of the game in that. From our perspective, we’re just starting to implement AI now. It’s going to be an absolute game changer.”
— James Crotty, Service Desk Manager
The IT team continues to lead internal adoption, with a growing number of departments looking to join the platform in future phases.
