Welcome to our second episode of “Peak Seasoned”, the series where we speak with leaders across the business to learn how they contribute to our clients’ success through the busiest period of the year.
In this episode, we’re talking to Alex Sims, J&J’s Solution Architect & Sr. Software Engineer, about how the Tech Team’s approach to ControlPort™ stability is a year-round affair, how the team stays on top of potential issues through the Peak period, and why ControlPort™ is a real differentiator for both our clients and operations teams through Peak.
In this article
A Year-Round Approach
“The Tech Team is constantly building out new features and functionality,” Alex says. “We’re making sure we’re meeting our clients’ needs, supporting operations, and keeping the system running as smoothly as possible.”
That focus intensifies in the lead-up to Peak. With order volumes often doubling, the team spends months testing system performance to identify potential pressure points before the real rush begins.
“We try to stress test our systems to see how they’d react to that increase in volume,” Alex continues. “But nothing beats the real thing. When we’re down on the fulfilment floor helping out, we’ve got our observability dashboard open to monitor how the system’s handling the load. If performance dips, we’ll head upstairs and spin up more compute power to handle the demand.”
Monitoring and Maintaining Performance
To stay ahead of issues, the team relies heavily on observability tools that provide a real-time view into ControlPort’s performance.
“It’s our window into the system,” Alex explains. “We can see every request that flows through ControlPort™ and how fast or slow it’s performing. If we start to notice degradation across thousands of requests, we’ll dig in to find the bottleneck.”
Those insights feed directly into the team’s development pipeline, ensuring that optimisations are prioritised and deployed well before they become a problem. “Because we deal with performance issues as they arise throughout the year,” Alex adds, “we rarely face surprises when Peak arrives.”
Delivering Visibility and Insight for Clients
While the Tech Team focuses on system stability, their work has a direct impact on the experience brands have during Peak.
“ControlPort™ gives clients complete visibility of their stock portfolio,” says Alex. “They can identify slow-moving or dormant lines, track fast sellers to plan replenishment, and monitor order lead times from the moment an order is placed to when it’s shipped.”
That level of transparency helps brands make faster, data-led decisions — something that’s especially valuable when every second counts during Peak.
Collaboration in Action
Peak is a business-wide effort, and the Tech Team is no exception. While much of their work happens behind the scenes, they’re often side by side with operations teams during the busiest weeks of the year.
“The pressure’s on,” Alex says. We go from our standard trading period to almost double the volume. But there’s a great feeling across the business — everyone working together to get orders out the door.”
And while Peak is always a challenge, it’s also a source of pride. “How well does all the work we’ve done hold up? That’s the question,” Alex smiles. “Over the last five or six years, we’ve really not had many issues. Each year, we do a bit more to make sure everything runs smoothly. When it all comes together, it’s incredibly rewarding — for everyone, from the fulfilment floor to the Tech Team upstairs.”
Join us for Peak… and Beyond
There’s still time to secure a slot with J&J ahead of Peak 2025. Get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation about how we can help your business grow.