Greencross & Truis: An Extension of the Team

Greencross Pet Wellness Company, Australia's largest pet care company, partnered with Truis to make technology management easier across its growing national network.

This case study explores how Truis became a trusted technology partner to Greencross, helping its IT team reduce complexity, improve visibility, and focus on what's next.

Through simplifying the procurement, deployment, and lifecycle management of technology, Truis enables Greencross’ IT team to focus less on day-to-day operational challenges and more on strategic initiatives, providing the trusted support needed to keep more than 400 locations running smoothly.

Greencross Pet Wellness Company has more than 267 retail stores, including and Petbarn in Australia.; 140+ Greencross Vets clinics; 24 Specialty and Emergency animal hospitals in the Animal Referral Emergency Network ; 132 grooming salons; 114 puppy schools; 4 crematorium facilities; 166 DIY dog washes; 15 mobile dog washes; and Vepalabs Specialist Pathology Centre which services veterinary clinics nationally.

Greencross has an unwavering commitment to putting customers at the heart of everything they do. From first visits with new puppies and kittens through to ongoing care and support, their teams are committed to offering exceptional service to create experiences built on trust, empathy and genuine partnership.

Having a strong and unified national retail ecosystem seamlessly connecting stores, clinics, hospitals, services and digital experiences makes life easier for customers. Behind the scenes, however, it requires careful coordination of the technology, devices and systems that keep every location connected, productive and able to deliver the high standard of care and service Greencross is known for.

Supporting such a diverse network requires a trusted partner who understands the business, can adapt to its unique needs, and help teams deliver consistently great experiences across every location. That's where Truis comes in.

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The Challenge

Renee Trevarthen is the Head of Service Management at Greencross IT Service Management. Her team supports multiple parts of the business, including the retail stores and veterinary clinics, where the technological requirements differ vastly.

“My teams take care of our deployments for new sites, break-fix hardware, and hardware refreshes at all of our stores and clinics. We provide the processes and contacts for our stores, clinics, and hospitals for their first-level support,” Renee explained.

“In many ways it's like supporting four separate businesses. What our retail stores need is quite different from what our vet clinics need, and the expectations vary across each area too. So we invest in close relationships with our partners, to make sure they really understand those nuances.”

With varying needs across the different parts of the business, Greencross needed a partner to adapt and work with the different teams to make processes as easy as possible.

In all aspects of Greencross' business, from their retail stores, veterinary clinics, hospitals and corporate headquarters, Truis has come on and worked on the deployment of product, on-site ad hoc urgent remediation, and large-scale auditing, helping deliver a consistent technology experience across the organisation.

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Building a Trusted Partnership

On a recommendation from the General Manager for Cyber and Infrastructure at Greencross, who previously worked with Truis, Renee was introduced to Account managers Sam Thompson and Lachlan Jefferies.

A visit to Truis' Store of Tomorrow, a purpose-built innovation space for multi-site retailers, demonstrated the team's retail expertise and understanding of large, distributed environments.

“They understood our business and needs straight away, but they also understood the way that we like to work with our vendors and partners,” Renee said.

From the beginning, Renee could tell Truis was unlike other partners.

Renee explains that she “doesn’t like pushy salespeople. If we need something and you're offering a good service for us, we'll come to you.”

She felt understood while in conversations with Truis, because they didn’t push products on her, instead offering “expertise and recommendations on what would work for our business.”

Being shown a range of options, from a functional lower budget range, additional functionality at a higher cost, and what others are doing in the industry, “is really great for us to be able to sit, think about, look at modifying our budget and asking, do we change anything around this?”

“From that very first meeting, I knew immediately that working with Truis would be good for us,” Renee said.

“That's what I look for. I want partners who feel like part of the team.”
Renee Trevarthen, Head of Service Management IT at Greencross IT Service Management, said.

The Solution

The theme of Truis being an extension of Greencross' internal IT team continued throughout the relationship.

Renee found value and ease in the partnership with Truis, especially because of the continuity of account managers. Having Sam and Lachlan as consistent contacts to help be the go-between for vendors made her job easier.

“For us, it's so easy to go to one contact to get what we need, even if it's something completely new…It's so much easier than juggling multiple vendors.”

"In the past we've worked with vendors directly, but that relationship just wasn't the same. Without a real understanding of our business and our needs, it felt more transactional.”

“Sam is fantastic. Anytime I have any need at all, he is either a phone call or a message away for me or my team. And it makes it so easy for me to say I need X and he knows who to go to, the right people to talk to.”

Truis Account Manager Sam explained that he acts as a sounding board for Renee.

“As we've gotten to work together, I’ve come to understand what she needs in terms of supporting her in vendor engagement and making sure that what she needs is what she gets,” Sam said.

Also, having the stable experience of being able to contact the same manager keeps the process moving behind the scenes, easing the workload off the Greencross team so they can remain focused on projects moving the business forward.

Renee brought up a specific example where she approached Truis with a product we hadn’t worked with before.

“One of our sites needed an internal communication system so staff could talk to each other on the floor. I knew what they were after, so I went to Sam and asked whether they'd worked with that vendor before. I told him we could go direct if we had to, but we'd much rather go through Truis.”

“And he reached out, got a contact, set up meetings, set up sessions, and followed through. And it made it so easy for us. We didn't have to try and track down who we're looking for or find the right contact. It's very easy to do, and that's good for us.”

“No matter who we work with from the Truis team, it's consistent. There's consistency from everyone.”

Renee Trevarthen, Head of Service Management IT at Greencross IT Service Management, said.

The Solution in Action

This unique 'extension of the team' partnership between Truis and Greencross led to several successful projects.

Truis supported a large-scale computer refresh across Greencross stores and clinics.

The project entailed replacing 400 devices including PCs, monitors, and laptops, across clinics nationwide. To support the rollout, Truis provided on-site deployment resources, ongoing project coordination and weekly status reporting, ensuring clear visibility throughout the process.

“We received a status report every week, so we always knew where things were up to. The communication was really clear. To sum it up, they make it easy, they get it, and they understand what we need. That's even helped us improve some of our own processes along the way,” Renee said.

The project also helped strengthen asset tracking, deployment visibility and documentation processes of device lifecycles across the organisation.

"It really helped us understand what needed to go where, and get all the asset details ready to load into our systems. We could also see exactly what stage everything was at: whether it was still being built, whether it had shipped, when it was due on site, and when a technician was booked. We didn't have a fully defined process for tracking those things before, and now we're in a much better place.” Renee explained.

As the partnership grew, Truis continued supporting large-scale rollout and refresh initiatives across the organisation. One critical project involved replacing a key device used across more than 200 stores. Renee described it as “the backbone of the store; without it, we can't trade”.

The device had become a vital part of daily store operations and had not been refreshed in more than five years. Updating the device at this scale had never been done before.

“The whole process was very easy. We had no issues afterwards, and it led to more work together. They swapped out the devices smoothly, with little to no downtime, and our stores kept trading without any impact at all. That was fantastic.”

This has helped simplify the management of technology across Greencross' national footprint.

Through working with Truis, Greencross switched to HP devices. Historically, they were using Dell and had tried Microsoft. Truis provided insights into vendor options, product availability, response times and lifecycle planning, helping the team balance business requirements, risk and budget considerations.

"With Truis, it's always been very transparent around what's available to us now, the deals at the time, if we need things more urgently, here are some alternatives. From that perspective, not specifically saving money, but for us it means that we've saved time."

Renee also stated how Truis provided recommendations for this project while staying within a specific budget, explaining the procurement process and the different functionality and availability of devices.

“It makes it much easier for us to assess our risks and understand the budget impact, so we can decide whether to go ahead now or park it for later. Having all of that information on hand makes those decisions straightforward,” Renee explained.

“Working with Truis has enabled us to successfully deliver large-scale refresh and lifecycle management initiatives through their procurement support, device staging, logistics, deployment coordination, and secure asset disposal, helping minimise operational disruption, improve governance and provide a more consistent technology experience across our stores and clinics.”
Renee Trevarthen, Head of Service Management IT at Greencross IT Service Management, said.

The Outcome

Having Truis manage the rollout meant Renee’s team didn't need to travel between sites to coordinate deployments. The additional reporting, documentation and visibility also gave the team greater confidence when communicating progress, risks and future recommendations to the wider business.

However, for Renee and her team, the biggest benefit goes beyond devices and deployments. Having a trusted partner manage much of the complexity behind procurement, logistics, vendor engagement and lifecycle management has freed up significant time for the team to focus on strategic priorities.

“The ability for my team to easily reach out and say, hey, this site needs X, and knowing that the Truis team will just handle it and send it directly to the site takes a lot of the effort off of my team and allows my team to focus on other things.”

“It definitely gives us much more room to spend around the strategy and focus for what the future looks like and being able to spend more time with our frontline teams. Having the Truis team take care of all of that means that my team can focus more on communicating it with the business and we can spend more time on the other initiatives that we have going on in our business.”

Truis' retail insight allows Renee to better understand current industry trends and ensure she reduces risk, friction, and technology issues now.

Renee credits the Truis team for their flexibility and willingness to adapt to the different requirements across the organisation.

The additional visibility and documentation generated through these projects has also improved governance and continuity planning across sites, particularly within some of their oldest stores.

“We're now able to go back with the Truis team and look at how we can clean that up and ensure that there's business continuity, that we're reducing the risk of that site having issues and the team are documenting everything.”

While working through this process of updating systems, devices and licences, Renee reiterated how easy the process was working with the Truis team.

“The team were very open and flexible to us…super easy to work with, even providing their technical recommendations around what they've seen or done in other customers.”

Sam explained that his role is about making their job easier so they can focus on the important things within their business.

“Exploring where their business has gone from a technological point of view, the security of their business, and supporting their staff to ensure that every system is running, the staff are enabled technologically to give the best service for their customers, and it’s a seamless experience when they go to the vet, hospital or store,” Sam said.

Looking ahead, Greencross sees Truis continuing to play an important role in future technology initiatives as the organisation evolves and grows.

Customer Feedback

For Renee and her team at Greencross, working with Truis means having an extension of the team, a partner who brings knowledge and expertise, helping best equip her to do her job and help progress the business.

When talking with vendors, Renee values Sam’s direct and helpful approach.

“We don't have to worry or think about who the contact is, who we need to talk to; you get it… You understand our business. You're very good at helping us navigate these conversations and get right to the point: Here's what they need, here's the time frame and here's the budget, making it super easy in those conversations.”

“Also, for me, the responsiveness is a massive one. The responsiveness in terms of anything new that we come up with- we need to order something new, we have a new project happening, we need advice. The responsiveness is like no other vendor that we've worked with. It makes my life so much easier.”

“We've saved time because of the ability to trust that they get what we need and they're going to get the job done.”

“They know us, they understand our business, they get us, they're like an extension of our team, an extension of our business, not a third party sitting off to the side.”

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