Specsavers' Lens On Data Clarity — The Somerford Podcast

In this episode of The Somerford Podcast, we sat down with Andy Slater, IT Observability and Automation Lead at Specsavers, to explore how the organisation is modernising its digital operations. Andy discussed the shift from traditional monitoring to true observability—an approach that unifies metrics, logs, and traces to provide a clear, real-time picture of system health. He explained how Specsavers consolidated more than 20 disparate monitoring tools into the Splunk ecosystem, dramatically improving mean-time-to-resolution, strengthening resilience, and enabling teams to proactively identify and mitigate issues before they impact customers or colleagues.

The conversation also highlighted the cultural and organisational evolution required to embed observability and automation at scale. Andy shared how collaboration across engineering, operations, and product teams has become central to success, with observability now treated as a foundational part of every project—much like security. Looking ahead, he expressed growing interest in AI Ops and OpenTelemetry, seeing them as key enablers for predictive insights, self-healing systems, and end-to-end visibility across Specsavers’ complex supply chain. Through this journey, Specsavers continues to focus on delivering friction-free digital experiences, driving operational excellence, and ensuring resilient services for millions of customers worldwide.