Meet Cape Union Mart

Cape Union Mart is one of South Africa’s most beloved retail groups, with over 270 stores spanning outdoor gear, fashion, and lifestyle brands — including Cape Union Mart, Poetry, and Old Khaki.

With 2,150 employees across stores and 600 internal users in head offices, the company manages everything from manufacturing to sales in-house — supported by an IT team that keeps the business running smoothly behind the scenes.

The challenge

Before adopting monday.com, Cape Union Mart’s IT operations relied on multiple disconnected systems and a flood of unstructured support requests.


“Tickets came in via vague emails like ‘help!’” recalls Wian le Roux, Head of IT Infrastructure and Internal Service Operations. “There was no standard intake, no prioritization, and no clear link between our IT and development teams.”

The result?

• Slow resolution times
• Repetitive work and duplicate tickets
• Limited visibility into trends or root causes
• Risk to customer experience – when store systems failed, sales were lost

With growing ticket volumes and complex service needs, Cape Union Mart needed one unified system that could handle service requests end to end – and scale with the business.

The solution

Cape Union Mart implemented monday service, together with monday dev, to create a seamless, connected IT ecosystem - all on one unified platform.

“With monday service and monday dev, we have one structured intake, one workflow from service through to sprint, and one source of truth,” says Grant De Waal-Dubla, Group CIO at Cape Union Mart. “No more duplicate tickets, no more screenshots between systems. Just one coordinated team.”

The rollout, led with local partner Incentro South Africa, focused on optimizing every part of the IT service process – from intake to automation and visibility.

“IT isn’t just a support function for us,” says Grant. “It’s the backbone of how our business runs – from store systems to internal infrastructure.”

Smarter intake and self-service

Every internal request now begins with a smart form in monday service, dynamically guiding users to provide the right context and attachments. “If a store logs a ‘keyboard not working’ ticket, the form asks, ‘Have you changed the battery?’” explains Wian. “In 90% of those cases, the issue resolves itself.”

Requests and training resources are housed in a customized service portal, creating a centralized, self-serve experience that’s faster and easier than calling the help desk. As a result, ticket volume dropped dramatically while satisfaction rose.

Seamless collaboration with monday dev

When a service request requires development work, the IT team can now create linked sub-tickets in monday dev - all within the same platform.

The user experience remains seamless, and the original point of contact stays consistent throughout the process.

“We resolve faster, with less duplication. Everyone knows who owns what,” says Wian.

Automations that power scale

Cape Union Mart uses monday service automations to streamline more critical workflows, beyond resolving service issues:Onboarding: HR emails trigger automated provisioning workflows. Change requests: Smart forms route to approvers, generate PDFs, and move items to execution.Smart routing: Issues are automatically directed to the correct teams.

These automations reduced manual effort, improved accuracy, and built confidence across departments – helping IT earn leadership trust and even secure additional headcount.

Visibility and motivation

The IT team uses live dashboards to track open tickets, SLA adherence, and performance metrics – complete with a leaderboard that gamifies service delivery.

“No one wants to be at the bottom!” laughs Grant. “It’s created accountability, transparency, and even some friendly competition.”

The impact

By connecting requests to service and development on monday.com, Cape Union Mart has turned IT into a proactive business driver.

Key results:

• 50% reduction in open tickets (from 350 per day to under 175)
• 30% cost savings from consolidating legacy tools and licenses
• Faster first-line resolutions through structured forms and smart routing
• זncreased trust and visibility across departments

“This isn’t just a ticketing system. It’s a performance engine,” says Wian.

And as the team begins to adopt monday service AI-powered workflows, they’re already seeing the next phase of transformation. Early tests include auto-suggested resolutions, duplicate detection, and FAQ integration – saving time and empowering self-resolution.

One platform. Better service. Stronger business.

For Cape Union Mart, monday.com isn’t just about managing IT requests — it’s about enabling the business to run faster, smarter, and more connected.

“When IT runs well, the business runs well,” says Grant. “monday.com helps us do both.”

With monday service driving their IT operations and monday dev ensuring seamless collaboration, Cape Union Mart has built a service operation that scales with their business – powered by one unified platform.