500,000 requests executed per day, with 60% in under 1 second
98% of data processed using BI Engine
97% reduction in code required for queries
Addition of a new performance indicator in 40 minutes (several days previously)
ADEO, Europe's leading home improvement player, partnered with Google Cloud and CGI to optimize and deploy a store performance solution across its network. By migrating to BigQuery and GKE, the group provides 50,000 associates with high-performance data access at scale.
ADEO, Europe's leading home improvement player, partnered with Google Cloud and CGI to optimize and deploy a store performance solution across its network. By migrating to BigQuery and GKE, the group provides 50,000 associates with high-performance data access at scale.
Booster: An application for strategic insights in under 2 minutes
The Booster application was designed in 2010 within Leroy Merlin France before being expanded to the group level across 11 countries. For 15 years, Booster has been the indispensable tool for sales advisors and department managers. Its objective is simple: enable them to quickly access performance indicators to manage their commercial activity in real-time. The application centralizes 200 KPIs regarding sales, stock, and customer orders; it also offers multi-dimensional analyses crossing time, location, and product nomenclature.
On the ground, Booster allows teams to analyze the previous day's sales every morning, identify potential stockouts, adjust sales strategies, and brief teams. The application also boasts a highly appreciated feature: comparison with other similar stores. "The goal is for the store to be able to manage itself," explains Alexandre Côté, Lead Data Architect at ADEO. "And additionally, to be able to challenge itself against other stores in its zone." A paint department manager can thus identify best practices from another store located 15 kilometers away and optimize their end-cap display immediately. The great advantage of the application is also its speed: less than two minutes to obtain an insight.
However, the application's performance declined over time with the increase in stored data volumes. Booster needed modernization.
Booster responds well to daily needs for in-store performance management: each department manager can track their results with complete autonomy and make rapid, informed decisions to achieve their objectives.
Benoît Kaluzny
PEAI Project Manager, ADEO
2024: Activating the trusted ADEO-CGI-Google Cloud partnership
In April 2024, ADEO commissioned CGI, a historical partner of ADEO, to support the modernization of Booster's back-end. After conducting a benchmark, BigQuery proved to be the most interesting technical solution: the Google Cloud product had the advantage of being a stack already used by ADEO teams, reducing the learning curve and facilitating maintenance. The Google Cloud ecosystem also allows reliance on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), the standard application deployment platform at ADEO, ensuring harmonious integration with the group's other systems.
ADEO and CGI gained access to preview versions of BigQuery, and the teams were quickly convinced. "BigQuery 2024 was, at that moment, a real game-changer for fast transactional processing," recalls Alexandre Côté.
The decision to proceed with BigQuery was made thanks to the trusted relationship established between the three historical partners: Google committed to moving these features to production when ADEO needed them.
The three players launched an ambitious POC (Proof of Concept) between July and August 2024, which revealed that the BigQuery solution could work, provided the architecture was completely rethought. To keep the Booster tool accessible to its users, the team developed a new framework that radically simplifies the code and facilitates the addition of new indicators.
An employee must be able to find the information they need on Booster in less than 2 minutes.
Alexandre Côté
Lead Data Architect, ADEO
BigQuery and GKE: 500,000 daily requests and sub-second results
The architecture of the new solution relies on three technical pillars: BI Engine to accelerate query processing, BigQuery Cache to optimize recurring queries, and FastAPI to distribute KPIs using a modern API deployed on GKE. This hybrid approach combines the analytical power of BigQuery with the responsiveness of a modern application architecture.
Deployment is taking place gradually across business units from June to December 2025. The results are spectacular: maintainability has increased tenfold, and incident recovery takes 2 hours instead of 2 days. "Last week, we did a production release," shares Valentin Bauchet, Solution Data Architect at CGI. "An indicator had been forgotten: we made it available again in 40 minutes."
In 2024, Google Cloud launched new features in preview, and that changed the game.
Alexandre Côté
Lead Data Architect, ADEO
In-store, the improvement is glaring. Pages load instantly, even during peak activity. Benoît Kaluzny, Product Manager at ADEO, highlights that user feedback is excellent, such as the testimony of this enthusiastic department manager: "With Booster, by comparing myself to other stores, I find nuggets."
Booster now treats 500,000 requests per day, 60% of which are executed in less than one second. On a typical day, the application is capable of handling 156k front-end requests, equating to 477k BigQuery requests, representing 2.79 TB processed and 2 TB of storage.
Beyond technical performance, the migration to BigQuery and GKE aligns Booster with ADEO's modern technological standards. The application now relies on the group's Global Tech and Data Platform, benefiting from infrastructure team support and pooled skills. This standardization paves the way for future evolutions.
2026: AI at the service of the field
The trusted partnership woven between ADEO, CGI, and Google Cloud over several years has been strengthened by the success of the Booster project. New collaboration perspectives are emerging for the future: building on the application's technical success, ADEO is already scheduling a user interface redesign for 2026, and the group plans to integrate AI tools to anticipate tomorrow's usage patterns. The trusted relationship with Google Cloud is built for the long term and geared toward success.
With a turnover of €31.5 billion in 2024, ADEO is the world's third-largest and Europe's leading player in home improvement and DIY. Through its network of 1,200 stores, marketplaces, and partners distributed across 11 countries, the group and its ecosystem of banners support the projects of 360 million customers, both individuals and professionals.
Industry: Retail (Home Improvement and DIY)
Location: Paris
Products: BigQuery (including BI Engine, BigQuery Cache, and FastAPI), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
About Google Cloud partner — CGI
Since 1976, CGI has grown into one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world. They are insights-driven and outcomes-based to accelerate returns on investments. Across hundreds of locations worldwide, they provide end-to-end, scalable and sustainable IT and business consulting services.
