Synopsis
The project aimed at existing heavy licensing solutions to an open-source based solution. The client’s licensing cost models were not aligned with the client’s strategic open-source based strategy. The existing technology stack needed a specialized skill set to engage resources from different vendors and partners which increased the cost of services. The existing code required huge resource and code maintenance and the entire solution was not scalable and able to meet strategic alignments.
About the Client
The client provided business supplies and services to companies and individuals in 56 countries. This was effected through a network with 1,800 stores, websites and B2B structures. The client had a sales turnover of approximately €14 billion and about 56,000 employees.
In Europe, they operated in 13 countries through two main brands, with retail stores in France and Sweden. Their product line included everything from I.T. equipment to furniture and document services to daily consumables like pens, paper and printer toner.
Through their banner brands, the client offered its customers the tools and resources they needed to focus on their passion of starting, running and growing their own businesses.
Business Challenge
The client thrived on providing the best solutions for their customers’ constantly changing workplaces. In 2009, they realized their own workplace was changing at an accelerated pace. Customers were demanding increasingly detailed product information but, because this information came from various departments as well as third-party suppliers, data lacked consistency. “The departments responsible for our publications and merchandising were spending too long categorizing products,” explained the client’s Manager of Product Data Management. “While we should have been focusing on selling products, sometimes it seemed like we were only processing data.”
The client realized that it had to focus on its core business for profitability and long-term survival and therefore decided to outsource Coforge for the following benefits:
Moving to open source stack Understanding all transformations and end points in the existing service Creating a design document of existing services Creating cloud native microservice using SpringBoot and Apache Camel Optimizing for performance Writing unit tests and integration tests
The technology stack used for this project was Microservice using SpringBoot / Apache Camel, RedHat AMQ, Jenkin, Docker, Kubernetes and Rancher.
Our Solution
So many staff members spent so long standardizing product data that it affected the time-to-market for new products. The client’s search for a more streamlined process led their project team to consider Master Data Management (MDM). In particular, Coforge's solution helped the client reduce licensing models and bring the entire solution to an open-source strategic direction.
Starting with one country, one region and one channel, the client identified key data on products, customers and locations. This was stored in a central repository and was used to feed the client’s other systems, such as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Coforge helped the client drive ERP to enhance current and new distributed channels and customers.
Delivering More Value
By engaging with Coforge, the client could focus on their core competencies and maintain their leadership position in a highly competitive industry. In addition to technology and digital support, Coforge improved the client’s operational efficiencies and digital experiences. The client was empowered to provide standardized and consistent business services across their business and results could be seen from the incredible improvement in efficiency.
In the client’s words, “By implementing a digital system that’s fed with data from MDM, we’re able to develop our online catalogue thirty to forty percent faster,” also “Using master data has also improved our online search functions, meaning that our customers can now find products more easily with fewer searches being abandoned prematurely.”
