Opportunity
A globally recognized outdoor apparel and footwear brand was in the last major phase of a multi-year program to revolutionize its ecommerce and brick and mortar retail platforms. This initiative would not only digitally transform its consumer facing web sites but also replace its Order Management system and dramatically improve backend revenue recognition processes. Three separate organizations (Ecommerce, Enterprise Technology and an Order Management SaaS provider) were required to design and develop application changes, end-to-end. Project management methodologies, communication channels and development platforms were different across all these organizations, adding to the already complex initiative. The scope of this phase was to 1) launch five revamped ecommerce websites in both the US and Canada, 2) switch over to the new SaaS OM and 3) enable new automated financial reconciliations processes. The client was in need of strong project leadership to support the initiative and ensure a successful launch.
Solution
The client brought in a seasoned technology Pepper Foster consultant as a project manager to support two critical business teams involved in the initiative: Supply Chain and Finance. While the role was originally focused on critical project management responsibilities for these teams, the Pepper Foster consultant also provided the client with expertise in risk management, executive leadership communications and cross-program coordination.
Outcome
Due to the replacement of its Order Management capability and associated tax services, the initiative drove significant changes to the client’s ERP and Finance processes. The Pepper Foster consultant managed both the Finance team’s project plan as well as the ERP’s Kanban task board. The consultant ensured key deliverables were met for both of these teams. This included business design documents, functional and technical specifications, business process flows, standard operating procedures, test scripts and training materials. Additionally, the Pepper Foster consultant engaged with the project cutover team to ensure testing was completed, proper changes were enabled and cutover tasks were correctly sequenced for each of the brand site transition efforts.
This initiative produced the following results:
- Increased traffic to the Ecommerce sites
- Increased sales conversions
- Proper data flow from the Ecommerce site to backend ERP and WMS systems
- Significantly improved inventory accuracy feeds from ERP to Ecommerce
- Automated reconciliations for accounts receivable and cash accounts
The importance of this Ecommerce initiative was heightened by the COVID pandemic and the impact it had on brick-and-mortar retail services. Initial Ecommerce revenue numbers have exceeded last year’s amounts which have buoyed the other adversely impacted sales channels. It’s also worth noting that the critical final stages of testing and cutover were all done with teams who were working remotely.