Identifying the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for a retail chain

Ciontext - A major retail outlet encompasses far more than what one finds inside the store. It’s an enormous network — from vendor management, inventory management, billing, payrolls, packaging, HR management, home delivery, sales. When the chain wanted to scale its customer-facing aspects without ballooning the back-office, it needed a collaborator with a mix of technology enablement expertise and fresh perspectives to help them weed through the complex process of identifying the best vendor for a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Cognitive Strategists stepped up and helped our client knock it out of the ballpark.

Challenge

The client knew they wanted to scale their business, but were relying heavily on manual (and in some cases, even paper-based) processes. Back-office workflows such as HR and finance moved across a constellation of independent, non-integrated and non-automated applications, impeding efficiency. To successfully grow, the client knew they needed to find a new ERP system that would satisfy their unique business requirements and provide a single source of data-based truth. Moreover, they faced the added challenge of assessing, choosing, and implementing a new ERP system all within the six-week off season—an aggressive, but non-negotiable timeline. They decided to partner with Cognitive Strategists to assist them in this herculean task to be completed in such a limited window of time.

Approach

• Identified crucial ERP functionality needs by facilitating collaboration sessions with key stakeholders, including the CIO, HR and Finance Leadership with a collective vision and set of objectives to guide the technology selection process.

• Developed a quantitative scorecard by identifying key criteria to help our client assess and select a best-fit ERP solution.

• Facilitated vendor assessment sessions.

• Served as the main PoC between our client and technology vendors

Key Results

Throughout the vendor selection process, Cognitive Strategists remained steadfast in our commitment to helping our client choose the best technology solution to address their needs—keeping their priorities and future vision top of mind—while also weighing all pros and cons through our carefully crafted scorecard.