Ensuring global performance: how Roq de-risked a data archiving initiative for a FMCG leader

OUR CLIENT 

Our client is one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, owning globally recognised brands and selling products in nearly 190 countries. With a widespread and complex operational function, the company continuously evolves to maintain its leadership in a competitive marketplace.  

THE CLIENT CHALLENGE 

As part of a major sustainability programme, our client centralised its global email archiving into a UK-based data centre to reduce environmental impact and cost. However, this introduced several risks: 

• Integrating with a large SharePoint instance introduced unknown performance impacts. 

• Concerns about slow global response times due to WAN variability (latency/bandwidth). 

• Multiple suppliers, environments, and shifting project timelines added delivery complexity. 

• A lack of environment readiness threatened to delay performance testing activities. 

• Key performance data was spread across disconnected logs, making diagnosis difficult. 

• Robust performance testing and risk mitigation were critical to avoid poor user experience and ensure deployment readiness. 

WHAT WE DELIVERED 

Delivered as part of our Managed Service solution, Roq applied its proven four-phase performance testing framework (Define, Design, Develop, Deploy) to identify, assess, and reduce risk throughout the project by: 

• Defining 17 key test scenarios across PST ingestion, auto-archiving, and journaling, simulating global use conditions. 

• Emulating global WAN conditions using Shunra to test the impact of latency and bandwidth variation on user experience. 

• Overcoming test environment constraints by scripting within cloud-based alternatives and using utility tools for load generation. 

• Integrating Splunk to centralise performance data and accelerate root cause analysis. 

• Iteratively executing and refining load tests to validate and improve system resilience under peak conditions. 

CLIENT IMPACT 

Roq’s structured performance testing approach helped the client make informed, confident deployment decisions: 

• Performance risks were successfully mitigated, enabling a stable rollout of the global data archiving solution. 

• Response time expectations for global users were clearly established, thanks to WAN emulation, providing critical insight for future deployments. 

• The project stayed on track despite infrastructure delays, due to Roq’s creative environment and load simulation strategies. 

• Reusable test scripts and utility tools were delivered, giving the client a performance regression pack to support future upgrades. 

• Defect identification and resolution were accelerated, reducing long-term support effort and ensuring application stability at scale. 

To find out how Roq’s Managed Service solution can support your business, contact our experts at ask@roq.co.uk.