Summary
The Client is one of Europe’s largest fashion and lifestyle retail chains, with both a strong high street and online offering in a number of territories. They have a strong focus on ethical sourcing and social responsibility.
Challenge
The client was about to embark on a large-scale digital transformation programme, moving their entire enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite to the cloud, a move that would affect every aspect of their business (HR, Finance, E-commerce, CRM, Warehousing, Logistics, procurement, etc). These distinct areas had differing appetites for risk and speed, and also worked in a range of methodologies from Waterfall to pure Agile. The client recognised that their existing testing function was not big enough or mature enough to be able to deliver this strategic programme. This group, made up of a small number of internal and external resources and supplemented by BA’s and business users to meet demand, would not be sufficient to tackle the upcoming programme of change and so a new approach was required to ensure they could mitigate risk and validate the changes that could either make or break their business.
The client was also concerned that they didn’t have the expertise internally to scrutinise/challenge/verify the service provided by the Service Integrator (S.I.) selected to implement, customise and configure the ERP solution.
The challenging trading conditions that are currently affecting this client, meant that budgets were restricted for the ERP Programme and had already been revised lower. Therefore the client had a real desire to continue to work with the existing test team.
Solution
ROQ provided a flexible Test Consultancy service to review their existing testing function and approach for the ERP programme. The outcome of this was to make recommendations for improvement and importantly provide a step by step roadmap for the implementation, all tied to an overarching Strategy which covered both BAU work, project work and the upcoming ERP transformation programme. We spent time reviewing documentation, interviewing key staff (both internal and third party) and scrutinising the S.I.’s approach to ensure the client was able to hold them to account.
ROQ also made recommendations around test automation, performance and security aligned to each business area’s distinct risk profile, speed of change and methodology.
This meant that the client was in strong position to begin their digital transformation journey.
Benefits: