Software AG Case Studies Building the New Era of Luxury Retail with IT Portfolio Management in the Cloud

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	Building the New Era of Luxury Retail with IT Portfolio Management in the Cloud Software AG

Building the New Era of Luxury Retail with IT Portfolio Management in the Cloud

Software AG

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries	Retail Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management Supply Chain Visibility Retail Store Automation
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	The multinational luxury fashion company, which started from humble beginnings, has grown into an international powerhouse through several major acquisitions worth more than $3 billion. These acquisitions posed a risky prospect in the luxury fashion business, where competition is fierce. The company's IT leadership team wanted the Information Systems (IS) teams to have visibility into their portfolios to develop project plans and future IT strategies to support the company's ambitious business transformation goals. The existing process involved manual updates to a Microsoft® Access® database, visualization in the Visio® modeling tool, and PowerPoint® for presentations. This process was updated twice a year, which was not sufficient for the rapid decision-making required in the company's dynamic environment. The company needed a centralized platform for IS and Enterprise Architecture (EA) to collaboratively collect the information necessary for planning IT support for business goals and strategies. Read More
About Customer	The customer is a multinational luxury fashion company that started from humble beginnings. It was founded by six leatherworkers in a New York City loft in 1941. Over the years, the company has grown into an international powerhouse through several major acquisitions worth more than $3 billion. The company has seen sales thrive for its high-end fashion products, attaining billions in global sales revenue. The company has grown rapidly and faced major acquisitions, global competition, and growing cost pressure. The company's IT leadership team wanted the Information Systems (IS) teams to have visibility into their portfolios to develop project plans and future IT strategies to support the company's ambitious business transformation goals. Read More
Solution	In 2014, the luxury fashion group turned to Alfabet, the only comprehensive solution in the industry for managing IT planning and enterprise architecture. With acquisitions on the horizon, the company asked for help from Software AG Global Consulting Services to achieve faster gain with less pain and harness Alfabet as an agile, cloud-based platform for all that would follow. Alfabet outperformed other solutions in a series of pilot programs and was chosen for its product functionality, scalability, and true cloud solution. Alfabet is now the company’s gateway to next-generation planning, system transparency, omni-channel consumer experience, and supply chain optimizations. Alfabet is also at the heart of the luxury fashion group’s initiative to save $100 million in IT costs in just three years. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Retail

Consumer Goods

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Supply Chain Visibility

Retail Store Automation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

The multinational luxury fashion company, which started from humble beginnings, has grown into an international powerhouse through several major acquisitions worth more than $3 billion. These acquisitions posed a risky prospect in the luxury fashion business, where competition is fierce. The company's IT leadership team wanted the Information Systems (IS) teams to have visibility into their portfolios to develop project plans and future IT strategies to support the company's ambitious business transformation goals. The existing process involved manual updates to a Microsoft® Access® database, visualization in the Visio® modeling tool, and PowerPoint® for presentations. This process was updated twice a year, which was not sufficient for the rapid decision-making required in the company's dynamic environment. The company needed a centralized platform for IS and Enterprise Architecture (EA) to collaboratively collect the information necessary for planning IT support for business goals and strategies.

About Customer

The customer is a multinational luxury fashion company that started from humble beginnings. It was founded by six leatherworkers in a New York City loft in 1941. Over the years, the company has grown into an international powerhouse through several major acquisitions worth more than $3 billion. The company has seen sales thrive for its high-end fashion products, attaining billions in global sales revenue. The company has grown rapidly and faced major acquisitions, global competition, and growing cost pressure. The company's IT leadership team wanted the Information Systems (IS) teams to have visibility into their portfolios to develop project plans and future IT strategies to support the company's ambitious business transformation goals.

Solution

In 2014, the luxury fashion group turned to Alfabet, the only comprehensive solution in the industry for managing IT planning and enterprise architecture. With acquisitions on the horizon, the company asked for help from Software AG Global Consulting Services to achieve faster gain with less pain and harness Alfabet as an agile, cloud-based platform for all that would follow. Alfabet outperformed other solutions in a series of pilot programs and was chosen for its product functionality, scalability, and true cloud solution. Alfabet is now the company’s gateway to next-generation planning, system transparency, omni-channel consumer experience, and supply chain optimizations. Alfabet is also at the heart of the luxury fashion group’s initiative to save $100 million in IT costs in just three years.

Impact #1	The company was able to surmount accessibility and scalability hurdles, improve collaboration across brands, and achieve better transparency, foresight, and agility in planning IT expenditures.
Impact #2	The company now has strategic alignment between business and IT and a delivery structure to ensure appropriate cost measures and processes.
Impact #3	The company has a reliable, secure, and scalable operating environment.

Impact #1

The company was able to surmount accessibility and scalability hurdles, improve collaboration across brands, and achieve better transparency, foresight, and agility in planning IT expenditures.

Impact #2

The company now has strategic alignment between business and IT and a delivery structure to ensure appropriate cost measures and processes.

Impact #3

The company has a reliable, secure, and scalable operating environment.

Benefit #1	The company plans to save $100 million in IT costs in just three years.
Benefit #2	The company is planning for a roll out of a single-company SAP implementation across its various brands in just 18 months, the fastest ever for an SAP Fashion Management solution.

Benefit #1

The company plans to save $100 million in IT costs in just three years.

Benefit #2

The company is planning for a roll out of a single-company SAP implementation across its various brands in just 18 months, the fastest ever for an SAP Fashion Management solution.

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Overview

Building the New Era of Luxury Retail with IT Portfolio Management in the Cloud

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit