Client story Insight Manages IT Integration Strategy for a Fashion Retailer Following Major E-Commerce Merger

The Challenge

Created as a result of a merger between two successful e-commerce businesses, an online fashion retailer with over 5,000 employees needed to successfully integrate its IT systems.

The EITS Director needed to find a project manager that could manage the IT integration project with minimum disruption to the business and its clients. The Director also needed to integrate the acquired IT teams to develop an effective delivery organisation and restructure the project management office (PMO).

The project manager would need to take responsibility for running the program, manage the project team, assure activities were completed on time and fully documented. They would also need to ensure all this was well communicated, and present regular progress reports to the board.

The Solution

After an initial workshop Insight suggested that the client take on an experienced Program Director. As a result, a member of Insight’s EMEA team, was initially contracted as Program Director for the newly merged online luxury fashion business for 12 months. The term was later extended by six months.

Insight’s Program Director worked for the client across sites in the USA, UK and Italy – with Insight dealing with all issues around work permits and visas. He was instrumental in delivering a five-year strategy to integrate the IT environments, merge the technology organisations and restructure the project management office (PMO).

Central to the Program Director’s input was the implementation of a new Project Management Office Management system – Clarizen. This enabled him to fully manage the project, including keeping track of progress, assessing available resources, capturing and sharing data and more.

The Benefits

• Successful delivery of five-year IT integration strategy.
• Successful reorganisation of the PMO, including selection and hiring of a qualified leader for the new team.
• Support development of a single, unified post-merger IT team.
• Implement a structured project intake process to ensure focus on high-value engagements thanks to Clarizen’s automation and portfolio management capabilities.
• Effective use of available resources thanks to Clarizen’s ability to run hypothetical scenarios.
• Effective communication between IT teams leading to better collaboration and faster resolution of issues.
• Accurate data capturing – including effort, status, issues, and change requests – enabling accurate prediction of future progress.
• Full visibility for IT teams, giving them real-time visibility of the project pipeline and enabling them to consistently prioritise the most important requests.
• The board was kept fully updated with progress with detailed and accurate reports.
• The integration strategy was instrumental in achieving the target of infrastructure cost savings of £1m per year.

The Results Highlights