Digital Transformation - B2B ECOM, PIM, Middleware Implementation (Project Management, Project Governance, Business Analysis)
THE SERVICES
• e-commerce as a Service (e-commerce Operations Management)
• e-commerce, digital and strategy consulting services
• Project Management consulting services
THE APPLICATIONS
• ORO B2B Commerce Platform
• Comestri Middleware and PIM
• Other 3rd Party applications and integrations
THE BUSINESS
Charles Parsons is a privately owned family business established in 1915 with a proud heritage and expertise in textiles and fabrics. The Charles Parsons Group comprises diverse and highly successful businesses operating throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as servicing markets in Europe, Asia and North America.
The Objectives
The Company has a number of business units in fabric, interiors and outdoor categories which historically have operated in silos. Over time, a number of websites have been launched on diverse platforms, with separate hosting solutions and limited internal digital resources and agency support. The business required a secure scalable B2B optimised platform for the Charles Parsons range of brands.
This B2B transformation project sought to improve the organisations web presence with an optimised transactional B2B journey in tandem with laying the foundations for future B2C capabilities. The vision was to have a unified effective web presence, with clear customer journeys and an information architecture that encouraged positive and rewarding interactions that drive online transactions.
The guiding principles of this work included a focus on the needs of the businesses target customer group; an ability to showcase the breadth of product on offer; a digital experience on par with other Australian wholesalers; and lastly an opportunity to reengineer existing and out dated business processes that would allow it to drive operational efficiencies in house.
The primary goals of this project were to:
Build and launch an easy to use Digital Platform to transfer sales from phone/fax to online.
Integrate with existing ERP and new PIM to ensure seamless customer ordering and payment, accurate stock on hand levels, real time credit balances and payment reconciliation
Simplify business process to deliver to customer requirements whilst lowering cost of doing business and delivering on customer promise
Successfully engage in education of external customers and internal staff on the advantages of using the digital platform
The expertise provided by it works:
Project Management, Leadership and Governance of the B2B e-commerce build and implementation
Project Management, Leadership and Governance of the Comestri PIM and Middleware build and implementation
Project Management, Leadership and Governance of all other 3rd Party solution integrations
Leading Data Migration and cleansing activities
Integration, Business Analysis and Process Mapping activities
Quality assurance services to devise the testing strategy and manage the execution
Change management services to identify organisational change as a result of systems and process changes
The Outcome
In under 26 weeks, the it works x Charles Parsons partnership was able to stand up a fully operational B2B e-commerce solution across 8 business units that went live, on time, to budget and to scope.
Deliverables by it works included:
Delivery of a fully functioning B2B e-commerce site in 26 weeks
Establishment and maintenance of Project Governance and Project Management Controls, Steercos, working groups
Management of Project Budget, scope and all relevant documentation
Ensured that all key risks and issues were identified and managed effectively
Ensured key stakeholders expectations were consistently managed
Provision of Business Analysis (BA) services including Business Process Mapping, Data Architecture redesign and people capability up-skilling (training) services in order to deliver fully reengineered business processes to support B2B operations