Oracle confirmed that they will retire the Venda SaaS platform in June 2018 formally notifying the client of this cessation of service at the end of May 2017. This necessitated the client urgently commissioning a project to source the “right” strategic platform for their future omnichannel aspirations and delivering this platform ahead of the June 2018 deadline and preventing the retailer from going “dark” on the web.

Going dark would have impacted around 1m customers and have significant adverse impact on revenues for a site which generates sales well in excess of £50m per annum, impacting around 1million customers.

The Client having always operated from a SaaS platform had limited internal capability but needed to determine the best strategic fit for any new platform, comparing the flexibility of non SaaS offerings with similar platforms to that of the current Venda SaaS solution.

My role was to lead the Programme with specific deliverables around:

– Selecting the “right” future digital platform for the Retailer

– Selecting the Partner to help implement a new platform

– Building a Team and Plan to deliver the new eCommerce platform ahead of the Oracle deadline

– Transition the new platform into Business as Usual so the Organisation can continue to exploit the capabilities into the future

Platform Choice & Partner

We embarked on a rapid Platform evaluation process using a set of key capabilities the Organisation was seeking from their omnichannel offering in future. Once we had a clear view of they type of platform that satisfied these capabilities we ran an accelerated RFP Process which lead to a platform selection in circa 6 weeks.

In parallel to platform selection we ran parallel evaluations with potential implementation partners (for each platform) to understand the full lifecycle cost of each platform. We had multiple partners per platform where appropriate.

The result was the selection of a SAP Hybris powered eCommerce platform and the commissioning of Tacit Knowledge to support the implementation an ongoing support of the platform. Selection and contract awards were around 8 weeks in duration.

Programme Delivery

We rapidly assembled an internal Project Team to work with our partner Tacit Knowledge. This included a mix of internal and external expertise. We aligned quickly with Tacit on the Agile methodology we were going to operate making best use to the partners existing processes and toolset specifically around Continous integration / development. In addition, we made 3 crucial decisions which were instrumental in our successful delivery:

– We agreed and sought Board commitment to an MVP apporach to scope – launching with MVP gave us the best chance fo achieve the fixed deadline;

– We planned to deliver the website ahead of deadline and run a soft launch period (6 weeks) where we could road test all processes for real prior to a full customer launch. This allowed us to learn how the best operate the platfromfrom merchandising & trading perspective and resolve any bugs or processes issues before a full launch;

– Introduced a rigorous Governance process which required all Executives to attend a weekly Project Board where everyone could be kept up to date on progress and rapid decisions made to avoid delays in the project timelines.

The Programme was a major success within the Retailer:

– We launched the website into Soft launch just over 7 months from initiating the project

– The eCommerce went live to all customers 1 month ahead of the Oracle deadline at launch we delivered additional functionality to the agreed MVP scope

– Conversion rates have improved since launch with a significant increase in mobile customer traffic

The Project was also awarded a Silver Medal in the SAP Quality Awards and was shortlised in the European Testing Awards for Test Project of the year.