Situation

As a $6 billion retail company continues to grow and prepare to accommodate an ever increasing volume of product through their Item Lifecycle, the Distribution IT organization made the decision to look for alternatives to their current software solution to better serve the needs of the business. Currently, the system is the core platform supporting the overall item lifecycle at the company.

The customer asked for help in selecting a software solution to replace it because of a number of issues including:

• Item volume is outpacing the scalability of the current solution
• Purchasing functionality is weak
• Frequent and significant customization required to meet requirements
• 3-5 month delays in delivery of customizations
• High risk associated with the extremely specialized skillset required to support the implementation
• Negative partnership impacts associated with current software vendor acquisitions
• Unsatisfactory design / development / QA / product roadmaps promoting a lack of faith in the overall stability of the current solution

Solution

BusinessForward provided a software selection solution in collaboration with the customer’s subject matter experts to:

1. Build upon their previously completed Feasibility Study by gathering detailed functional and technical requirements to drive the solution selection process.
2. Create and distribute an RFP to allow for the final group of vendors to be compared and contrasted between one another.
3. Drive the process of selecting and recommending the best vendor and solution to replace the current system.

Results

Results from the RFP responses, demos, and proof of concepts were combined to form one holistic recommendation on a solution. A high-level implementation roadmap illustrating next steps, timelines and costs associated with the implementation process was provided.