Retooled Selection Process and Initiatives Finds Immediate Success for Store & Digital Project

System Selection

System selection can often be a daunting and time-consuming process. Sophelle has been helping retailers successfully navigate all phases of the system selection process for years; our clients are able to leverage our extensive experience and resources related to systems evaluation and implementation.

Challenge

An internationally renowned performance company with a limited retail presence was planning both a soft opening of a flagship retail location, as well as a re-launch of its ecommerce website. Despite a fast-approaching deadline on the horizon, there were no IT systems in place to support retail operations.

Months without proper guidance or practice passed before they determined there were not enough in-house resources, nor enough in-house expertise to successfully lead and execute the system selection process. With less than four months to go before launch, they called upon Sophelle to accelerate system selection and implementation.

Sophelle’s Assessment

With such a wide array of retail system requirements, (including point of sale (POS), sales audit, time and attendance, inventory, merchandising, purchase order management, forecasting and planning, replenishment, tax management, payment systems, reporting and an ecommerce transaction engine) Sophelle immediately initiated a detailed discovery phase to:

(1) determine key objectives

(2) document specific business requirements

(3) gain a comprehensive understanding of all potential system integration points.

Solution

Within three weeks, Sophelle delivered a detailed discovery document that included key objectives, recommended systems, criticality of each system, and milestones necessary to meet key dates and requirements. Also included were cost estimates for the required hardware, software, and services.

Sophelle then delivered a prioritized matrix of detailed business requirements, a vendor comparison matrix, complete cost and risk analysis, as well as detailed system integration requirements.

After an analysis of the discovery and vendor evaluation data, our client was able to confidently make an informed system selection decision.

Result

Sophelle’s retail expertise and familiarity with the available solution options enabled our client to rapidly achieve a solution shortlist and complete their system selection initiative with a high level of confidence and within their timeline objective. Thrilled with our work, Sophelle resources were called upon to support the subsequent system implementation.

Please contact Sophelle today for more information.