Aspiri Consulting structured a portfolio of 29 technology projects in the Enterprise & International (E&I) 'Tower' for the separation of a leading multi-brand global fashion retailer into two independent companies. With combined 2018 revenue of $17B and products available to purchase in more than 90 countries worldwide through company-operated stores, franchise stores, and e-commerce sites, this was a sizable effort.
SITUATION: The retailer planned to separate their largest brand for strategic and valuation reasons into an independent company. As the Tower covered all shared services, Enterprise & International, was in many cases the anchor upon which many critical operating facets relied upon. To stand up a completely new legal entity, every element of the business model, including applications needed to be 1) cloned-as-is, 2) modernized to the most current version or, in some cases, 3) replaced with new installations all together.
ACTION: Aspiri worked quickly to structure the expansive body of work with a solid foundation upon which the execution team could be successful. The body of work encompassed 29 projects, 13 program managers, and a one-year budget of over $100 million. We provided:
Structure - Organized the work into relatively self-contained projects and aligning the complete set of 29 projects into six programs based on similar stakeholder groups, application dependencies, and shared project resources. The resulting programs were:
1) Finance, Tax, & Treasury,
2) Human Resources & Communications,
3) Inventory & Revenue,
4) Real Estate,
5) Loss Prevention, Legal, Corporate Administration & Sourcing, and
6) International
Tools - Migrated existing and initiated new projects with a standard 'Project Playbook'. The Playbook was a collection of consistent key project management tools (project plan, status report, risk register, assumptions register, issues log, dependencies register, decisions log, and resource register) to be used across the E&I Tower.
Collaboration - Established one central shared repository (on Microsoft OneDrive) for every project to maintain their Project Playbooks along with key portfolio and program level reports. This provided executives, business partners, and stakeholders ready access to the information they need.
Reporting - Created consistent formats for reporting progress to executives, including the CIO, key stakeholders, and business leaders for timely and effective progress updates.
Integration - Worked closely with the Separation Management Office (SMO) to ensure accurate, complete, and timely information was shared up and across the organization.
RESULTS: The expansive and critical portfolio of 29 Enterprise & International projects are structured for success. All operating with a consistent set of project management tools, a meaningful program structure, and a coherent governance model. As they enter the execution phase, the groundwork has been laid to deliver upon the strategic and valuation goals of the company separation.