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How to deliver an ecommerce project
on time and on budget
Does the following sound familiar?
How did we do it?
It has become quite standard for ecommerce projects to take longer
to implement, and cost significantly more than originally planned.
In Australia there are enough horror stories out there of projects
running two or three times over budget and over time. Some of the
ramifications are:
The most important principle we follow is that time well spent at the
beginning of a project saves a great deal of time and pain at the end.
→→ delayed launch and/or launching with cut down functionality
→→ loss of revenue through missed market opportunities
→→ exploding implementation costs, leaving no budget for later
enhancements
→→ loss of credibility in the market place for the brand, and internally
for the project team
→→ difficult stakeholder relations
Does it have to be this way?
Our short answer is “NO”. The example of General Pants Group’s
implementation of the hybris ecommerce software platform, by
Systems Integrators CGI, shows how a project was delivered exactly
on time and on budget.
The Project
In October 2012, following a thorough research and investigation
period, General Pants selected hybris software as their new
multi-channel commerce platform, and CGI to implement it.
With a planned start date in November 2012, the project was
estimated to be completed in April 2013 within a set budget.
Without disclosing commercial arrangements and project details,
the project was completed on time and at the estimated budget
fee. As a result an additional feature was added to the project
scope which was again completed within the estimated timeframe,
and the new General Pants, web and mobile storefronts went live
in early April 2013.
Partner Selection
Choosing the right partner for the project is a critical part of the
process. The wrong partner can make even the best software look
terrible, and so it is important to choose a partner with a proven
track record and reference-able clients. Make sure you talk to
recent customers of the partners involved. The vendor should
also fully endorse the choice of implementation partner. For this
project CGI was selected due to their strong systems integration
experience, vendor support and best-of-breed methodologies.
UltraServe were chosen as the Managed Services provider, due
to their extensive hybris experience.
Inception Phase
In this case, a full 4 week “Inception” process was deployed by
CGI to run workshops with General Pants designed to detail
exactly what the requirements of the new platform were and how
they would be addressed. This involved a business analyst and a
solution architect from CGI meeting with various departments at
General Pants and mapping what systems were in place, how people
were currently working, what the problems were and what they
wanted to be able to do in the future with a new platform. Each area
of the business was looked at in individual workshop sessions.
“We chose hybris because we believed that we could deliver
a true omni-channel solution with their technology. Together
with our implementation partner CGI, we kicked off the
project with a detailed ‘inception phase’ and drove to a
successful launch, both on time and on budget. A well
thought out plan developed in advance, close collaboration
with our partners, efficiently managed incremental steps,
and solid technology were all critical to our success.“
Michael Laxton, Head of Online, General Pants Co.
Detailed Project Scope Document
The next step was to fully document the outcomes of all the
workshops. This is vital to be done immediately following each
workshop to not lose the detail. Furthermore, once the scope
document was ready, CGI involved General Pants in one further
group of sessions to detail acceptance criteria that relate to each
of the scope requirements. In this way both CGI and General Pants
A case study by hybris, CGI and General Pants
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had an agreed set of functional requirements, and a definition with
examples of what that meant to General Pants. This may seem like
just an additional step in the process, but it is this completed
document that enables the system integrator to quote a price and
timeframe with a very high degree of certainty. The completion of
this document signifies the end of the Inception Phase. The document
itself and the work done in producing it should be seen as a complete
piece of work in its own right, which the customer owns. In this way
that work is not lost if for any reason the project does not go ahead
straight away.
Vendor Involvement
To assess the time required to build the functionality in this document,
hybris consultants carried out a detailed review of the final project
scope before any development work commenced. Any adjustments
were made at this point to the project plan and timeframe before
contracts were agreed upon between CGI and General Pants. Only
then work could get underway. hybris consultants also offered
guidance on the ideal architecture of the solution and ensured the
project took advantage of hybris best practices.
At key points during the implementation phase hybris consultants
were again involved checking the code quality, as well as performing
a final code review and performance check prior to go-live.
UltraServe were brought into the project early to provide
Development and User Acceptance platforms to support hybris
and CGI’s efforts, particularly in the load testing phases.
“We are so pleased about how well we all worked together as
one team to deliver this project. Following a thorough inception phase in Sydney the CIO of General Pants, visited the CGI
development centre in Germany for the first 3 weeks of the
build phase to work closely with us on the integration. This
agile approach to planning and decision making at every step
of the way ensured we were always on the same page because
decision were made quickly and jointly. Obviously, this saves a
lot of time and money when it comes to completing the project!
We deployed both our Australian onshore shore team and our
off shore hybris development centre in Germany to bring the
best and most experience talent to this project.”
Jerry Cobb, Director, Consulting Services CGI
www.cgi.com.au
Talk to us about your project and we’ll make sure it gets
delivered – just as planned!
Contact Stuart O’Neill, Sales Director Australia and New Zealand
E: stuart.oneill@hybris.com
P: +61 2 8036 4755
M: +61 423 108 102
www.hybris.com
About hybris, an SAP Company
hybris helps businesses around the globe sell more goods, services and digital content through every touchpoint, channel and device. hybris delivers
OmniCommerce™: state-of-the-art master data management for commerce and unified commerce processes that give a business a single view
of its customers, products and orders, and its customers a single view of the business. hybris‘ omni-channel software is built on a single platform,
based on open standards, that is agile to support limitless innovation, efficient to drive the best TCO, and scalable and extensible to be the last commerce platform companies will ever need. Both principal industry analyst firms rank hybris as a “leader” and list its commerce platform among the
top two or three in the market. The same software is available on-premise, on-demand and managed hosted, giving merchants of all sizes maximum
flexibility. Over 500 companies have chosen hybris, including global B2B sites W.W.Grainger, Rexel, General Electric, Thomson Reuters and 3M as
well as consumer brands Toys“R”Us, H&M, Lorna Jane, General Pants, Bridgestone, P&G, Levi‘s, Nikon, Target, Migros, Nespresso and Lufthansa.
hybris is the future of commerce™. For more information, visit www.hybris.com
A case study by hybris, CGI and General Pants
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