Context

The Retail Solution Project focused on the identification and the implementation of a new stand-alone Retail Point of Sale (POS) system, to replace the organisation’s existing legacy software and hardware. The delivery included the definition of cross-cutting processes between the organisation’s Retail, Warehouse, and Finance functions, alongside core system delivery.

The project objectives were to:

• Deliver a stand-alone, retail-focused software & hardware solution
• Develop and deliver a training plan for all system users to ensure the smooth running of the system ready for go-live
• Deliver key processes within the system outlined during the discovery phase
• Smooth manual integrations to be defined and tested between the Retail, Warehouse, and Finance departments
• Full delivery and go-live in line with the organisations wider change programme

CBO’s Approach

Throughout the project, CBO applied a best practice Association of Project Management (APM) project methodology. This resulted in a well-structured project which applied recognised methods such as Status Reporting, Issue and Risk Management, and Detailed Planning.

The CBO Project Manager tailored the project’s governance arrangements to the organisation and its stakeholders. This allowed a value for money delivery for the client, whilst maintaining robust project processes in place to manage issues and challenges as they arose, including a project pause during delivery due to external factors.

CBO’s Impact

During the project, clear status reporting and communication ensured all stakeholders understood and remained engaged throughout delivery. Alongside this, through a hands-on approach, the CBO Project Manager was able to effectively coordinate the team to allow a successful implementation to be achieved.

Throughout the project, the effective escalation of risks, and use of structured impact analysis techniques, resulted in a proportionate amount of resources and urgency being applied to emerging threats to the project. The CBO approach also encouraged stakeholders to identify and make recommendations for strategic intervention through a structured process.

The run-up to the system go-live was planned in detail, allowing the target go-live date to be met in a controlled manner with no major issues raised. Following go-live, CBO delivered a detailed handover process, in line with the client’s needs, which resulted in the organisation’s swift return to business as usual.

“The services provided by CBO were fundamental to the successful delivery of the retail system project. The supportive and collaborative approach employed by the project manager lead to strong relationships and trust being built amongst the project team and stakeholders, which fostered a healthy team spirit to complete the project within the ambitious timeframes. Robust governance processes ensured appropriate levels of control and escalation to maintain the desired levels of quality and effective integration with wider business processes and systems.”  Chief Commercial Officer