Overseas Online Ordering Project

Strategic Sourcing Success Story (2003/2004)

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

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This upscale, luxury automobile manufacturer is the largest in its market. In 2004, sales in the United States and in the North American region far outweighed their competitors. Being in such a critical marketplace, the company is always particularly interested in creating competitive advantages that will help them to maintain and increase their foothold with the American consumer.

Providing an elite consumer product, it is crucial in their business model that orders be filled as rapidly as possible. In 2002, a determination was made that efficiencies to the fulfillment process could be gained if the ordering process could be streamlined. This project was initiated in order to give dealerships the ability to order vehicles directly from the manufacturing facilities in Europe and to give them more visibility into and control over the fulfillment process.

Helios & Matheson SOLUTION:

Having built a long term partnership with this major auto manufacturer, Helios & Matheson was able to work with the North American sales technology team to devise a flexible staffing plan. Helios & Matheson's Strategic Sourcing offering enabled both the maximization of existing consultants, as well as a mechanism for increasing and decreasing staff on demand.

Centered around two key Helios & Matheson consultants already working with the sales technology team and familiar with their environment as well as this project effort, Helios & Matheson was able to rapidly recruit and deploy a multifaceted team of consulting resources.

• Helios & Matheson worked with the international PMO to provide a Project Manager and Business Analysts.
• Helios & Matheson worked closely with Business Users to provide Quality Assurance Testers and Documentation Specialists.
• Partnering with the technology group, Helios & Matheson assembled a top flight development team including Architects, Programmer / Analysts and a Database specialist.

Since Helios & Matheson was involved early in the process, all consultants who joined the team were given an in-depth introduction to the project prior to starting, were supported by Helios & Matheson's back-office Delivery Group, and were able to ramp up with almost no lead time. In addition, as the project progressed and the need for staffing increased and decreased over the course of nearly two years, the Helios & Matheson Strategic Sourcing plan enabled rapid response and cost containment without sacrificing quality.

• The Component Remedy Plan - Recommended optimization and/or stabilization approach for each offending component with attendant man-day estimates. The plan addressed the possible optimization and stabilization solutions including component upgrades and code reengineering.
• The Logical / Physical System Models - Graphical documentation of 1) the Logical Model for the Presentation Layer depicting the layer and Custom Business Objects Layer (COBOL) related components and interrelationships and 2) the Physical Model depicting the technologies and deployments of each Presentation Layer and COBOL related component.

SOLUTION OBJECTIVE:

This client utilized Helios & Matheson's Strategic Sourcing services in order to take advantage of Helios & Matheson's premier technical consultants while keeping tight internal control over this critical, international development effort. Helios & Matheson's Strategic Sourcing enabled them to maximize:

• Quality: Because of Helios & Matheson's client knowledge and sourcing process, they were assured of receiving the best possible resources.
• Duration: Because of Helios & Matheson's Delivery Group support and flexible staffing model, ramp up times were minimized and capacity was managed on demand.
• Cost: Because of Helios & Matheson's holistic approach and flexible staffing model, costs were easier to forecast and control over the life of the project.

PROJECT SCOPE:

The project was the first ever international development effort led by a team in the U.S. The project scope included:

• The modification of back-end systems in their European headquarters to accommodate straight through processing.
• The development of a new order management and fulfillment process to be implemented on the business side in the U.S.
• The development of front-end application, reflecting and enabling with new North American ordering and fulfillment process.
• The development of a middleware communications service to enable efficient and effective transactions between systems in the U.S. and Europe.
• The integration of the new ordering system with their dealer communication system.
• The modification of North America specific systems to accommodate straight through processing, while still capturing U.S.-only business rules.

Helios & Matheson's role in this comprehensive effort was one of full lifecycle support.

• Critical touch-points for the client's SME's (Subject Matter Experts) were documented.
• Modules were identified as candidates for outsourced development.
Unit, Integration and Regression testing needs were agreed upon.

RESULTS ACHIEVED:

As a result of Helios & Matheson's work, the client is poised to maximize the value of the System to increase their client-base and offerings:

• Helios & Matheson assisted in technology and project planning both in the U.S. and on-site at the European headquarters.
• Helios & Matheson provided support for test planning and execution, including User Acceptance Testing and documentation.
• Helios & Matheson provided project management and technical leadership in every stage of the project.
• Helios & Matheson resources were responsible for development, integration and deployment of the application.
• Helios & Matheson continues to maintain this critical application in production today.

This effort was a complete success. The application was rolled out into production on time and on budget. The maximum time from vehicle order placement to order fulfillment was reduced by almost a full week. Plus, the modular design of the system has enabled them to continue leveraging it for even further competitive advantage.

The success of their partnership with Helios & Matheson through this effort continues to serve as a model for projects today. Already familiar with their standards, practices, applications and environment, many of the key consultants have gone on to provide additional value to the client in the sales technology area, as well as in other areas in the enterprise.