Centralised product mapper web portal provides a unified view across company network

Transformation of builders merchant group

Value Highlights

The business operates through six divisions, with the core builders’ merchant branches supported by a network of speciality plumbing and heating, roofing and electrical branches, a dedicated timber processing and distribution business, and a strong online presence. The group today has more than 140 branches operating across the south of England.

What Were the Challenges?

Multiple ERPs across different portfolio companies
Multiple points of contact, stakeholders and process owners
Infrastructure setup constraints including configurations managed by multiple vendors
Existing manual mapping activity did not cover full population of products
Short project deadline

So, What Did We Do?

Our agile REBOT methodology was used to structure the project into three development sprints for execution
Regular interactive sessions were held with all stakeholders to capture comprehensive business requirements that were signed off prior to development starting
We designed a solution that addressed both tactical and strategic objectives, providing the flexibility to cater for future requirements that might arise from further business acquisitions
A cloud-based “Product Mapper Portal” was built using the latest technology stack:
- Front-end: Angular, Google’s powerful JavaScript/Typescript based framework
- Middleware: Node JS, a lightweight JS framework for server with the power of npm libraries to expedite development
- Database: Azure SQL Database
- ERP Data Sync: Azure Data Factory pipelines and activities were used to refresh portal data from different ERP source systems at defined frequencies
- Security: Azure Key Vault and Azure API Gateway policies (including API limit, DDoS prevention, Firewall) to provide security to the portal data over REST APIs
Daily Scrum calls focused on achieving timely goals, enabling client feedback for regular releases
A dedicated team provided testing as a service (TaaS) ensuring high-quality testing was performed not just on the web portal but also on data migration (a single migration of millions of records)
Effective support during User Acceptance Testing (UAT) ensured timely delivery and drove rapid sign off from the business
Regular, focused meetings with stakeholders ensured all project dependencies were managed correctly and project progress was communicated effectively

Results

The Product Mapper Portal now sources product data across the different ERP Sources (3+) and unifies them as a Master Product (using appropriate product codings/groupings) to allow for 100% accurate supplier rebate calculations and discounting. This has allowed for retendering and improved pricing negotiations across multiple suppliers and is estimated to reduce supply costs by 6%.

Centralised product mapper web portal provides a unified view across company network

Transformation of builders merchant group

Value Highlights

What Were the Challenges?

So, What Did We Do?

Results

Let’s discuss what we could achieve for your business

Let’s Talk

Richard Hamerton-Stove

Partner, Data Strategy