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Assuming leadership of a complex ICT project for a Global German Retailer, with a very short time frame, major interests at stake - together with hundreds of people who could only meet online due to the coronavirus prevention measures. That was the challenge Vanessa Brown took on. And she even managed to finish it before the deadline!
Valuable experience
“From production planning to finances, from inventory to warehouse management, and from human resources to transport: the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems by software specialist SAP examine every aspect of business operations to create virtually instant reports with comprehensive solutions. I’ve been working with these systems as a consultant since 1998, and that experience came in handy for an assignment I recently did for a Global German Retailer.”
“In 2020, I was responsible for the technological implementation of the SAP S4/HANA: a brand-new ERP system complete with AI, machine learning and advanced analytics. The client wanted one system for Austria and a separate one for Germany, because the units have accumulated too many country-specific business data to be able to share a single system. The retail giant also wanted a new Master Data Management system for supra-national data.”
Immense pressure
“My team of around 70 professionals from Capgemini and 145 from the client was charged with migrating vast quantities of data from the old system to the new one. And ensure that fresh data was always entered into the correct system. We also had to do that under immense pressure. Not only because nothing of this scale had ever been done in the retail world before, but also because they were planning a release with around 30 IT projects in the very near future. And they couldn’t start on their jobs until we’d finished ours.”
“Delays would cost a lot of money. So the client was extremely satisfied when we finished in 2021, before the deadline. The key to our success? Hard work, having fun together, learning and growing as professionals during the project, close collaboration with one another and with other teams, and everyone striving towards a single goal: the transformation of the business. Those are all things I love to do, and that I motivate others to do as well. In this climb, we can only reach the top when we work together. And I’m extremely proud that we made it happen.”
