Project Description
Deep dive evaluation of merchandising and related processes, systems, and organization to develop a multi-year transformation roadmap, commencing with quick wins and change management to bolster results.
The Client
A national, big-box superstore specializing in home décor with annual revenue of $1.5 billion and over 200 locations.
The Challenge
The client was experiencing rapid store growth and assortment expansion, putting pressure on existing highly manual and nonstandard processes and systems, which were originally designed to support a smaller store count and footprint. Capabilities for planning and merchandising, as well as new product design, development, and direct sourcing activities for the company’s broad product assortment lagged industry peers. Further, there were several gaps in technology solutions with numerous Excelbased stop-gap systems in place.
In conjunction with the business and IT leadership, the company desired the creation of a 2+ year capability roadmap based on prioritized business needs, return on investment objectives, and the organization’s ability to absorb change.
The Parker Avery Solution
The Parker Avery team evaluated the processes, solutions, and capabilities across merchandising, planning, product development, and sourcing functions to identify gaps and priorities, quickly alleviate stress points, and determine future-state process focus and solution development. Parker Avery activities and deliverables included:
- Reviewed merchandising business processes to categorize gaps or changes needed to support overall corporate strategy
- Reviewed relevant merchandising reporting and analytics currently used or required for future business needs
- Evaluated current solutions and identified opportunities to simplify/ change to support business needs
- Identified quick wins and immediate areas of necessary change
- Defined high-level future process needs and identified organization/role challenges and potential impacts
- Developed a solution and capability roadmap across merchandising and related processes
- Initiated a change management program to support the transformation
- Engaged senior stakeholders and ensured change leadership needs are defined and understood
The Result
The client is highly engaged in supporting the recommended capability roadmap. Leadership is in the process of coalescing appropriate financial and associate resources to begin implementing the quick win initiatives that will build a strong base of capabilities to support the future roadmap’s aligned system and process changes.