Go Sport implements SAP Retail

One of the largest and fastest-growing sports retailers in France, Go Sport Group, was formed in 2000 from the merger of the Go Sport and Courir store chains. The link-up gave a significant boost to the company’s growth, including internationally, and enabled it to gain a significant foothold in Poland. In 2006, Go Sport operated 374 stores employing in excess of 6,000 people and had Ä922 million in revenue. The company needed to replace the diverse legacy systems used by its different store chains with a common ERP platform that could leverage synergies across the enterprise. The project was urgent since Go Sport’s existing systems had become obsolete and were hindering its growth.
In early 2005, Go Sport decided to implement an ERP system in order to streamline and optimise its business processes. CSC was already working with Go Sport on a number of projects and
was tasked with defining a project methodology and developing solution requirements and specifications.
Go Sport had a stringent set of requirements. The solution had to integrate the company’s key processes while also being perfectly tailored to its business requirements. In addition, it had to be able to support autonomous business unit operations whilst at the same time providing a consolidated view of the group along with a common set of standards. Finally, the solution had to be scalable and easily deployable across the enterprise. This not only meant customising the solution for country subsidiaries but also ensuring its ability to manage thin clients running in stores.

In the course of the solution blueprints developed and the design workshops held by CSC, SAP Retail 6.0 was identified as offering the most robust solution and the most complete functional coverage. “Getting the solution users involved in the selection process greatly facilitated change adoption. They immediately saw the strengths and any potential constraints related to the tool,” recalls Stéphane Echavidre, Go Sport’s director of organisation and methods and project leader for this project.

Retail implementation experience
The next step was to find an integration partner. Go Sport issued a call for tenders and CSC was chosen to implement the solution in spring 2006. Stéphane Echavidre explains: “Finding an integrator with retail-specific expertise was never going to be easy. Throughout the selection process we were impressed by CSC’s retail implementation experience and by their understanding of our business requirements.”
A project team was assembled and included ten business process owners who worked full time on the project. “We had a lot of persuading to do in order to convince top management that this was necessary for the project’s success,” Stéphane Echavidre confides. The full project team comprises twenty-five staff from across the group, business owners, and representatives from the information systems department as well as external developers and CSC consultants.

A well-prepared project
The project was launched in September 2006 and has been proceeding smoothly, largely thanks to the up-front preparation. The project schedule was spread over 18 months, a realistic timescale which is commensurate with the project’s importance. Secondly, the project team decided from the outset that no custom developments would be performed, thereby leaving a single version of the package. Finally, the work breakdown structure for CSC and in-house project participants was clearly defined and addressed comprehensively the tasks to be performed.

The project was nevertheless very challenging. The project scope covered procurement and logistics and required significant reorganisation to align the solution and to create a unique master data repository for Go Sport and Courir. “The database contains more than 90,000 stock references and 16,000 new items are added every year. We had to standardise the product database, in particular for logistics and procurement, but also for product segmentation and specific aspects related to each store chain,” says Stéphane Echavidre. Other considerations had to
be addressed to take account of private label products, branded products, as well as seasonal
and other variations in the product range.

The general design phase was completed in late February 2007 and was quickly followed by detailed design and development. Deployment is being organised incrementally rather than as a big bang. The first deployment will be completed at Go Sport’s corporate headquarters in February 2008. Thereafter, the solution will be deployed at Go Sport stores between March and June 2008, at the Courir corporate headquarters in April and at the Courir stores in June 2008. The final phase will consist of deploying the solution at the Polish subsidiary in September and October 2008. In addition, the finance department is replacing its legacy systems with SAP ERP Financials, which is scheduled to go live in December 2008, at the end of the financial year. For Didier Giaquinta, CSC’s project director, “The fashion and retail aspects of this project, its B2B and B2C components and technical demands, its international and multi-site nature and the need to manage change, made it a terrific experience.”

An opportunity to reengineer processes
Deployment is far from over, however the project is going well and is on track to complete on time. Stéphane Echavidre explains that the functional coverage offered by SAP Retail met the requirements of Go Sport’s business domains. He concludes: “The determination of CSC’s staff, their knowledge of our industry and of SAP ensured that we always got an optimal solution to every problem. The partnership between CSC and Go Sport has been a ‘win-win’ collaboration.”
“The strong commitment from everyone was a key ingredient in the project’s success,” he adds. Top management had faith in the project from the outset and mobilised staff and resources early on in the process. Business process owners were directly involved in selecting the solution platform and had a long list of requirements in terms of functional scope. The information systems department quickly developed the capabilities to support implementation and roll-out of the solution and has been closely involved in the entire project.

Stéphane Echavidre concludes: “Installing an ERP system gave Go Sport a unique opportunity to refine its business processes and organisation. The solution being deployed will enable us to break down silos between departments, enhance internal communications and leverage synergies across the enterprise.”


Contact: Didier Giaquinta
dgiaquin@csc.com