“Capgemini has opted for TIE Kinetix’ EDI Messaging Portal because our experience with the previous version was so good that we saw no reason to change. With TIE, we chose a risk-free upgrade; the match is great and the knowledge and experience also correspond exactly to our requirements.” (Frank Huiskes, Global CTO Infractructure Transformation Services at Capgemini)

1. Text Cees Steijger ~ Photography Marcel R. Bakker
“In the retail trade,
the biggest sin is to say
‘no’ to customers”
P12 ~ 2011 ~ TIE

2. Business Integration
Capgemini chooses
TIE EDI platform
exclusively for retailers
“Capgemini has opted for TIE Kinetix’ EDI Messaging Portal because our
experience with the previous version was so good that we saw no reason to
change. With TIE, we chose a risk-free upgrade; the match is great and the
knowledge and experience also correspond exactly to our requirements.”
S
peaking is Frank Huiskes, Global CTO from many other businesses. The bakery operates
Infractructure Transformation Services at during the night and the morning; the distribution
Capgemini, the worldwide leader in consult- centre is geared to this and even in the weekend there
ing, technology and outsourcing. Capgemini’s is always somewhere open or operating somewhere.
headquarters is in Paris, from where it directs This doesn’t usually happen in big government
activities in more than thirty countries. Originally institutions, which tend to keep regular office hours.
French, the multinational now employs 100,000 You might say that the retail trade is closed from
people worldwide, mostly in North America, Europe mid-November to the New Year. At that time you stay
and the Asia-Pacific region. Capgemini has nine away from the IT systems – no planned maintenance
offices in the Netherlands, including two in Amster- – and everything has to continue working perfectly.”
dam. We spoke to Frank Huiskes and his colleague In Capgemini’s retail approach, all retail messag-
Tobias Titus in the Atlas office complex in Amster- ing is via a main messaging broker based on TIE
dam Zuid-Oost, next to the Amsterdam ArenA Kinetix. “We always attach great importance to
stadium – the home of AFC Ajax. reliability”, says Frank Huiskes. “Based on our
Until recently, Frank and Tobias operated out of experience with TIE Kinetix, we chose the TIE
Capgemini Retail Solutions, which was taken over Kinetix Messaging Portal to replace our messaging
almost 3 years ago and focuses specifically on (large) system. It allows us to integrate business processes
retail customers. “We’ve worked in this area for more and manage them optimally. Our clients have a great
than 10 years,” says Frank. “In other words, from the deal of EDI traffic with their suppliers, and a huge
time that the retail trade started to outsource messag- amount of messages go over the TIE system – many
ing. Over the years it has grown into the network we millions of messages a year such as orders, packing
know today: CAPnet, our own VPN with three slip files and invoices. Apart from reliability and high
dedicated data centres and fast fibre-optic connections performance, everything revolves around saving
that convey international messages from 2,200 costs, of course. That’s the bottom line. Our clients
locations for large retailers in a dozen countries.” At think that is important and so do we.”
the beginning of 2011, Retail Solutions became part of Big ERP applications and everything sent out in
Outsourcing Solutions, marking a logical step for the form of EDI goes via TIE messaging. “You might
Capgemini in the direction of horizontal integration. call TIE our plug into the outside world,” says Tobias.
“However, the focus continues to be on retail,” says “Most internal retail systems and processes are also
Frank. “80-85% of the outsourcing concerns general linked to it. That says a lot about the requirements
business services while 15-20% differentiates retailers that have to be set for availability and reliability.
from other commercial companies.” These are critical applications between the checkout
Tobias Titus explains the differences in dynamics and the back-office systems at head office. TIE fits this
and thus in IT approach. “With retail we’re looking at perfectly because, in the retail trade, the biggest sin to
a 24/7 business, which means that it differs radically say ‘no’ to customers!”
TIE ~ 2011 ~ P13