Our client had evolved from a company doing business internationally to a truly global corporation with significant international growth. As such, it needed true enterprise management planning that allowed two-dozen business divisions to share the most efficient and effective. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to support their individual business needs while offering senior corporate finance officers a consolidated consistent “single global instance” of the position of the entire company at any given time.

1. IIS GIVES A GLOBAL BEAUTY AND
FASHION COMPANY AN IT MAKE-OVER
CASE STUDY:
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

2. IIS is a long-time trusted resource to one of the world’s most successful
beauty and fashion companies, one built on the introduction of a single
innovative product 60 years ago. From that modest beginning, their flagship
company has grown into a worldwide enterprise with $7 billion in revenues.
After launching more than a dozen successful brands in-house, our client
went public in the ‘90s and began an aggressive acquisition initiative
that has created a truly global beauty and fashion conglomerate with 25
companies operating in 130 countries. IIS exclusively partnered with HP,
from the time it was brought into the company to run its first project in 1999
and has continued to architect systems and solutions to accommodate our
client’s phenomenal growth. Today, the company owns cosmetic and hair
care products companies, luxury salons and spas as well as designer labels
geared to both men and women. They have also successfully leveraged the
popularity of select celebrities in licensed fragrance and clothing brands.
While these strategic acquisitions complemented the core companies,
they came with legacy IT systems that may have been effective within the
limits of their own operations, but, performed as an inefficient patchwork
of systems overall. Financial oversight was limited by an arduous numbers
game as the company grew and became increasingly difficult to share and
consolidate information. In a company where it is critical to understand what
it costs to manufacture, ship and sell product, sophisticated data has to
move around the world in real time. Data collection was a slow process and
the data often lacked critical intelligence or proved redundant.
IIS GIVES A GLOBAL
BEAUTY AND
FASHION COMPANY
AN IT MAKE-OVER
WE ARE KNOWN FOR
OUR STRONG PLANNING
SKILLS TO PROVIDE A
SCALABLE SOLUTION
FOR YOUR LONG-TERM
NEEDS.

3. Further, there was no provisioning in this older software to leverage modern
technologies. A process manufacturer would normally rely on advances
such as radio frequency identification to manage the inventory and assets
of the various business units, from tracking millions of barrels of chemicals
to identifying the position of thousands of desktop computers scattered
throughout the world. All manner of advanced functionality could not be
utilized with the out-dated legacy systems.
The challenge of creating a truly modern global enterprise
Our client had evolved from a company doing business internationally to a truly
global corporation with significant international growth. As such, it needed true
enterprise management planning that allowed two-dozen business divisions
to share the most efficient and effective. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
systems to support their individual business needs while offering senior
corporate finance officers a consolidated consistent “single global instance” of
the position of the entire company at any given time.
The board committed to a Strategic Modernization Initiative (SMI) to create
a worldwide application set for all business operations across the various
brands. The SMI mandate was to review and choose best practices to
maximize performance, profitability and improve financial oversight, auditing
and reporting.
Included Were:
-Procurement procedures
-Accounting systems
-Inventory management
-Manufacturing and supply chain management
-Customer relationship management
It was not an opportunity to systematize global operations but to improve
business processes and create a truly modern and agile organization with
the tools to compete in competitive marketplaces in the Americas, Europe,
Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
FROM THE DRAWING BOARD

4. IIS is the perfect partner for a complex strategic modernization initiative
because its project participants offer more than a deep understanding of
the necessary software and hardware solutions. They know their clients’
business processes and culture because IIS is continually investing in
understanding the bigger picture of current business problems, future
challenges, the growth opportunities and what these mean in terms of the
actual workflows of system users and training requirements. IIS understands
not only the need for effective change management in a company’s
evolution and survival, but also how to transition an organization to a new
system environment with minimal disruption.
“In IIS there is an intense focus on really achieving customer’s objectives that
is rarely seen in this industry.”
In 2002, IIS and its partner HP began the process of helping the client
select the software application suite appropriate to the mission. While, also,
analyzing which product workflows would be the most familiar to existing
users, so that the massive organizational changes leveraged as much of their
current investment and experience as possible. This two-year phase involved
significant application and business process review as well as consideration
of organizational alignments and funding issues. Both Oracle and SAP were
thoroughly evaluated on both HP hardware and that of competitors.
DEEP AND EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIP TO AFFECT
CHANGE MANAGEMENT ON A GLOBAL BASIS
“IN IIS THERE IS AN
INTENSE FOCUS ON
REALLY ACHIEVING
CUSTOMER’S
OBJECTIVES THAT IS
RARELY SEEN IN THIS
INDUSTRY.”

5. 10
EFFIIn this assessment phase, IIS played a key role by looking at every
conceivable scenario of corporate growth for its client over the next decade
for trending and capacity planning. Hundreds of man hours were invested as
IIS meticulously looked at the variables of the current and future state, what
markets might be entered over the next decade and the growth projections
of those markets. They received accolades for their detailed projections
and support documents, and also for their ability to create cogent executive
summaries of the key differentials. In order to give the client a crisp view
of how the various scenarios would affect the software and the hardware
specifications and budgeting over the next decade.
“IIS is amazingly agile, with an ability to figure it out, no matter how big or
small the challenge.”
The goal was to maximize the new system over ten years, knowing that
period covered at least two generations of technology advances. IIS had a
responsibility to the board of directors to finalize a budget for their approval
that was both accurate and responsible over a long horizon. Any percentage
variance in a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars is significant so
maximum flexibility in the system architecture was critical going forward
given that no company can accurately predict its future opportunities.
A RESPONSIVE AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIP
“IIS IS AMAZINGLY
AGILE, WITH AN
ABILITY TO FIGURE
IT OUT, NO MATTER
HOW BIG OR SMALL
THE CHALLENGE.”

6. Ultimately a decision was reached in the fall of 2004 and the SAP software
application suite was chosen by the SMI’s various stakeholders throughout
the business divisions. The hardware went through an equally rigorous
review process with extensive testing of capacity and scalability and HP was
formally chosen in the fall of 2005. IIS architected a full system based on
HP’s Unix-based Integrity Superdomes, along with smaller rx8640 servers
that allow enterprise application integrations to connect legacy software
applications to the SAP applications. The system also made extensive use
of HP xp 12,000 storage arrays to facilitate the transfer of data processing
results between applications for additional processing.
Not unusually, the client’s ability to begin the actual deployment went past
the original start date, but the deadline stayed firm. IIS earned its reputation
for agility, working virtually 24 hours a day to deliver and install the system
architecture in two main sites near Boston and Phoenix while customizing
software throughout. The systems were integrated, thoroughly tested and
benchmarked, certified and documented in only 40 days, less than half the
time provided in the original schedule. What truly differentiates IIS from other
resellers is its ability to achieve results in a very short period of time without
sacrificing any of the key deliverables, over and over again.
Initiating the deployment schedule across three continents
IIS helped identify a representative business unit for initial system deployment
in the spring of 2007 as the optimum indicator of how this system would
be rolled out and integrated into the rest of the company. In its combination
of production and manufacturing processes and high degree of consumer
interaction at retail and online, it had the most common attributes in terms of
business needs. Further the software modules could remain very consistent
across workflow and processes internationally where systems users entered,
fulfilled and delivered orders consistently in different countries.
Working closely with the client, IIS developed the current deployment
schedule through 2010 based on groupings of business brands in some
phases and different functional groups in others. Development for the next
rollout of 2,500 users involves IIS’s same high levels of integration testing
followed by extensive functional testing to ensure that each deployment is
as successful as the previous one.
GUARANTEEING THE RIGHT SOLUTION OFFER
MAXIMUM CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE

7. The result is a complete IT make-over for a global conglomerate that IIS
and its partner HP guarantee contractually will be fully deployed on budget
and on time. As the company grows through domestic and international
acquisitions, each new business division will be rolled into the system with an
ongoing ability for management to see a single global instance of the entire
organization, something previously impossible in a network of legacy systems.
The first division to go on-line represents the first 500 out of a projected
10,000 users. The experience has been so successful that new divisions
are lobbying to be moved up in the schedule and our client is considering
escalating the schedule from its projected four years based on the results of
the initial deployment. Regardless of the schedule, IIS will be there when the
last user in the last business unit goes online.
1. For corporate governance, risk management and financial decision-making
it was arduous to reach an overview in an organization internally lacking a
true single-view accounting system. Now a snapshot of the company’s global
position can be accessed in close-to-real time allowing better financial planning
and more responsive decision-making.
2. It was previously impossible to report timely financial results. As a public
company, our client can now improve its Wall Street relationships with everyone
from industry analysts to investment banks to investors to the SEC.
3. Beyond the coordinated components of the ERP program, IIS is helping our
client benefit from technical innovation by sharing intellectual property that
saves investment in research and development, engineering and deployment
costs. For example, working with the facial recognition programs HP sells to
government agencies such as the National Security Association (NSA) and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), we have provided our client with new tools
to develop strong, personal relationships with their customers, such as offering
an innovative personal cosmetic assistant in the form of a Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA) that wirelessly sends new color palettes and product updates
based on the customer’s buying patterns and allows product testing online.
IIS differentiates itself not only through exceptional project management but in
presenting new and exciting ideas to help their overall business by creating a
one-to-one relationship with their end consumers.
“It is all about responsiveness, IIS is always there for you.”
4. Finally, the successful execution of the SMI with the right partners means that
our system architecture will significantly scale to support our client’s business
growth and profitability in an environment readily embraces technical innovation.
“IN IIS WE WORK WITH
A PARTNER WHO IS
THERE FOR US IN
THE LONG HAUL AND
WATCHING OUR BACK
THE ENTIRE TIME.”
SUCCESSFUL CHANGE MANAGEMENT THROUGH
THE RIGHT PARTNERS AND THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS