To realise this omni-channel vision, they would need to expand the functionality of their online and in-store point-of-sale (POS) capability. This would be achieved by re-platforming these systems, switching from the IBM WebSphere Commerce platform to eStar, the Access 2000 gift card system to Givex, and the IBM Sterling warehouse and order management system to Manhattan Active.
A project of this scale requires a good understanding of the retailer’s end-to-end business processes. It also requires advanced technical knowledge of the systems they use and would be replacing.
As the primary testing partner since 2008, we knew their business processes thoroughly and how technology supported them. We also had a long history of successfully delivering many of their digital projects. And in August 2017, we commenced work on the replatforming project with a key focus on the new POS functionality.
This involved end-to-end system testing of the POS, which spanned placing digital orders online and through POS, returns online and instore, the centralised gift registry, and new gift card functions.
Integration testing was done on the POS to ensure it correctly interconnected with the retailer’s other systems. This consisted of their enterprise data warehouse, Oracle’s RMS and store inventory management systems, Indibano middleware with the eStar iSAMS webstore, and the Givex gift card, layby, and purchase-on-demand host system.
The challenging aspect of this project was the high risk involved in changing and replacing many core systems and applications at one time. Any issues had the potential to negatively impact a large part of the retailer’s overall business.
The POS upgrade would be carried out by a geographically distributed team. This required us to coordinate our testing efforts with staff and resources spread across Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, and India.
While our primary focus was on the POS system, we also advised vendors and developers for each of the individual systems being re-platformed. Since they typically only possessed knowledge of their system and not the others with which they were integrating, our experience across all incoming and outgoing systems made us a valuable go-between.