Goals.
Large scale digital transformation
Coop, one of Denmark’s largest food suppliers, embarked on a substantial digital transformation journey to streamline its retail experience by creating an omnichannel approach for its customers and modernising its logistics systems. This transformation aimed to create end-to-end transparency throughout the company’s value chain, necessitating the implementation of a new back-end IT infrastructure with SAP S/4HANA. Coop’s transformation represents one of the most extensive and successful SAP programs in the food retail sector globally.
Approach.
SAP Centre of Excellence
Coop’s initial migration attempt with a large consultancy firm was unsuccessful. Realising the need for a robust SAP Center of Excellence team, Morten Holm Christensen, CIO at Coop DK, partnered with Venquis. The challenge was to assemble a team capable of managing the largest SAP S/4HANA transformation project in the Nordics, spanning 18 months.
Venquis stepped in to support Coop’s SAP and infrastructure transformation program, supplying a team of 120 specialists into Coop across various domains, including SAP implementation, ERP, project management, security, and digital.
In SAP implementation, Coop’s goal was to retain in-house SAP knowledge beyond the transformation program and cultivate a cultural change. To meet this objective, Venquis created a team of 25 permanent specialists, all with either previous retail or consultancy experience. The team included experts in finance and controlling (FI/CO), supply chain and logistics (SD, MM, eWM, TM, GTS), data and applications (PI/PO, SAP Basis, TMS, Fiori, BW, Analytics Cloud), testers, SolMan experts, and SAP project managers.
Results.
120+ specialists hired into Coop
The transformation involved the seamless integration of technical systems, including the Coop App, existing warehouses, checkout systems, and the e-commerce web store, into the new SAP S/4HANA platform. To enable swift and easy enhancements, Coop prioritised high levels of standardisation, aligning the SAP landscape closely with industry standards to facilitate the rapid import of SAP updates.
A significant challenge was presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which added complexity to the transformation project. Despite these challenging conditions, the project began in 2018 and was gradually rolled out to all Coop stores in Denmark, and in 2022 the retail group could operate its entire product portfolio within the SAP S/4HANA Retail solution. Coop’s success story exemplifies how strategic collaboration with the right partners can lead to the successful execution of large-scale digital transformation programs, even in the face of unexpected challenges. This case study underscores the importance of expertise, agility, and adaptability in the world of modern IT infrastructure and retail digitisation. The diverse Venquis SAP specialists played a crucial role in making this transformation a reality.
Project team.
Client Solutions: Jack Grimes
Talent Delivery Lead: Charles Lowndes
Talent Delivery Team: x8
Marketing: Jaspreet Kaur
CIO of Coop DK, Morten Holm Christiansen
“Venquis is totally solution-driven and has a real appetite to improve, constantly asking for feedback and ways to advance. The calibre of candidates is at a very high standard and we have been able to secure candidates that we would never have been exposed to under our previous model. Ella has been great at managing our expectations and managing the whole process from start to finish, really going above and beyond my expectations. Feedback from candidates that have been or haven’t been successful with their application has been equally positive. I’m looking forward to continuing working with Venquis and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their services.”
