STP Systems > Case Studies > Turn-Key E-commerce Solution

A chain of hypermarket stores that belongs to world's fourth largest international retailer group headquartered in Germany. The holding company is active in 32 countries at more than 2,200 retail locations and employs a workforce of around 280,000 employees from 180 nations worldwide.

Client needed urgent implementation of an "in-store" web based E-commerce system to start sales of specific seasonal product assortment (large items and equipment).
Previously these products were advertized via printed catalog without any options to order. The stores struggled to keep full assortment of these large items on display and in stock which resulted in customer complaints, logistic bottlenecks and lost of revenue.

Client wanted the system to have following key characteristics: product catalog, shopping cart, comprehensive customer account, order processing and handling, remaining stock processing, full integration with storewide and enterprise data management and warehouse systems, generation and printing specific forms, sending various e-mails and etc.
The system had to be compliant with enterprise security policies and procedures. Client had specific requirements for security roles and data isolation layers in the system.
The real challenge was an extreme urgency of the project. Client required working system version to be launched in all stores in 3 weeks after project start! None of the competitors were able to commit to this requirement.
We also had to comply with their weird corporate IT governance which presented an number of technical restrictions and obstacles (very typical for large enterprise corporations)...

STP Systems analyzed requirements and took responsibility to deliver production version of the system that includes minimal required functionality in the extremely short time period. .
We've made a decision to subdivide the project and deliver it in 2 phases. First phase had to include minimum required functionality so we can meet Client's delivery date and the second phase had to include the rest of the required feature-function.
We have also evaluated project risk factors and determined the project success will be highly depended on cooperation of Client's IT department and its subcontractors. STP Systems had mandated a company representative to establish efficient communication and cooperation with Client's personnel.

STP Systems have chosen it's solely developed Efficiency Business Application Framework™ that allows rapid software development as core technology for this solution. Efficiency Framework had all features and characteristics that completely met Client's requirements.
We have implemented hybrid software architecture which included integrated back-end DESKTOP data management application and front-end WEB application facing consumer.
Web interface was developed utilizing Web 2.0 and Rich Internet Application (RIA) features. The application was designed in Client's standard corporate style and was found compliant with security and other corporate policies.
Data Exchange Engine of the Efficiency Platform allowed us to integrate the application with Client's enterprise data management systems in a record time.
In fact, fully-functional system was delivered in the first phase of the project and second phase was devoted to minor improvements and feature-function enhancements
STP Systems had also implemented several "out of project scope" features based on ideas coming from Client's Head Office and Stores personnel.
The Client outperformed its sales volume estimates and was highly satisfied with project collaboration and quality of system developed.