Client Profile

Industry: B2B/Logistics 

Client: Technology retailer

Solution: Technology solution delivery

The Situation

A Fortune 500 technology retailer provides customers with multi-brand technology solutions. One of their key offerings is the buy-and-hold service, which allows customers to store inventory at the retailer's warehouse until shipment is required. This service has become increasingly valuable due to pandemic-related disruptions in the supply chain.

However, despite the competitive advantage offered by buy-and-hold, the company was losing its edge and turning away from substantial business due to inefficient processing.

The Problem

Despite generating significant annual revenue, the manual buy-and-hold process posed numerous challenges. Orders, warehouse processing, and shipments were managed through multiple spreadsheets, bypassing essential systems like the warehouse management system and order management system. This resulted in:

• Delays in the order fulfillment process
• Lack of omnichannel accessibility
• No visibility into real-time data
• Inability to quickly and accurately address customer requests

The company was experiencing employee turnover as operational teams and sellers were frustrated by the inefficient and manually intensive nature of the buy-and-hold process.

The Solution Kenway Delivered

Kenway provided the following deliverables to help the company remain competitive and achieve success:

Data strategy: Kenway performed a data analysis to identify gaps and determine which inventory data could be systematically acquired.

Extract, transform, load (ETL) process: Kenway developed a UI to capture essential data points identified in the gap analysis. Through an ETL process, this data was consolidated into a data mart.

Data aggregation and data modeling: Kenway constructed a flexible and scalable Power BI dataset that enables the data model to accommodate evolving organizational needs.

Multiple source data capture for reporting: Utilizing technical architecture diagrams, Kenway designed a data model in Power BI by leveraging data captured through the UI.

Data profiling and data cleansing: Kenway profiled the data by defining data rules, identifying distributions, foreign-key candidates, functional dependencies, embedded value dependencies, and performing inter-table analysis.

The Results of Supply Chain Optimization

With Kenway’s help, the technology retailer was able to:

Save 50 hours per month of non-value add time in manual processing/administration.

• Utilize 14 Power BI reports from one aggregated dataset to service various business areas that will now enable customer and operational team visibility.
• Achieve a 40% improvement in inventory and customer data quality throughout the process.

If you’re ready to take the next step in optimizing your supply chain operations, connect with us to discuss how our data consulting experts can help your company achieve an automated operation.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE

To communicate swiftly and effectively through all channels, at all levels, internally and externally, regardless of whether the information is good or bad.

THE SITUATION

Kenway was engaged to manage user acceptance testing on a project with a client. The client had already spent $120K on the initiative that was well underway prior to Kenway’s involvement, and Kenway saw a significant issue brewing. Upon reviewing the proposed business processes, it became clear that the solution being built would not meet the needs of the business and would be essentially unusable without significant enhancements. If the client did not allocate the time and resources necessary to redefine the requirements, they were at risk of spending over $300K in remediation and significantly extending the project’s timeline.

STEPS TAKEN

Kenway escalated the issue to the client’s management team with the strong suggestion that the project be halted until requirements could be redefined to ensure the business’s needs were captured and incorporated into the design. The communication avoided any assessment of blame and remained objective, focusing only on the issue and its impact. Following the initial communication, Kenway then followed up with a root cause analysis to help avoid the issue in the future.

THE OUTCOME

Fortunately, client senior management in the business agreed that building the right solution trumped meeting project dates. The business and IT teams spent three weeks reworking the requirements, resulting in an entirely new capability being added to the design. While this extended the timeline, it ensured that the right solution was built to maximize return on investment for the initiative.

Kenway had been brought in to work on the initiative, not evaluate it. There were risks to highlighting this issue such as straining Kenway’s relationship with the client’s IT organization and stopping or slowing the project, thus ending the engagement. However, quickly escalating the issue and pushing for a prompt decision was the right thing to do for the client. Kenway’s actions ensured the right solution was built in a manner that maximized future investment.

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE

To strive to establish, foster and maintain the role of trusted advisor for our partners, prospects and clients through long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

THE SITUATION

While providing program and project management services across multiple business units at a client, Kenway recognized several risks within their project delivery and program management functions. There appeared to be a lack of communication between the stakeholders responsible for the initiatives, i.e. project roles and responsibilities were unclear, and collaboration between the business and technology teams was lacking. Furthermore, the business unit project portfolios were inconsistent in regards to infrastructure, governance, and levels of management oversight.

Through industry knowledge, direct experiences with the client, and project delivery and program management methodology expertise, Kenway was able to provide observations of the current state and recommendations for a future state to key business and technology stakeholders to help improve the predictability, consistency, and quality of key initiatives.

STEPS TAKEN

Kenway leveraged knowledge obtained through its work with this and other clients to develop a white paper and an executive summary outlining the issues observed, root cause analysis and options to move forward. These deliverables presented tailored recommendations for how the client could mitigate some of the current pain points in their delivery processes.

Once the documents were completed, Kenway shared the observations and recommendations with key stakeholders across the organization. While all organizations agreed with the pain points that were brought to their attention, not everyone was immediately onboard with making the recommended changes.

Kenway further tailored a plan with tactical details designed to help the organizations that were ready to commit to the approach. The plan sought to mitigate the most severe risks by leveraging existing capacity already familiar with the client and their projects.

THE OUTCOME

Kenway helped organizations within the client take incremental steps toward improving their project management, program governance, and organizational communication processes.

As these organizations began to realize the benefits from the initial phases of the implementation strategy, other groups bought in and expressed interest in standardizing processes and improving organizational governance. Kenway was called upon to help improve capital planning processes and deliver training designed to help plan and manage projects in a consistent and effective manner.

Since the original recommendations deliverable, Kenway has produced two similar documents for this organization. Similar to the first response, not all recommendations are welcomed or implemented right away. However, the exercise of reviewing processes and procedures and working to implement best practices on annual regular basis has proven to be a mutually beneficial tactic for both Kenway and the client, one who is now far more diligent in seeking continuous improvement.

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE

To operate, think, demonstrate, speak and lead with integrity and emphasize it through all mediums. To always, under all circumstances and under all economic conditions, do what we believe is “right” for the client, even when what is “right” may directly lead to less business and lower revenues.

THE SITUATION

Kenway was tasked with providing an assessment of the overall environment for Program Management, Project Management and IT Governance at a Technology B2B Retailer for their Sales Compensation Program. Based on the analysis, Kenway highlighted several options and submitted recommendations that would ultimately increase throughput and lead to higher delivery quality. Kenway drove the delivery of these recommendations, ultimately leading to sustainable improvements. While these aspects of the project were a success, a lack of top level business sponsorship threatened the success of another recommendation, which was to extend the formal program governance structure—a recommendation that would require the full commitment of senior business executives within the company.

After working with the group for a year, Kenway found it evident that a significant cultural change was necessary in order for the governance extension project to be successful. In Kenway’s opinion, without this commitment, the client would likely waste significant amounts of time and resources attempting to achieve this goal while also putting at risk the successes already achieved.

STEPS TAKEN

Kenway candidly expressed the opinion to the management team that it would be a mistake to pursue the full governance structure unless senior leadership was truly supportive and committed to making significant changes to their own behaviors. Kenway communicated that the client was not in this position and any further work would in all likelihood be wasteful. These risks were documented and discussed openly at standing program meetings.

THE OUTCOME

While Kenway would have earned more business in the short term by driving the governance extension project, the optimal action was to halt the project as it was doomed to fail from lack of sponsorship. Kenway helped the client avoid wasted time and resources, which were applied to projects with higher chances of success. By being honest through candid feedback, Kenway earned the trust of the management team, and the recommendation to halt the project was taken seriously. The management team did not pursue the additional governance, but they continue to execute and improve the IT governance activities at a micro-level.