Case study: Achieving global efficiency: the case for common solutions and shared services
Patrick Boulard
Patrick Boulard
Client

Groupe Rossignol - Ski, mountain sports, lifestyle industry

Problem

In early 2009, Groupe Rossignol initiated a multi-year transformation intended to reposition the group as the world leader in its industry. Information Technology and change management were seen as key success factors and enablers in this transformation.

Based in France, Groupe Rossignol operates a number of subsidiaries around the world, the largest of which based in Park City, UT (NORAM). Responsible for over a quarter of the group’s revenue, NORAM had over time developed its own technology infrastructure and solutions. As a result, the group experienced a lack of integration that hindered its ability to operate efficiently and cost-effectively on a global scale.

To streamline its operations and increase visibility into its global supply chain, the group moved forward with a number of key initiatives with direct implications for NORAM:

- Centralize management of the group's websites
- Migrate to an integrated global WAN;
- Extend the group’s ERP to NORAM;
- Integrate NORAM's infrastructure with head-office;
- Evolve the global IT organization toward a shared-service model;
- Deploy a global business intelligence solution.

Axcelysis was selected in part because of our extensive experience in managing global initiatives, our collaborative management style promoting global consensus, and our ability to quickly size up and deal with the complexities of multi-cultural environments.

Solution

Partnering with global, head-office and regional leadership teams in IT and operations, we developed strategic and tactical content destined to move multiple projects forward concurrently.

Taking into account the group’s rich heritage, distinct cultures in North America and Europe, and management’s vision, Axcelysis helped Rossignol achieve its goals by providing:

Strategic counsel and ROI analysis:
- Assessing the validity and legitimacy of initiatives;
- Determining whether they should be implemented on a regional or global scale.

Project management and coordination expertise:
- Defining and managing scope;
- Identify, monitoring and managing project risk;
- Bridging cultural divides between Europe and NORAM;
- Controlling the execution of major project deliverables according to project objectives, stated budgets and timelines.

Assisted with a variety of strategic and tactical assignments, leveraging time differences to achieve near 24 x 7 performance to accelerate execution;

Formulated a strategy to merge NORAM’s IT department into a global, shared services organization based and managed from head-office;

Assisted the group CIO with a variety of strategic topics, to ensure cultural fit and ultimate success of group level initiatives.

Result

As a result of the services detailed above, Groupe Rossignol achieved the following key objectives:

- Functional and technical organizations in France and NORAM established closer, more productive relationships, increased dialogue and collaboration. This resulted into a more efficient global organization, able to make more relevant, cost effective decisions;

- The head-office ERP solution was deployed to an additional 60 users and 4 NORAM sites in 5 months, along with a completely new and integrated WAN (Wide Area Network) to ensure optimal performance of all technology-based services.