Initial situation: Following the termination of the existing contract for the communications solution, 600 retailers faced the threat of system outages. The originally contracted provider was unable to deliver a replacement after eight months; there were only six months left until the system was due to be taken offline.

Objective: To ensure system continuity and implement a new extranet solution within the tight timeframe.

Result: System migration successfully implemented, with no downtime, within budget and with seamless process continuity.

Following the termination of the existing contract for the previous extranet solution, around 600 retailers faced the threat of a system failure. After eight months, the solution provider originally commissioned had been unable to deliver a suitable replacement, and there were only six months left until the old solution was finally taken offline. As part of the turnaround project, the new provider’s results to date were analysed, documented and compared with the client’s expectations. In parallel, a legal assessment was carried out and the market for alternative solutions was explored, leading to a recommendation to the management to replace the new provider and start afresh with an alternative solution. The project management team coordinated the time-critical implementation right up to the decommissioning of the legacy solution, including all interfaces and processes, particularly invoice clearing. The migration took place seamlessly, without any downtime or loss of quality, and the digital infrastructure and business processes were maintained without interruption. The result is a stable, fully functional extranet solution that was implemented on schedule and ensures long-term system continuity.