Merchandise Integration
Technical Lead / Product Owner at Staples Europe from April 2009 to Feb 2010
Amsterdam
Acquiring Corporate Express grew sales by 30%, securing Staples position as the world's leading office supplier but creating an extremely complex Multi-Country, Multi-Channel European organization. IT estimated over 2 years to build a merged PIM / EDW. I offered to build an interim analysis system in a few months.
Proposed and built one-time business intelligence database to allow pan-European merchandise analysis by merging and validating product master data, sales, purchases and program rates from 28 business units.
Worked with Staples Senior Management and consulting partner (BCG) to plan project schedule and scope.
Technical lead managing joint team including 5 SQL Developers, 1 QA specialist and 6 data analysts. Iterative design / development cycles with team co-located in 'war-room' to facilitate cross-communication
Mapped reference data (Brands, Vendors, Classes) to common hierarchy.
Daily issues / bug tracking meeting through test and deploy phases to ensure successful delivery
Reviewed ongoing analytical needs with Staples leadership to determine future state architecture and timeline. Follow on project to transformed initial databases into sustainable program with quarterly update.
