Rapid integration of acquisition Unilever Cosmetics’ IT infrastructure, implementation of SOA (service orientated architecture), as well as other benefits, together resulted in a massive 400% return on Coty’s investment in Information Builders’ iWay software – within six months.
“We would not have been able to integrate Unilever’s infrastructure so quickly without [this] Software,” says Dave Berry, senior vice president and global CIO of Coty.
“Having to code manually would have taken at least a year. Missing our target date would have cost us several million dollars and possibly impacted revenues. iWay has lived up to its reputation for handling large, complex integration projects, and has already given Coty great ROI, including project payback within two months,” he adds.
Following its acquisition of Unilever Cosmetics International, Coty, which was planning to use iWay’s adapters for implementing SAP, sought to quickly integrate Unilever’s infrastructure with its own and build an IT environment that would harness the two companies’ synergies and sustain revenues amid a changing business environment.
Posing an additional challenge to the initiative was the signing of a large, long-term outsourcing contract with IBM for procurement services, which warranted integration of Coty’s IT systems with IBM.
The integration project’s goals were extensive and included: integration of a complex computing infrastructure with multiple ERP platforms and databases; handling complex messaging requirements; staff savings by avoiding costly code cutting; and the ability to see sales and supply-chain data in real time.
Coty believes it will now be able to integrate future acquisitions even more quickly, because the company has built reusable components that can be used to connect business services and IT infrastructure.
iWay has established the groundwork for a SOA and Coty has moved closer to becoming a real-time organisation. In addition, the company has all the pieces in place for using Web services to connect it to suppliers, business partners, and customers.
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