Creating a New Industry Standard From a Merger

Two point of sale solution providers merged.  Both firms operated in the same industries had loyal customers and had a reputation for rock solid.  Knowing the risk of internal politics, they reached out for help.

Overview

Define a unified system that establishes a new industry standard in their dominated market segment, and also create opportunities in adjacent markets. 

Strategy and Goals

Our consulting and program management team drove the overall effort. We united two competing product management teams.  An overall charter was established that guided the team.  Project timelines we established and agreed upon. We identified the project risks and risk mitigation strategies to ensure we kept focused and delivered.

The consulting team engaged internal business leaders and external partners to understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing solutions.  They were also leveraged to tap into the voice of the customer.

Data gathering was a significant portion of the upfront effort. Documentation was also a critical activity throughout.  Including creating end-user documentation, manuals, and training. 

With data gathered and evaluated, the RCG team created the overall systems Architecture, designed and built the application leveraging both onshore and offshore development resources.  This combined approach optimized cost without losing the unified team approach with the client.

The Final Results

• Unified the two systems combining the best features of both.
• Modernized the user interface.
• Captured transaction and customer date to enable analytics.
• Enabled flexible front end: Terminal, PC, Tablet.
• Provided Faster upgrade process.
• Established data extract capability.

The Conclusion

We were able to minimize politics with an impartial view.  We became part of the team, pulling in experts from both organizations. Together we built requirements by looking at both current systems as well as emerging trends in the industry.