Sonae - July 2020

SONAE FASHION

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

SONAE FASHION’S ROBUST AND FLEXIBLE DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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SONAE FASHION’S ROBUST AND FLEXIBLE DIGITAL

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ARCHITECTURE WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Sonae Fashion, discusses the firm’s IT architecture and its huge benefits to the retailer’s flexibility and agility

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f any one industry can be identified as the poster child of digital transformation and the factors that drive it, retail

is a leading contender. The dramatic shifts in consumer buying habits and expectations trace 04

to Amazon, whose availability, pricing strategies, and logistical capabilities have defined how successful retailers operate in the digital age.

While Amazon has primarily been focused on ecommerce, its counterpart in Asia, Alibaba, has popularised the concept of New Retail: the blending of brick-and-mortar offerings with robust online capabilities. Bridging the gap between physical and digital stores has become all but essential for traditional retailers as consumers flock to the endless aisles and easy payments of websites whilst retaining considerable interest in visiting traditional shops.

Portuguese retail giant Sonae is no exception, and its clothing arm, Sonae Fashion, emblematises both the need for and successful execution of a digital transformation that continually morphs challenges

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“ My first move was to completely change the digital platform to support the brands’ and markets’ business needs”

into triumphs. With 400 of its own and franchised stores across Europe, South America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, India, Asia and Southeast Asia, Sonae Fashion has deployed over 5,000 points of sale as well as more than 3,000 members of staff worldwide.

Its fashion brand portfolio, currently

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

consisting of Mo, Salsa, Zippy, Deeply and Losan, as well as its global operations, has necessitated the development of digital infrastructure and capabilities that can tackle the challenges of diverse

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and potentially siloed operations.

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07 Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and

platform and experience than we

Information Officer (CDIO) at Sonae

used to have. One of the challenges

Fashion has had a considerable hand

from buying different brands over the

in the company’s digital revolution,

past few years has been the need to

joining in 2015 as Head of Digital

consolidate teams, platforms, people,

Channels and rising to the CDIO

to make sense as a whole rather than

position in 2018. “My role is to envi-

a series of separate parts that don’t

sion, deliver and support a unified

match together as a whole.

digital ecosystem that is able to

“Sonae has traditionally been a

fulfill business needs as quickly and

brick-and-mortar retailer, start-

efficiently as possible,” Miller says. “I

ing with groceries and food retail

work together with all the business

and later expanding into electron-

teams, sales, operations, warehouse

ics and fashion. Specifically with

management teams, etcetera, so

Sonae Fashion, we recognise a

that we’re able to deliver a better

strong change in the market. Online w w w.so n a e. p t

Transforming retail with passion In retail there are no small mistakes Learn more

The people at Retail Consult know Sonae very well, have huge experience across different countries with many retailers, and add value to everything they touch.

They have been a very reliable partner, with great organisation, retail awareness, and agility Nuno Miller, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

About us: Retail Consult is a highly specialized group that has a big focus on technology solutions for retail. We offer our clients global perspective and experience with operations in Europe, North, South, and Central America.

“ We wanted to mix our offering with omnichannel capabilities, move faster across processes and teams, and to take advantage of our fashion ecosystem, amplify value across teams, offer relevant and seamless experiences to customers and users”

purchases have become more significant and numerous over time, and the digital marketplace is growing stronger and stronger. We wanted to mix our offering with omnichannel capabilities, we wanted to move faster across processes and teams, and we want now to take advantage of our fashion ecosystem, amplify value across teams, offer relevant and seamless experiences to customers

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

and users, and move towards agility and nimbleness across operations.”

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S O N A E FA S H I O N

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This necessity is made clear by the

site within five months, along with the

changes in Sonae Fashion’s portfolio

Zippy sites for Portugal and Spain

over the years, with brands having

within five months, and we changed

been acquired, reviewed, closed, and

the digital platform to support the

sold in response to performance

sales teams in-store.”

and value against its other brands.

With external support, Sonae

Before the move to a unified system

Fashion then assessed its global

was enacted, each brand had its own

architectures to assess the capabili-

digital architecture, or even shared

ties required and where developments

architecture with Sonae’s grocery

ought to be made. Miller notes that this

functions. “My first move was to com-

strategy was predicated on a fivefold

pletely change the digital platform

plan that isolated and unified the key

to support the brands’ and markets’

requirements of its brands and their

business needs. We changed the Mo

digital channels. “Systems of records

for ledging and master data; systems of enablement to make service delivery easier for employees in-store; systems of engagement that build communication with customers, users and suppliers; systems of orchestration to unify each of the systems; and systems of insight that can curate and analyse our data and feed it back to the business to improve decision making,� Miller explains. “The key components of the architecture are the ERP, digital sales platform, the

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Nuno Miller

Title: Chief Digital and Information Officer Company: Sonae Fashion Industry: Retail During 20 years, Nuno put together a pretty unique set of experiences, from IT/IS and Management consulting to top-level management, from brick-and-

ePOS, the omnichannel autofulfiment

mortar retail to electronic commerce,

system, the business intelligence (BI)

from start-ups to large companies, from

platform, and the artificial intelligence

local approaches to global initiatives,

(AI) platform, along with secondary

from supply procurement to business

systems such as product lifecycle

and marketing strategies.

management, the loyalty management system, and the warehouse management system.�

After consolidating these factors,

Very adaptable to new challenges and different companies, from fast-growing start-ups to large corporations. He has been helping companies to

Sonae Fashion developed a roadmap

grow and get stronger,

for its transformation beginning with a

in the last 12 years

starting point for change: overhauling

performing top-

its ERP systems, and moving from six separate ERP platforms to one. Each

level management positions.

factor mentioned here, Miller says, ties into ERP, and building a new, bespoke ERP platform presented both an w w w.so n a e. p t

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Tlantic partners with Sonae Fashion for the operational excellence of their stores.

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13 enormous challenge and opportunity

multiple brands and business functions

for streamlining and unifying Sonae

spanning beyond Sonae’s own ven-

Fashion’s digital capabilities.

tures to petrol stations, supermarkets

Not only that, but Sonae Fashion’s

and more.

long history of data-driven operations

The loyalty programme alone offers a

has been supercharged by the growth

rich data source that enables a view of

of more developed BI and AI systems

customer buying habits, trends, spend-

that offer deeper levels of insight at

ing spikes, and interests.

speed; a robust ERP system with

This, along with other relevant

these functions integrated stands to

operational data, requires a sig-

maximise the value of Sonae Fashion’s

nificant amount of computational

broad and varied and data sets. One

power and space. Cloud technology

example is the firm’s successful cus-

provides the solution, with Microsoft

tomer loyalty ecosystem, fuelled by

Azure being selected for its agil-

the Continente card shared across

ity, stability, performance, power, w w w.so n a e. p t

enterprise-level capabilities, and its alignment with back-office solutions.

The cloud hosts the streamlined SAP ERP system, along with a singleinstance BI platform that can unify data from data warehouses, data lakes, customer feedback, loyalty programme data and myriad more

“ It’s very important for a retailer, in all different areas, to take advantage of all these massive sets of data points”

sources. The flexibility and agility of the cloud-based architecture ties the ecosystem together, enabling shifts in operational capabilities and behaviours that can be made incrementally

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

PART N ERS

Retail Consult

Tlantic

“We are working with Retail Consult in very specific projects and areas because of the huge expertise it offers regarding retail and retail systems. We really recognise its advantages in that space. The people at Retail Consult know Sonae Fashion very well, have huge experience across different countries with many retailers, and add value to everything they touch. We work with them on design for solutions, data migration, integration, logistics, and ERP to PLM to warehouse management system workf lows. Retail Consult has been a very reliable partner, with great organisation, retail awareness, and agility.”

“Tlantic is one of our partners concerning store systems. We have been working with the people there for many years on ePOS, logistics, systems for receiving products, store transfers, time management, teams organisation, timescales and optimisation. Tlantic is one of our main ePOS and ePOS architecture providers, and offers different capabilities that power the omnichannel experience through service-oriented architecture for payments, checkout, catalogues, product lists, and so on.”

-N uno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

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and in response to the insights generated by the AI-enabled BI platform.

Being able to manage that data, with the aid of automated and AI-powered processing via the BI platform, enables Sonae Fashion’s stores to be as competitive in the marketplace as possible. “It’s very important for a retailer, in all different areas, to take advantage of all these massive sets of data points and address, with intelligence: pricing and promotions, range and assortment, and location 18

and replenishment,” says Miller. “We have tens of thousands of products per season, with millions of different

“ During the COVID-19 crisis, we have been receiving a number of orders 10 to 11 times over historic values”

sales tickets, and it’s impossible for a person to assess all that data and curate insights effectively.”

By unifying systems in this way, Miller and his team have developed a robust digital architecture that reaps huge value from the vast presence and unique factors of its portfolio, brick-

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

and-mortar stores, and its ecommerce capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a remarkable stress test for these systems, and Miller says the previous architecture and B2C websites

1959

Sonae founded

€6,435mn Sonae’s total revenue in Euros

3,000

Number of employees at Sonae Fashion

would have been unable to cope with

The result is a business whose flex-

its impacts on online spending habits.

ibility, agility, capability, and resilience

“During the COVID-19 crisis, we have

are ingrained in and supported by the

been receiving a number of orders

new digital architecture developed by

10 to 11 times over historic values,” he

Miller and his team. While the world is

says. “The new sites haven’t had a

rocked by a pandemic of unprecedented

problem with supporting these volumes

scale, it is a credit to digital transforma-

of customer visits. If we didn’t have this

tions such as these that businesses

platform and these new sites and capa-

have been able to both handle and thrive

bility, we would not have been unable to

under such enormous pressures.

handle the challenges of the pandemic,” Miller says, and this has been a key success of his work as CDIO. w w w.so n a e. p t

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SONAE FASHION LUGAR DO ESPIDO VIA NORTE APARTADO 1011 4 47 1-909 MAIA PORTUGAL T +351 220 104 000 www.sonae.pt

N U NO MIL L E R

DO/CIO crosoft + SAP / may 2020

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