In the world of high fashion, timing and flawless execution are everything. When a global Luxury group needed to replace the technological backbone supporting thousands employees, failure was not an option. This is the story of how a Balkan-based IT provider GDC Services implemented a global SAP transformation, while earning a perfect 10/10 C-SAT score along the way.
Client Profile
The client is a prestigious global Luxury group headquartered in France, managing a renowned portfolio of Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, and Jewelry. With over dozens of thousands employees and 1,500+ stores worldwide, their operations span five continents and require flawless 24/7 performance.
The Challenge
The group embarked on a strategic program to replace old legacy systems for most of its brands. The goal was to implement a highly available, accessible, and reliable infrastructure for a new SAP system, encompassing over 300 Configuration Items (CIs).
GDC Services was tasked with three challenges:
- Create a stable, business-critical infrastructure in a tight 18-month timeframe.
- Orchestrate a team of 60+ members and 7 different third-party vendors.
- Integrate disparate technologies—HP servers for non-HANA systems, IBM and Equinix for HANA, EMC storage, and CommVault backup—into one seamless, unique system.
The GDC Services Solution
GDC Services stepped into the role of integrator and conductor. The engagement began with blueprints. The experts collaborated closely with the client to design and size the SAP system, crafting a technical design that balanced immediate business demands with the headroom for future growth. Once the architecture was solidified, the heavy lifting of deployment began.
Over the months that followed, the team methodically rolled out the entire infrastructure. Every one of the 300+ CIs was provisioned, configured, and tested. Communication was the invisible thread holding everything together, thus we established a clear, transparent cadence of risk reporting, ensuring that every foreseeable obstacle—whether a dependency on a vendor or a potential integration conflict—was flagged, discussed, and resolved before it could threaten the timeline.
The team carried the project through three critical service acceptances, where the robustness of VMAX Storage, the reliability of CommVault backup, and the integrity of the entire SAP environment were put under the microscope. What followed were several phases of User Acceptance Testing, during which the full functionality of the system was stress-tested in conditions simulating real business life.
Project Value
Thanks to a compressed deployment and testing lifecycle, the SAP Go-Live was achieved just 13 months after the project kicked off—a full five months ahead of the original deadline. For a program of this scale, shaving nearly a third off the timeline was not just a win on paper; it meant the business could start reaping the benefits of its new digital core almost half a year early.
All of the 300+ planned CIs across the infrastructure layer was delivered, accepted, and fully operational. The transition to full production was seamless: management of both the infrastructure and the SAP application was released to Go-Live exactly as envisioned, with no surprises and no disruptions to the global operation.
Also, in the post-engagement Customer Satisfaction (or C-SAT) survey, the program received a perfect average score of 10 out of 10. That score was a testament to the trust built over months of intense collaboration, transparent communication, and relentless focus on delivery.