Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
There are many things to highlight in terms of the results. The software solution has allowed us to migrate all of our catalog sales. Previously, in 2010–2011 everything in catalog sales was done on paper. Our clients made orders through physical order forms. What we did was to digitalize those orders.
Since we started to evolve this software towards a more digital process, we have managed to migrate it. In 2011, 10% of our sales started to come from the digital world. The next year, it was 30%, and today we count with 80% of our sales being done digitally.
Thanks to having implemented this system, we have been able to migrate 80% of our sales to digital formats. Five years ago, we didn’t imagine this would happen. Today, all of our sales come through digital media through our platform and this is a supremely positive win! This is one of the main indicators.
In 2010, with our previous systems, we had the capacity to bill more or less 1,000–2,000 orders, or 3,000 daily orders maximum because of the capacity of our information system. Today we are having peaks; for example, this season has had more than 10,000–15,000 orders. As I mentioned, we have tripled. We wouldn’t have been able to sustain this level of business growth using JD Edwards.
This new system allowed us to support the triplication of our business; sometimes it’s even quadrupled. Today, we are using more or less half of the capacity it has. The system, as we planned it in the beginning, supports around 30,000 to 40,000 daily orders. We are only filling 10,000–15,000. An important item is that this system is billing around 2 to 3 million annual orders. In previous systems, this was not possible.
How did PSL Corp. perform from a project management standpoint?
Another important milestone is that PSL, as a provider of Agile methodologies, has allowed us to have early victories and faster speeds that have been very different to the projects we used to do before which were very traditional. Today, we are implementing close to 20 annual projects with them. The power of being able to implement so many projects in a year is possible thanks to the good relationship we have with this provider. The Agile methodologies have been a big win inside Novaventa because we used to spend a year implementing a project, and today, we easily implement things in 1 or 2 months. The longer projects that we have implemented with this provider have lasted 3 months.
Previously, all of the project management was done following PMI [Project Management Institute]. When we changed to the Agile methodology, we mixed PMI topics with an Agile method. Today, there are tools that the provider uses that allows us to do all the project management. There is a Scrum master on behalf of PSL. She is in charge of coordinating with the development team. We synchronize our team with the Scrum master from PSL with tools that support Agile such as JIRA, Confluence, and Trello. We do daily stand-up meetings, retrospectives, and everything else in that methodology.
What did you find most impressive about PSL Corp.?
There's something that really grabs my attention about this provider. The added value they provide is that they deliver what we ask of them. Every time I send the business requirements, they deliver more than what was expected. I know that they will always meet my expectations.
I always tell them, “Please understand that as a business leader, I will ask you to solve my need. I always expect you not only to do what I ask but that you give me a better solution. I want you to propose things, to surprise me with various alternatives to my needs." In these 5 years, they have always managed to surprise me. They are always proposing relevant things and updated technologies, and I think this is what I want to highlight that they do really well. They don't only deliver what the client is asking for, but they generate added value.
Are there any areas PSL Corp. could improve?
No, honestly, the relationship with them has been really good.
PSL Corp. has helped produce a number of well-received solutions. They’re receptive to feedback, communicate frequently, and manage their team well. While their developers could expand their technical scope, they’re willing to explore additional training to meet project needs.