Cloud Transformation to optimize time to market in the fashion retail sector with SAP on AWS

Cloud-based technologies are able to meet the time-to-market, planning and growth requirements of dynamic sectors, such as fashion retail.

The role that cloud solutions play in the efficiency of the supply chain, thanks to their impact on production and logistics operations, allows players in the sector to simplify the management of their activities: the decision-making process is indeed strengthened and sped up, thanks to real-time access to data and information which allows informed and “intelligent” decision-making.

The cloud indeed enables logic and solutions centered around Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which improve supply chain response times from various points of view and are at the same time crucial in acquiring end customers and building loyalty.

Cloud or Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure in the Fashion industry allows for a more timely response not only to business requirements but to the continuous evolution of customer requests and requirements: a genuinely seamless customer experience between online store and physical point of sale; content, products and offers which are ever-increasingly customizable; and the requirement to receive the product as quickly as possible in the desired location.

Cloud capabilities allow retailers to challenge industry challenges by employing it in specific use cases:

• Omnichannel Commerce, where the unparalleled scalability provided by the Cloud supports seasonal peaks.
• Real time inventory, for omni-channel inventory monitoring in real time: from warehouse stock and store orders to the stock on the shelves, in order to define precise and trustable order details for customers.
• Management of the entire product lifecycle. The Cloud is crucial for demand forecasting, thanks to retailers’ constant access to information allowing them to better forecast sales peaks.
• Big Data and advanced analytics. Improving the Customer Experience naturally always lies at the center of all synergies between Big Data e mondo fashion, from predictive analysis of trends and consumer preferences through to reducing returns thanks to machine learning technology for optimizing sizing. Big data analysis is based on enormous data processing and storage capacities which can be optimized more easily through the cloud.
• Optimizing management of ranges and merchandising in order to offer the right products to the right customer.

It is within this context that Lutech is managing a cloud transformation process for the Miroglio Group, a top brand in the Fashion Retail sector which has a presence in 22 countries with 900 single-brand stores.

Driving the project is the need to ensure a competitive time-to-market and greater flexibility and agility of the IT infrastructure in order to respond more quickly to business requirements and the new application solutions specific to this market.

“The fashion industry is more competitive than ever, data are needed in real time along with visibility across the whole company in order to optimize the processes and stay one step ahead” - Francesco Cavarero, Miroglio Group CIO.

Miroglio has worked both with Lutech, AWS Select Consulting Partner, and BeeToBit, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner.

The Lutech Group’s technology team created an AWS cloud Data Center infrastructure to host the Client’s core application systems – SAP CRM, the new SAP S/4HANA environments, SAP Customer Activity Repository, SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), SAP Process Integration – as well as migrating other groups of applications.

The results made possible by this process, which we are being further consolidated on a daily basis, are:

• Business Continuity and reduced human error both in planning and operational management
• Optimized management, great availability and variety of the available hardware and software resources (Apps)
• Much faster time to market
• Improvements in distribution across multiple sales channels