Independent Enterprise Architecture and Systems Selection for a London Footwear Group

A growing London-based footwear group, trading across licensing, wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels in several countries, is working to an ambitious five-year growth plan. Its systems landscape had grown up around the business rather than being designed for where the business is going, and the leadership team faced several major platform decisions at once: finance, product lifecycle and product information management (PLM/PIM), and HR. Vendors were already pitching. The risk for the CEO and CFO was committing significant capital and years of change to platforms chosen on sales demonstrations rather than evidence, and ending up with a landscape that would not scale with the plan.

Intology was engaged as an independent, vendor-neutral adviser to give the leadership team an evidence-based view before any vendor commitment. The engagement runs as three workstreams. First, an independent assessment of the current and target enterprise architecture, setting out a modular, integration-led design and a SaaS and cloud integration strategy, so each platform can be scaled or replaced without unpicking the rest. Second, finance, PLM/PIM and HRIS requirements defined with the business and scored against the shortlisted vendors, with every vendor claim graded by the strength of its evidence, followed by scripted demonstrations built around the group's own footwear processes rather than vendor showcase scripts. Third, workplace and collaboration technology for the group's central London office. The engagement is led by Intology's founder, supported by trusted associates, and is ongoing.