Søstrene Grene

There is more than one method for solving large IT projects. Søstrene Grene is one of Danish retail's fastest-growing chains, and among the company's most important principles is that strong growth must never be limited by the IT systems. Here, you will get an insight into the collaboration model that supports the chain's international success, which is found in more than 16 countries.

Everyone knows Søstrene Grene. The unique concept of fun shopping experiences at completely flat prices has also taken hold abroad, and the chain continues to expand rapidly. Søstrene Grene has more than 240 stores in several countries, with one to several weekly deliveries to almost all stores. It requires not only a complex IT solution but also a very dynamic method of collaboration with high reliability

– In other areas of the Danish business industry, you make comprehensive analyses and hundreds of pages about what the IT supplier should come up with. By doing that, you only get what you have asked for. We have chosen to do it in a slightly different way. We meet up with developers and consultants around the table. With a smaller analysis as a starting point, instead of long analyses, we focus on functionality, and the dialogue between us, the supplier's consultants, and developers, says CIO, Bent Ditlevsen, Søstrene Grene, who has chosen twoday RelateIT as a partner on the chain's many IT projects.

– With our dialogue and knowledge-sharing-based form of collaboration with twoday RelateIT, we get to test several possibilities along the way. In the process, we continuously get more inputs and learn more along the way. This results in easier implementation and more complete solutions. Our more flexible and close working approach results in us being capable of detecting any errors faster, where others may not see them until the end of the project – and then they become too expensive to amend.

-It is also important that our cooperation is based on trust. That's why we see twoday RelateIT's consultants as part of our business, and they are also part of our success. All twoday RelateIT employees are taught to focus on the customers. They have no office hours but can solve our tasks when needed. This kind of flexibility is quite important when operating in many countries with many cultures and with severe logistics.

-Our way of working together also includes the fact that their people are physically present with us several days a week together with our IT/project department as well as our end users. This scheme has given us great benefits because there is a short way from idea over development to implementation. We have a lot of that. In 2020 alone, we have made new systems for warehouse, office, and finance, as well as additional development for the store solution – but also developed and launched a whole new e-commerce platform, which we have already rolled out in 6 countries in one year.

- To us, it is important that every customer experience is extraordinary – and that we meet all our customers exactly where they are. We have succeeded in adapting our business development to meet the exceptional customer experience we aim to provide. With our new e-commerce platform, we offer customers a more complete experience in our stores and online universe. Also with this strategic business project, twoday RelateIT has managed to incorporate functionality and efficient workflows into the rest of our solutions. In this way, our IT solutions benefit and support the entire business, says Bent Ditlevsen.

- The new webshop and increased complexity have tightened the requirements for functions in our IT systems. twoday RelateIT has, among other things, developed an integration between the new e-Commerce platform and our Business Central, which makes the entire handling of a sales order easier. In addition, integrations have been made with all surrounding systems in relation to replenishment, warehouses, and all peripheral systems in relation to the e-commerce business. All this provides an optimized and automated solution where insights are the keyword. twoday RelateIT's consultants know our needs and requirements for our IT, and the good cooperation means that they are the right IT supplier for Søstrene Grene, Bent Ditlevsen concludes.