At a glance
Solution
Modernise
Delivered with Cevo
D6 capability
Project Management
Industry
Retail
In response to Country Road Group’s challenge amidst the demerger of David Jones, D6 and Cevo successfully migrated over 60 systems into VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) leveraging a cohesive collaboration framework and a structured project cadence. The migration has resulted in improved security, operational efficiency, high availability, cost optimisation, and like-for-like performance, for the leading retailer, facilitated by effective IT project management strategies.
Country Road Group is one of Australia’s largest specialty fashion retailers, with a market-leading position in the mid- to upper-tier segment. The group comprises five iconic brands: Country Road, Mimco, Trenery, Witchery, and Politix. Country Road Group is part of the leading Southern Hemisphere retail group, Woolworths Holdings Limited (South Africa).
Business challenge
Country Road Group (CRG) faced a critical challenge following the acquisition of one of its subsidiaries, David Jones, by Anchorage in 2022. With both organisations operating under a single entity and relying on shared IT systems and platforms hosted on AWS infrastructure, CRG needed to separate these shared services and migrate them to a separate environment by July 2024.
The migration scope was extensive, with more than 60 systems spread across over 130 servers, including critical functions such as payroll, point-of-sale, people management and IT operational and management systems. The challenge was not only to migrate these systems into AWS VMware on Cloud (VMC) while ensuring minimal disruption to operations, but to ensure the new infrastructure provided a parallel environment in terms of functionality and performance. This meant deploying into the new AWS Melbourne Region to minimise latency to existing systems and maintain a like-for-like environment.
Solution
D6 and Cevo, D6’s sibling business, collaborated with CRG to successfully migrate more than 60 systems into AWS VMC. We leveraged Cevo’s proven three-phase approach to migrations: Assess, Mobilise, Migrate.
We commenced the project by arranging business and technical kick-off sessions. The primary goal was to establish a cohesive collaboration framework for the cross-functional team, included stakeholders from CRG, AWS, D6 and Cevo. During these sessions, key details such as tooling, onboarding, governance, RACI, and ongoing communications were defined.
We also implemented a well-defined project cadence to ensure all stakeholders had visibility into the project’s progress and foster a collaborative environment throughout its lifecycle. This cadence included project ceremonies, weekly forums, sync sessions, and weekly status reports. We also held retrospective sessions to gain insights from previous migration waves. Handover sessions were also held to equip CRG with the knowledge to operate and to troubleshoot when issues arise.
We ensured close monitoring and reporting of the project budget and forecasting for optimal allocation of resources to deliver the required migration and other activities. This approach ensured the right level of engagement was maintained to achieve the best outcome for CRG within the budget.
Outcomes
Cevo and D6 successfully migrated over 130 of Country Road Group’s servers including more than 60 workloads to the purpose-built VMC platform in the AWS Melbourne Region. With the effective IT project management strategies provided by D6, the migration to the VMC environment was not only successful but was carried out with efficiency and flexibility. Key outcomes include:
- Improved project visibility, collaboration and alignment among cross-functional teams with regular communication channels.
- Quick decision-making and a proactive risk management approach through the establishment of a structured project cadence.
- Close monitoring of timelines and budgets to ensure the migration remained within pre-defined constraints, while delivering high-quality results.
