Home / Case studies / Replatform
Case study · Replatform
An enterprise replatform for a UK retailer
Multi-year · multiple workstreams · international suppliers
Sector
Retail
Size
Multi-site, multi-million-pound online business
Duration
Two years
The situation
A well-established UK retailer had outgrown its ecommerce platform. Its UK and international sites ran on an ageing, heavily customised build that made every change slow and expensive, and the business’s growth plans depended on moving faster online.
The replatform was the largest technology investment the business had made: a seven-figure investment over more than a year, touching more than a dozen workstreams from product data and payments to fulfilment, customer service and SEO, with suppliers in several countries. Nobody on the client side had led a programme of that size before, and the board needed confidence it would land.
The decision that mattered
The pivotal choice was how to govern the programme, not which technology to use. The options were to hand overall delivery to the lead agency, to hire a large consultancy, or to build client-side governance that held every supplier to the same plan.
The business chose client-side governance: one programme office, one plan and one steering committee, with clear decision rights. It cost more management effort up front but kept the business, not a supplier, in control of scope and budget.
The DEQIO Method in action
Success criteria and go-live conditions were agreed with the board before the build started, and each workstream’s biggest unknowns were tracked openly until they had evidence behind them.
What we did
■ Built the programme office and governance from scratch, including a single integrated plan across all suppliers.
■ Chaired the steering committee with the CEO, CMO and CTO, with decisions, owners and risks recorded every month.
■ Coordinated more than a dozen workstreams and suppliers across several countries, resolving cross-supplier dependencies before they became delays.
■ Ran structured go-live readiness reviews so the business only switched over when trading-critical areas were ready.
The outcome
7-figure
programme delivered
12+
workstreams coordinated
Several
supplier countries
The new platform went live and the business moved its sites onto a modern, supported foundation, with one governance model holding a complex, multi-country supplier base together for the whole programme. Just as important, the business finished with a delivery capability it could keep using: a PMO, a steering rhythm and a team that had done it once.
What it means for you
If you are planning a replatform, the governance model matters as much as the platform. Decide who owns the plan and who makes the calls before you sign with any agency.
Key lesson
“The platform rarely sinks a replatform. Unclear ownership does.”