Transform SAP IT Landscape to Salesforce

The Brief

Client working on a retail industry wanted a complete IT landscape transformation from SAP techstack to Salesforce.

Constraints

Meeting the contract end date which is within 8 months between start of the project and expected go-live. High-level personalization including geo-fencing, real-time recommendations and personalized mobile app experience. Event-driven integration design. Generating a single source of truth database for CRM and MarTech operations. Customer Service process re-structuring. EU-wide data segregation framework for meeting the data compliancy regulations.

Options Considered

1. Marketing first vs CRM first implementation
2. Mulesoft as a middleware for event management
3. Big-bang vs phased rollout
4. P2P integration vs via event-mesh

Decision

Each option required diligent decision making process considering the scale of the transformation and the data traffic. Solution design has been built to prioritize CRM over Marketing to prepare solid foundation before adding the personalization and marketing strategy. Mulesoft was the consideration due to inability of Salesforce Integration Layer, however existing SAP integration layer has been decided to fill the gap. Decision has been made considering different angles including timeline, commercial implication and performance comparison. Considering the scale of the implementation, I decided and manage to convince client for a phased rollout with the goal of reducing the potential risks and measure overall performance step by step. Integration pattern has been splat up, based on the velocity of the required connection and potential changes/extensions.

Outcome

Complete implementation plan with technical clarity, risk mitigation plan and IT-Business alignment.

What I'd do differently?

I would like to participate the implementation rather than only designing the solution and implementation.