Migros Fachmarkt AG

Radical Streamlining of Architectures at Migros Specialty Stores

Until 2024, Migros Fachmarkt AG (MFM AG) acted as the central service organization within the Migros Group. Its responsibility was to strategically support and coordinate various specialty market brands such as Micasa, Do it + Garden, Melectronics, SportX, and Bike World.

From the outset, the IT objective of MFM AG was to create leaner IT landscapes for the individual specialty markets – landscapes that are more flexible compared to the existing group-wide IT systems and that can be operated more independently from MGB services.

Within this context, diselva was able to provide recurring support through various consulting engagements.

Impact

Enabling more flexible processes in highly relevant areas such as order management – addressing both rising customer expectations and internal cost savings.

Establishing a foundation for the step-by-step transformation towards leaner systems following a composable approach – delivering significantly lower operating costs

What did we do?

Overarching Architecture Consulting for Specialty Stores

Example Hypothesis of Migros Fachmarkt AG: Through radical minimization and simplification of process and IT landscapes, the cost structure for divisions such as Bike World and Micasa can be reduced both quickly and sustainably.

For these hypotheses, various lean approaches were considered – ranging from “size M” to “size XS.” For example:

Dedicated industry solutions for Bike World, evaluated with strong vendor involvement against their FIT in terms of product, technology, vendor, and costs.
Lean ERP “retail industry solutions” for Micasa, in some cases based on elements of the MGB stack but with minimal dependencies on corporate IT.

The hypotheses were assessed not only from a technological architecture evaluation perspective, but also with regard to the cost implications of replacing the system landscape.

Support for Order Management System (OMS) Evaluation

The shift in customer expectations regarding multi-channel processes has had profound effects on Migros’ core processes and systems.
Within a short project timeframe, an expert recommendation for an OMS was to be provided – factoring in functional and non-functional requirements, integration with the overall architecture, vendor organization, and costs.

Analysis & Target Vision
- Analysis of OMS requirements in collaboration with those responsible for omnichannel processes
- Development of OMS scenarios, including descriptions, pros and cons from different perspectives, and recommendations
- Creation of a functional map covering the OMS requirement areas, with deep dives in defined focus areas
- Development of a solution architecture, including contextual boundaries for MFM in collaboration with technical leads
- Creation of cost scenarios with scaling steps
- Consolidation into a detailed OMS evaluation sheet
System Preselection – Longlist & Shortlist
- Compilation of a longlist based on inputs from stakeholders
- Evaluation of longlist candidates regarding scenario-FIT, product-FIT, technology-FIT, vendor-FIT, and cost-FIT
- Selection of a shortlist, factoring in preferred scenarios and deliberately including a challenger candidate
System Evaluation & Recommendationwertung & Empfehlung
- Pragmatic involvement of shortlisted candidates through briefing sessions and presentations
- Documentation of key findings for each system (including demo cases)
- Evaluation of OMS vendors in the detailed OMS evaluation sheet
- System recommendation and handover to internal stakeholders

Deep Dives in Architecture Consulting

Some deep dives went beyond pure hypothesis. In coordination with a defined group, a plan for replacing the existing system landscape – including dependencies – was developed.

In part, already “with foresight into the major shift at Migros Fachmärkte,” this transitioned into the reality that these specialty stores had lost their strategic role within Migros.

Thus, what began as hypotheses became increasingly concrete – from ramp-up considerations for project initiation through to specific assignments at Micasa.

Why diselva?

With knowledge of system landscapes – from ERP through to channel systems such as eCommerce – diselva was perfectly equipped to address the questions at hand

Through experience in carve-out cases, the systematic preparation of results at a strategic decision-maker level was the right approach from the very beginning

Thanks to complete independence from software vendors and implementation partners, an objective assessment was always ensured.

The necessary pragmatism in evaluations prevented apples from being compared with oranges at several points.

Key Takeaways

An external architectural perspective is always valuable – if only to challenge existing hypotheses or to deepen the focus on specific areas.

Some of the projects that emerged from the architectural advisory work were not continued after the announcement of the end of the Migros specialty store strategy – but some live on within the divested business units, whether in the bike sector or in the furniture industry.

«Within short timeframes, diselva was always able to deliver – especially in the context of the Migros-Fachmarkt strategy, where lean, MGB-IT-independent scenarios were often essential.
When it came to evaluations, we always felt confident in their approach – never overly theoretical, able to adapt to changes in direction, and consistently delivering the right outcomes across all aspects.»