ADEO: Creating a customer-centric data strategy with Google Cloud and CGI
About ADEO
ADEO is one of the world leaders in home improvement, living environment and DIY for individuals and professionals. It trades under 32 brands, including Leroy Merlin, Weldom and Bricocenter; operates in 15 countries and has 130,000 employees.
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About CGI
Google Cloud Partner CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world.
ADEO, with the help of CGI, migrated its 15-year-old data warehouse from on-premises to Google Cloud, creating a more customer-centric approach that enables it to share and use data for insights.
Google Cloud results
- Gain of 50% in TCO (energy, physical space, use)
- 100% of data on the same platform
- Increased data security, notably through rights management and access security
- SLO at 99.99%
Migrating a 15-year-old data warehouse to Google Cloud
Data is one of the most valuable assets a business has. A company must have access to the most up-to-date and relevant data if it wants to understand its customers and remain competitive. Businesses were estimated to have spent $215 billion in 2021 on big data and business analytics solutions, a 10% increase on 2020. To retain and grow its market share, ADEO, one of the world's leading home improvement companies, knew it needed to create a data-driven strategy that would align with its digital transformation and improve the way the company makes decisions.
"We still too often associate data with reporting, it's a bit like if we wanted to drive a car while looking only in our rear view mirror," says Laurent Ostiz, Chief Data Officer, ADEO. "Driving a car or a business is all about looking forward. It is, therefore, a question of using the numerous datasets available, such as history of transactions, web browsing, receipts, supplier data, etc. as well as other complex data, which might be a comment on our website or a photo posted on our social networks, to improve the way we make decisions."
Laurent Ostiz knew that ADEO had to make the move to the cloud if this strategy was to be successful. No small task, when the company's on-premises system had been running for 15 years. So ADEO turned to Google Cloud and CGI.
Replatforming a data warehouse eco-system with Google Cloud
ADEO had adopted a platform strategy as it wanted to open the route to partnerships and collaborations with other players that could bring added value for its clients. The first aim of this strategy was to open up ADEO's information system. The company needed to be able to operate this system in connection with its partners' own information systems, and to use it to work closely with start-ups or logisticians.
But ADEO's legacy on-premises infrastructure was holding it back. It struggled to absorb all the data that the company had to manage. Not only was the company processing operational data, it was also dealing with a vast amount of data it collected from its customers' journeys on its e-commerce websites or marketplaces. If it couldn't keep pace, it could lose customers. "On a website, if you don't know what the customer thinks, appreciates, expects, in short if you don't have a data-driven approach, you're totally blind. That's the contribution of data: helping us manage the company and that's what we needed from Google," says Laurent Ostiz.
So, ADEO collaborated with Google Cloud Partner CGI on the migration from its on-premise infrastructure to Google Cloud. Migrating over from a 15-year-old infrastructure was always going to be a hugely ambitious and complex task, but Laurent Ostiz knew that CGI could deliver. "CGI and ADEO have been working together for a long time in various fields, data in particular. CGI has been working with us on Business Intelligence, Build and Run for service hubs, data flows, ESB and other technologies. We have carried out many successful projects together. So it was natural for us to use CGI again," says Laurent Ostiz.
"On a website, if you don't know what the customer thinks, appreciates, expects, in short if you don't have a data-driven approach, you're totally blind. That's the contribution of data: helping us manage the company and that's what we needed from Google."
—Laurent Ostiz, Global Chief Data Officer, ADEOADEO, CGI, Stambia (Semarchy) and Google Cloud worked on framing the replatforming plan together. They defined the target architecture and developed a full replatforming strategy. Together they would replatform ADEO's entire warehouse ecosystem.
"Google Cloud allows us to aggregate a very large amount of data, both internal and external, without worrying about storage and with enormous computing capacity and managed services."
—Laurent Ostiz, Global Chief Data Officer, ADEOThe migration took place throughout 2021, and ADEO fully embraced BigQuery. Serverless and highly scalable, BigQuery is a cost-effective multi-cloud data warehouse that offers ADEO the agility its previous on-premises infrastructure lacked. With BigQuery and its built-in machine learning, ADEO could now gain insights with real-time and predictive analytics, and also access data and share insights with ease.
"Google Cloud allows us to aggregate a very large amount of data, both internal and external, without worrying about storage and with enormous computing capacity and managed services," says Laurent Ostiz.
Building a data-driven future
"We're ready for our next big project because we have with Google Cloud, scalability of the solution to support business growth. Our company has been transformed for the better in these specific ways, we're excited for the future."
—Laurent Ostiz, Global Chief Data Officer, ADEOThe move to Google Cloud provides ADEO with a more customer-centric approach. Now the company can share and use data for insights, monitoring activity, data visualization, and much more. It has confidence in its data strategy moving forward. "We have objectives and a clear strategy. And we address any problems one after the other," says Laurent Ostiz. "Concretely, we work on several subjects in an agile and fast way. At the same time, we are carrying out substantive projects, which commit more resources and aim for the long term."
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About ADEO
ADEO is one of the world leaders in home improvement, living environment and DIY for individuals and professionals. It trades under 32 brands, including Leroy Merlin, Weldom and Bricocenter; operates in 15 countries and has 130,000 employees.
About CGI
Google Cloud Partner CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world.