Schmidt Groupe: Supporting omnichannel development with new data repositories
About Schmidt Groupe
Schmidt Groupe is one of France's largest manufacturers, selling bespoke home living solutions for the entire house through its Schmidt and Cuisinella brands. It has 809 showrooms, and five factories worldwide, with a turnover of €1.9 billion across its global network.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About CGI
Founded in 1976, Google Cloud partner CGI is one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.
Schmidt Groupe worked with Google Cloud partner CGI to implement BigQuery as its central data management solution, together with Apigee.
Google Cloud results
- Offers advanced analytics capabilities on key corporate data
- Creates a central repository of consumer orders data across channels
- Creates a data centric vision of 2 key records: Consumer and their orders (+ retail stores)
Smooth implementation and integration into Schmidt architecture
The options for interior design are endless, with new trends emerging every year. What remains constant, however, is consumers' desire for quality homeware products and excellent customer service. That's why French customers put their trust in Schmidt Groupe, which has been making furniture since 1934 and is the largest manufacturer in France. With a workforce of around 1,800 people, Schmidt Groupe produces and sells kitchen furniture, as well as other household fittings, such as bathrooms and storage solutions. Its Schmidt brand is the leading kitchen brand in France and the number one French exporter of kitchen furniture, while its Cuisinella brand is aimed at a younger clientele that wants to access at more affordable prices.
Quality kitchens with modern designs at affordable prices
The way we shop for home furnishings is changing, and for several years now Schmidt Groupe has been focusing on better connecting their customers' journeys from ecommerce to the showroom. "The customer journey has become less linear, with multiple entry points, explains Virginie Parent, IT Manager at Schmidt Groupe." "If we want to retain our position in our sector, we need to take a more omnichannel approach, implementing the right technologies to help us do that."
As part of its ongoing digital transformation, three years ago Schmidt Groupe decided to modernize its IT infrastructure for the retail side of the business. With the help of implementation partner CGI, it chose Apigee API Management on Google Cloud for the first stage of this project. "Following an audit to study our IT retail system, new customer behaviors and retail channels, we identified several key areas for our transformation,'' says Parent." "To create a more omnichannel infrastructure, we needed an API management solution and a data repository, and Google Cloud was the right choice for both aspects."
Switching to an API-driven approach for greater oversight. Many of the services in Schmidt Groupe legacy retail IT infrastructure previously used point-to-point (P2P) integrations. "We wanted to switch to API integrations and implement an API management solution, to streamline our systems and make it easier for developers to work on our APIs, explains Parent. We also wanted to be able to monitor those services to analyze data, such as response times and request latencies, as previously we had no oversight at all."
Its positive experiences with the Google Cloud team drove Schmidt Groupe's choice of Google Cloud. "The team took time to understand our needs and were always there to listen to us," says Parent. "Whether we needed support, help, or training, they always had a solution, and that made the process very pleasant for us."
Google cloud partner CGI also played a key role in the decision, offering a clear and convincing plan for carrying out the modernization work. As well as providing expertise in Google Cloud, CGI clarified the business benefits of taking a data-driven approach. "CGI spoke to us from a business perspective, which was very refreshing, and helped us decommission our SAP instances that held previously our data with a seamless strategy for the businesses,'' says Virginie Parent." "That's why we selected them for this specific project, which has been a great success."
"The customer journey has become less linear, with multiple entry points. If we want to retain our position in our sector, we need to take a more omnichannel approach, implementing the right technologies to help us do that."
—Virginie Parent, IT Manager, Schmidt GroupeEnsuring a smooth implementation with CGI
To ensure a smooth implementation, CGI hosted workshops with the Schmidt Groupe team to define its target architecture (including security, finops, surveillance, CI/CD strategy, etc.), as well as design the data models (orders, consumers and store) and develop the required interfaces, API backend, data transformations and flows. CGI also worked with Schmidt Groupe to help them define their data models for new centralized data model of orders (ecommerce, web site in-store specific application). Every week, CGI held sessions together with Google Cloud to discuss any challenges Schmidt Groupe might be facing with the products or their implementation, focusing on Architecture and Finops.
Since implementing Google Cloud in SaaS mode for its internal services, Schmidt Groupe has greater visibility over its services and data flows, enabling it to troubleshoot its applications more easily. "With Google Cloud and Apigee, we're able to look at service statistics and identify exactly where there are issues with our applications" says Virginie Parent. "Our goal is go a step further and to implement a customer data platform and a marketing automation system.";
Schmidt Groupe has also used the implementation as an opportunity to outline guidelines and best practices for Google Cloud development within the company, encouraging developers for both internal and external services to optimize and standardize their work.
"With Google Cloud and Apigee, we’re able to look at service statistics and identify exactly where there are issues with our applications. Our goal is go a step further and to implement a customer data platform and a marketing automation system."
—Virginie Parent, IT Manager, Schmidt GroupeSupporting omnichannel development with new data repositories
The next step for Schmidt Groupe will be to enrich its Google Cloud implementation with new data repositories and key records, and finalize work on CDP and marketing automation projects. The team will then take a step further to support its omnichannel ambitions.
Virginie Parent has been speaking to other leading brands in the retail sector who have created data repositories and has been working closely with Google Cloud and its customers to understand the business benefits that it will bring. She can now testify that Google Cloud is offering greater security, scalability, and an entire ecosystem of tools within one platform. "Implementing Google Cloud has helped us secure our data and our web services, as well as encouraging us to standardize the development across the whole group" Virginie Parent concludes. "We’re looking forward to making the most of all the tools it offers to support our business goals, and that can go through challenging our entire Dataviz solutions, maybe with Looker."
"We're looking forward to making the most of all the tools it offers to support our business goals, and that can go through challenging our entire Dataviz solutions, maybe with Looker."
—Virginie Parent, IT Manager, Schmidt GroupeTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Schmidt Groupe
Schmidt Groupe is one of France's largest manufacturers, selling bespoke home living solutions for the entire house through its Schmidt and Cuisinella brands. It has 809 showrooms, and five factories worldwide, with a turnover of €1.9 billion across its global network.
About CGI
Founded in 1976, Google Cloud partner CGI is one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.