Case Study: How to Achieve Operational Excellence in Retail with a Holistic Approach

Client

A globally recognized omnichannel retail brand, offering a wide range of sports and outdoor products. The company operates both physical stores and an e-commerce platform across multiple countries. Their internal teams possess deep domain knowledge and demonstrate a strong commitment to modernization and international best practices. Their business model encourages ownership, where leaders of specific operational areas collaborate directly with technology partners.

Directio’s Role

Rather than operating as an external vendor, Directio became an integrated part of the client’s internal team. Our experts work hand in hand with business owners, developers, and analysts across departments – participating in daily workflows, co-creating solutions, and driving initiatives from the inside. This model of collaboration ensured deep contextual understanding, quick feedback loops, and the flexibility to adapt as priorities evolved. We blend seamlessly into the client’s ecosystem, sharing responsibility for delivery and continuously aligning our efforts with business goals.

Challenge

Despite its scale and operational maturity, the organization faced growing challenges tied to the complexity of its internal processes and evolving digital needs. Communication between business and IT was inconsistent, with unclear documentation practices and misaligned expectations. While the company had a culture of internal mobility and development, many employees who transitioned into IT-facing roles lacked the technical competencies required to drive innovation at scale.

In addition, agile methodologies were not yet fully formalized, which limited visibility into projects and reduced efficiency in managing simultaneous initiatives. The support process for issue resolution was reactive, with ad-hoc requests overwhelming the team’s capacity and no clear system to triage or escalate problems. Lastly, long-term planning was hindered by the absence of a centralized project portfolio and limited cloud infrastructure, which slowed down efforts to modernize and scale operations.

Solution

Directio partnered closely with the client to deliver a holistic transformation across five strategic areas.

First, the teams collaborated on business analysis and documentation practices. Through mentoring and workshops, Directio introduced standardized modeling approaches such as BPMN and UML, while also improving alignment between technical and business teams. This not only relieved developers of task definition responsibilities but also ensured that project goals and technical designs were clearly documented and communicated.

Second, Directio developed and delivered tailored training programs to upskill internal staff. Business analysts and product owners received hands-on guidance in agile methodology, IT security, and cloud environments such as AWS. The approach blended technical and commercial expertise, empowering employees to take on more complex responsibilities and build confidence in IT-led projects.

Third, a full Scrum framework was implemented, including structured workflows, backlog planning, and the integration of Jira and Confluence. This transformation allowed distributed teams to collaborate more transparently, manage dependencies effectively, and accelerate delivery through improved visibility and accountability.

In response to challenges in support and issue management, Directio introduced a multi-tiered support model (L1–L3), enabling more efficient triaging of incoming requests. Support for local teams was enhanced by switching to the Polish language, improving communication and cultural fit. These changes significantly reduced the load on development sprints, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.

Finally, long-term planning was reinforced through the development of a centralized roadmap and project portfolio. Directio supported the migration of infrastructure from physical servers to a scalable cloud environment and introduced APIs and system integrations to support data flow between platforms. This provided the client with a modern architecture and a strategic view of all ongoing and future initiatives, allowing them to prioritize effectively and prepare for future growth.

Effects

As a result of this collaboration, the client significantly strengthened its operational backbone and internal capabilities. Business and technical teams now work more cohesively, with well-defined processes and improved communication. Employees are equipped with the technical skills and confidence to take ownership of IT projects, and the adoption of agile methodologies has improved efficiency and adaptability across the organization.

The introduction of tiered support and structured issue management reduced bug-related workload from 80% to 40%, enabling teams to focus on value-driving activities. Meanwhile, the transition to a cloud-based infrastructure and the establishment of long-term planning tools provided the company with the flexibility and scalability needed to support its omnichannel growth.

This comprehensive transformation positioned the client as a more resilient, forward-thinking retail organization – able to respond quickly to change, optimize operations at scale, and continuously improve both internal efficiency and customer experience.

Conclusion

Operational excellence in retail comes not from chasing temporary trends but from building lasting foundations, strengthening internal capabilities, and ensuring that every process supports the company’s strategic direction. With Directio embedded in the client’s teams, the transformation was driven from within  – through practical change, shared ownership, and close collaboration. The organization emerged more agile, more efficient, and better prepared to navigate a rapidly evolving retail landscape.

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What you’ll find inside this case study:

• A real-world story of how a global retail brand transformed its operations from the inside
• Key challenges faced during digital scaling, process optimization, and team collaboration
• Step-by-step overview of how Directio improved business analysis, training, and issue management
• Insights into implementing agile frameworks like Scrum with Jira and Confluence
• How tiered support and localized communication cut bug-related workload in half
• The impact of cloud migration and roadmap planning on long-term scalability
• The role of Directio as an embedded technology partner – not just an external vendor
• Strategic questions to help you assess your own organization’s readiness for transformation