turns to SB Consulting as technology becomes critical to its success

Client Profile

Century 21 Department Store (Century) opened its doors in Downtown Manhattan in 1961. It is now a NYC retail icon, known for designer brands and amazing prices.

What started as a 6,000 sq. ft., 3- story store is now 220,000 sq. ft. and 7 floors of fashion, expanding with 12 new locations across the country and an ecommerce site.

Opportunity

Century has grown rapidly over the years opening seven new stores in the last ten years.

As the company grew, it pushed the limits of its current systems. Century made several significant investments in systems and automation to expand and improve its ecommerce, warehouse management, planning and financial systems.

However, the combination of multiple legacy systems implementations over the prior years and the increase in processing complexity created the need for Century to look for a new CIO.

As a key step in this journey, Century appointed SB Consulting to provide an interim CIO to review its use of IT systems and propose a roadmap for the future, and perform the following:

Keep IT organization together as the interim CIO
Provide oversight and direct IT- related projects
Identify ways to simplify and improve the IT operation
Recruit, interview and hire key staff including CIO to the IT operation

Beyond simply verifying that its systems were suitable to the continued success of Century, the business wanted to explore how the latest technology could be used to gain a competitive advantage.

Solution

To realize these opportunities SB Consulting assigned Soren Burkhart as the Interim CIO who completed three seven-week phases of work.

SB Consulting utilizes a three-stage approach to an Interim CIO engagement to achieve the following objectives:

Secure – Review of the current IT infrastructure; prioritize the operational stability of the organization; and identify any challenges or issues that may not be known.
Simplify – Identify and design initiatives that the IT operation could be simplified or improved to better add value and scale to the business.
Scale – Implement the initiatives and help the business scale in value and capability.

By utilizing this methodology, and drawing on Soren’s extensive experience and leadership in technology and business Century achieved the following results by stage:

Secure

Soren provided oversight and directed critical IT-related projects to ensure optimal performance and security.

Simplify

Soren performed a comprehensive review of the objectives and strategies for the IT department and advised management and suggested appropriate actions to simplify and improve the operation.

Scale

Soren recommended and implemented suitable technology to streamline operations and help optimize their strategic benefits.

Soren actively mentored the internal IT resources at Century. He also helped recruit, interview, and recommend the hire of the permanent CIO for Century.

Results

Raymond Gindi, CEO, “In less than five months SB Consulting enabled Century to secure and simplify our IT organization, and to help place a permanent CIO.”

Mel Tucker, CFO, “Soren hit the ground running from the moment we engaged his services. He quickly connected with the IT team and began improving the department’s productivity almost immediately.”

Tom Schuetz, CIO, “Soren’s ability to communicate key strategies in play, identify organizational opportunities, and connect me into the critical conversations within a week of hire sped my onboarding process and helped me make meaningful contributions within weeks instead of months.”

About SB Consulting CIO Advisory

SB Consulting CIO Advisory service provides seasoned CIOs with many years of industry experience to help drive IT transformation to meet the needs of your business.

These advisory services can come in the form of a mentor/coach for your current CIO to acting as the interim CIO as your organization looks for a permanent CIO.

About SB Consulting

SB Consulting is a management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company that focuses on cyber security, business intelligence, and IT transformation.

We translate leading edge technologies into practical and profitable business solutions for clients worldwide.

We have extensive experience in retail, manufacturing, high-tech, finance, banking, insurance, defense, transportation, and government.