Case Study
Cost Reduction Strategy for a Leading Premium UK Footwear & Accessories Retailer
Client Overview
To achieve its ambitious goal of scaling revenue from £75M to £160M by 2030, our client needed to move beyond its heritage infrastructure. The business was transitioning from a high-cost, fragmented legacy environment toward a modular, API-first architecture designed for agility and financial sustainability.
Be Data Solutions was engaged as the strategic partner to conduct a rigorous IT assessment and architect a five-year roadmap — identifying the hidden "Complexity Tax" within the current stack and designing a transition plan that bridges the gap between premium retail operations and modern enterprise architecture.
Complexity Assessment
The Current State: Identifying the "Complexity Tax"
The technology ecosystem was characterised by significant fragmentation, with modern cloud platforms operating alongside deeply embedded legacy systems. While a "best of breed" strategy was intended to prevent vendor lock-in, the absence of a cohesive integration fabric resulted in siloed data stores and compromised omnichannel goals.
Hybrid Legacy Fragmentation
The coexistence of modern platforms (Salesforce, Azure) with aging systems for HR and Payroll created significant operational friction.
The D365 Customisation Trap
The core ERP carried over 900 customisations, making updates painful, upgrades nearly unmanageable, and licensing costs prohibitive.
Siloed Omnichannel Execution
E-commerce and in-store systems operated on separate stacks, complicating the unified customer view central to the growth strategy.
Third-Party Dependencies
A complex web of specialised applications for loyalty, gift cards, and logistics increased management overhead and integration complexity.
Strategic Methodology
The Be Data Methodology: Three Pillars of Assessment
Be Data Solutions evaluated the landscape through three critical lenses:
Financial Value
5-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) — distinguishing recurring OPEX from one-time migration CAPEX
Business Enablement
Platform ability to support international expansion and premium retail workflows
IT Sustainability
Internal resource requirements, infrastructure scalability, and long-term supportability
This methodology extended beyond software to include headcount analysis and strategic roadmapping — ensuring IT functions as a growth engine rather than a cost centre.
Cost Optimisation
Immediate Cost Optimisation: The "Quick Wins"
Be Data identified immediate opportunities to reduce the baseline annual IT spend (estimated at ~£1.5M OPEX) by rationalising unassigned licences and retiring redundant third-party services.
Licence Optimisation(D365 & Power Platform)
£100,797
Annual Saving
System Migration (GiveX / MWC / MyHours)
£29,600
Annual Saving
Total Annual Quick Win Savings
£130,397
Key actions include auditing unassigned D365 licences (£75,211), migrating legacy gift card and loyalty services into Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and consolidating MyHours into PeopleHR to reduce tool proliferation.
Operating Model
Resource Optimisation: Right-Sizing the IT Operating Model
The roadmap addresses human capital through strategic offshoring — retaining high-value leadership and architecture roles in the UK while optimising the technical execution layer.
Technology Department
£272,112
Annual Saving
E-Commerce Department
£21,984
Annual Saving
Total Human Capital Saving
£294,096
Strategic Note: Leadership and brand-critical roles remain UK-based. Technical support, testing, and functional consultancy roles are suitable for offshore optimisation — maintaining operational capability at significantly lower cost.
Platform Decision
The ERP Crossroads: D365 vs. Odoo Enterprise
A primary focus of our assessment was whether to maintain the Microsoft Dynamics 365 status quo or pivot to a more agile, cost-effective alternative.
Technology Department
£272,112
Annual Saving
E-Commerce Department
£21,984
Annual Saving
Total Human Capital Saving
£294,096
While Odoo's licence and infrastructure costs are nearly 80% lower than D365, the full Odoo TCO of approximately £2.1M accounts for the necessary one-time development investment to rebuild essential customisations in a cleaner, standard functional state — still representing a significant saving over enterprise alternatives.
Roadmap
The Two-Step Pivot Roadmap
Be Data Solutions recommends a phased approach to de-risk transformation while achieving immediate financial relief.
- Strip D365 back to standard functions — a prototype is already deployed, proving a 30% licence cost reduction is achievable
- Recruit a Solutions Architect to ensure technical governance through the transition
- Conduct a full licence audit; retire unused modules and optimise user tiers
- Launch a data cleansing programme across customers, inventory, and suppliers
- Migrate core functions (Finance → HR → SCM → CRM) to Odoo Enterprise
- Retain Salesforce SFCC and OMS as the customer-facing omnichannel commerce engine
- Formalise Azure + iPaaS as the integration fabric connecting all systems
- Implement an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) to replace siloed reporting
- Actively manage dual reporting risk (Power BI vs. Tableau) and Salesforce vendor lock-in
Business Outcome
