The Challenge
In 2020, ownership of ASDA transitioned from Walmart to TDR Capital and Mohsin and Zuber Issa, triggering a major business and technology transformation. ASDA needed to establish an independent operating model and technology landscape for the first time, creating a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernise core systems and ways of working across People, Stores and Depots.
At the same time, the organisation was required to fully exit Walmart systems and the associated Transition Services Agreement by February 2024. This necessitated the delivery of a complex, multi-year program, including a greenfield SAP implementation, process simplification and the introduction of new operating models, all while maintaining business continuity at national scale.
The scale, pace and risk profile of the program required strong client-side leadership to coordinate multiple vendors and delivery partners, retain control of scope and outcomes, and ensure the transformation remained focused on delivering sustainable business value rather than becoming technology led.
Resulting Solution
Resulting was engaged as Program Delivery Partner for ASDA’s Future Core and Future Operational SAP programs, providing client-side leadership to drive delivery and ensure effective alignment between the business, technology teams and strategic vendors including SAP, Blue Yonder and Manhattan.
We took responsibility for leading multiple programs of work, supporting ASDA through design, build, test, go-live and hypercare. Our role combined program leadership with hands-on delivery across critical capability areas, including Program Management, PMO, Planning, Training, Testing, Master Data, Technical Infrastructure, Service Design and Transition, Cutover, Adoption and Vendor Management.
For Future Core (Release 1), Resulting deployed a targeted team to strengthen delivery capability and address gaps within the program. In parallel, we delivered a critical reset of the release structure, establishing:
- Clear organisational design
- Roles and responsibilities
- Governance and reporting cadence
- High-level solution design
- Target (and transition) architecture
- A coherent, milestone-driven release plan aligned across all sub-projects
Learning from Release 1, Resulting shaped and led the delivery approach for Future Operational (Release 3), building a strengthened leadership and delivery team focused on business integration, readiness and deployment. This included introducing a more Agile delivery approach to maintain momentum through design and build while improving cross-functional collaboration and pace of decision-making.
"Resulting came with all the credibility in terms of the marketplace, credibility of having done it, the industry experience and in-depth technical experience as well. They helped me shift the mindset of this being a technical program under the CIO to being a business transformation agenda under the CEO."
To address emerging risks and capacity constraints, Resulting established a call-off resource pool, enabling rapid deployment of specialist capability to resolve priority issues such as data migration and environment readiness without disrupting core program delivery.
Alongside delivery, we completed a comprehensive SAP Centre of Excellence (CoE) review, assessing ASDA’s operating model against our best-practice capability framework. This resulted in a clear, prioritised roadmap for “life after deployment”, defining ownership, governance, capability gaps and transitional states to support sustainable operation and continuous improvement beyond go-live.
Throughout the program, Resulting provided independent challenge, protecting ASDA’s commercial and operational interests, and ensuring that delivery remained focused on business outcomes as ASDA exited Walmart systems and established a modern, independent digital platform.
Benefits Delivered
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Successful delivery leadership across two complex, SAP-enabled transformation programs
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Clear exit path from Walmart systems and Transition Services Agreement by February 2024
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Stronger program governance, structure and delivery discipline across releases
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Improved alignment between business, technology teams and strategic vendors
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Accelerated issue resolution through flexible access to specialist capability
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A defined SAP Centre of Excellence operating model, supporting long-term sustainability
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A modern digital platform enabling simplified processes and ongoing operational improvement
