Many believe start-ups today have it relatively easy because they have a blank canvas, ripe for utilizing the latest innovations in AI and cloud. If that is so, the converse should be true for much older, more established businesses.
Despite the challenges of transitioning from legacy operations to more modern infrastructure and processes, many firms realize the end rewards are worth the effort.
French lingerie brand Etam, founded in 1916, is one such company, with innovation and the desire to continually improve part of its DNA.
Indeed, back in 1965, it was credited with inventing the concept of automatic re-stocking. Fast-forward just five years and in 1970 another first for the company as it started using hangers to display bras.
Many other industry-leading developments have come since, including the launch of its online store in 2001. Demonstrating expertise and innovation remains important today and is one of the nine pillars Etam retains at its core.
Today, Etam Group comprises five brands (123, Etam, Maison, Livy, Undiz, and Ysé. In addition to its ecommerce operations, the company has more than 1,500 physical stores in 57 countries.
This still-family-owned and independently operated business is keen not just to survive, but also thrive. Loyalty will be key, making CRM and data-driven efforts critical to Etam’s business strategy today and tomorrow.
To this end, Etam embarked on a data transformation strategy back in 2023, according to Sophie Gallay, the company’s global data and client IT director.
“Even though Etam was really advanced in terms of digital transformation, it was a bit late compared to the market [when it comes to] data. So when I took this position, I saw something that was really great: All the businesses had lots of use cases,” she tells CloudPro.
“So I had a business that was still expecting lots in terms of BI, data science, and AI use cases, but I had data foundations that were not ready to support these use cases.”
Selecting the right partner
Having a vision is one thing, but being able to make it a reality can often be where the hard work really starts. However, by working with the right partner, many organizations can overcome such hurdles. By coupling the trusted partnership with the right tools and technologies, these companies, like Etam, can bring their IT estates into the present, ensuring operations remain fit for purpose and that the business is technologically set up for success both now and in the future.
Etam selected AI and cloud firm Snowflake as its partner of choice, working alongside a local French consultancy, which was the first to deploy the Snowflake platform in France.
“Snowflake is very much a part of the strategy of the data office,” Gallay says.
“The big project is creating the data platform with Snowflake. We had to go fast because creating a data platform in one year is a [big job]. So when we chose the best partner to help us with that challenge, we chose Snowflake. [We did so] for various reasons, but one of the reasons was because if we needed to develop a platform that is strong and robust quickly, [we believed that Snowflake] would be the best partner to help do that.”
The transformation work Etam has embarked on will span years but has been broken down into more digestible projects. The first lasted 18 months and was set to run from June 2023 until December 2024.
During this initial phase, the focus was 70% on the data foundation and 30% on value. Looking ahead, things will shift gears considerably.
Future focus
“In 2025, we will just switch the balance,” Gallay says.
“We decided that Snowflake will be the data platform for all the data domains. So we will have one data platform.. We could have had what has happened in other companies where you start your data platformization for certain data domains, and then you choose another partner for other domains. And it [then] becomes something really complicated to manage. We will have only one data platform, and it’s great.”
The first phase focused on creating a solid data foundation that will, according to Gallay, help Etam scale and then “accelerate on data value afterward.”
“I have one particular use case in mind that is super important, which is sales, forecasts, and inventory. [Specifically] the improvement of inventory management, which is super key to retailers right now, especially with the difficult economic conditions,” Gallay adds.
“So that’s really my objective: proving that we can create value. That may be just a little value, but it is starting that value creation process.”
Snowflake made several key announcements at its Summit in San Francisco in June 2024 and many customers were buoyed by the idea of adding AI to what they can already do. Etam is no exception, according to Gallay.
“When I heard all the announcements, I realized that now I can do pretty much everything in the platform. It was not the case [before] as I still had to exchange with other partners for data governance and other things,” she says.
“[Now] I guess I can do pretty much 90% of my data work directly within the platform. It’s going to greatly simplify my work and the way we organize and the way we monitor everything.”
Outside of Etam’s ambition to drive increased value with and from data, Gallay has an added human-focused ambition with the transformation project. This, in essence, is to ensure team members continue to enjoy what they do and feel fulfilled in their work.
“I feel that it’s one of my objectives as a manager to make sure that my team wants to keep working for Etam,” she adds.
“Technology is a very competitive environment, so they’re being approached by lots and lots of other companies. So, for me, it’s also – in terms of management – a great thing, because I know I’m going to feed them with interesting things to do in the next two to three years, at minimum.”
