Growth and aging legacy computer systems led Consortio Fashion Group, one of the largest e-commerce and mail order companies in the Nordics and CEE, to explore its options for invoicing and payments management.

Freddy Sobin, president of the group which includes the Bubbleroom, Halens and Cellbes brands, set his IT management on a path to review many major contenders and to evaluate a short list of candidate applications. The primary requirement was a system which would manage invoicing and revolving credit accounts for customers of the three brands in six countries. A key aspect of the project was how the selected company could utilise existing systems during the transition to ensure that no interruptions to business would occur during the fast track development and conversion process.

By the end of the review, the Megasol team and the Corniche private banking application had proven their ability to meet project requirements on time and within budget. Contracts were signed and the project got underway in June 2011. The first brand/market to go live was Bubbleroom in Sweden in December 2011. During the whole project, major integrations have been made between the Corniche API and third-party systems including legacy systems to be replaced later, such as CRM systems, banks, credit rating agencies and debt collection companies. In addition, interfaces to print and post companies for invoicing, statements and reminder notices had to be constructed.

During 2012, the Halens and Cellbes brands for Scandinavian markets were moved from the legacy mainframe system to Corniche, and by early 2013 the same brands were moved for Estonia and Latvia.

Freddy Sobin, president of Consortio Fashion Group, said “We were impressed with the candid and personal nature of the approach by Megasol and with their ability to think outside the box. What we required was a difficult conversion and migration process with a variety of systems involved and an absolute requirement that business would suffer no interruptions – just enhanced service levels. Megasol were able to demonstrate that they could do the job and we are pleased with the results of this key project. Our relationship will move forward as other satellite systems are either converted or merged and we are confident in Megasol’s ability to deliver value and performance.”

Mårten Törnquist, president of Megasol Technologies, noted that the Consortio project was a good demonstration of the ability of a smaller, efficient and skilled software company to meet the needs of major projects. He said “We knew that our Corniche private banking system was flexible and contained many unusual features which had been driven by the needs of our client base. In examining the objective of the Consortio project we found that the key was the ability to integrate widely with third party software including applications which would eventually be replaced by Corniche. Working closely with Consortio personnel during the selection process allowed us to identify a path which would enable us to meet deadlines for service-level, time and cost.”

Consortio Fashion Group AB is one of the leading e-commerce and mail order companies in the Nordic, Baltic and Central & Eastern Europe. The group has a turnover of approximately 1.5 billion SEK and has more than 400 employees. For further information, please contact freddy.sobin@consortio.se.

Megasol Technologies is a software house based in the university city of Uppsala, Sweden. It has a global clientele for its financial applications. Corniche is software for private banks, payment gateways and hard commodity broking. A variation of the Corniche application underlies the award-winning Earthport Direct global payments system from Earthport PLC. For further information, contact marten@megasol.se.