“Our data flow consolidation is in our opinion, the highlight of this digital transformation project, and every day we appreciate the expertise and the availability of Magic Software consultants at our side to ensure the success of this project.”
Jean-Marc Barthe, CIO of King Jouet
About King Jouet
The King Jouet Group is family-owned company founded in 1950. It opened its first store in 1989 and acquired Maxi Toys chain in 2020 which saw it taking ownership of many more stores. With 345 stores in France, 22 in Belgium, 17 in Switzerland, and 4 in Luxembourg, and a retail site launched in 2000, the Group aims to become the leading cross-channel player in the toy industry. Its mission is to innovate and make life easier for parents with multiple educational brands. It has new store formats such as King Okaz stores that now also offer guaranteed second-hand toys that meet consumer expectations.
The problem
The project started in 2019 and was carried out in several stages. Launched by King Jouet’ holding company, the Prenatal Retail Group, it aimed to provide all group entities with a single, modern, open, and scalable ERP solution.
After choosing Microsoft Dynamics in March 2020, Avanade was selected as the implementation partner. Several months later King Jouet selected Magic Software for the project.
Jean-Marc Barthe, CIO of King Jouet, explains: “We launched a call for tenders in June 2020, with the objective of choosing an integrator capable of supporting us in deploying our ERP. While the choice of Avanade occurred as early as July, we had, at the same time, identified all the added value of the Magic Software solution that was embedded in the proposal of another integrator. We then decided to maintain contact with Magic Software independently and directly, as one of the main challenges of our project was the need to all our incoming and outgoing data flows.”
The solution
King Jouet has two projects: deploying Microsoft Dynamics in the cloud and, in parallel, the development of interfaces to communicate its main software applications through the Magic® xpi integration platform. These applications include checkout and store management, warehouse management system (WMS), cash management, e-commerce site, the B-to-B order portal dedicated to affiliates and various other applications such as expense report management or decision-making tools.
Magic® xpi is a centralized integration platform that orchestrates business processes based on up-to-date connectors throughout the application lifecycle and the ability to execute embedded business flows (in the cloud, on-site or hybrid).
Vincent Peigneux, Head of Data Management and Development at King Jouet, said: “To date, we have deployed more than 50 interfaces and are continuing to orchestrate all of our data flows with the main objective of simplifying the maintenance of our business functions, as well as the evolution of our global information system.”
Currently, more than 15 locations have been connected in Switzerland (commercial and accounting management), as well as the Group’s financial and general service functions. From March 2023, it will be the turn of the 345 French stores, the legal entity responsible for managing the e-commerce site (Jouet on line), as well as the King Jouet warehouses and lastly, Maxi Toys stores.
Vincent Peigneux continues, “Every time we interface new business applications with Microsoft Dynamics, we evolve our data flows within the Magic® xpi platform, both incoming and outgoing, through a dedicated connector developed by Magic Software.”
And to bring even more added value to the business teams, King Jouet’s CIO has, with support from the Magic Software team, developed a solution for monitoring its technical and software interfaces, enabling users to ‘take over’ and oversee the improvement of their data quality.
Jean-Marc Barthe concludes: “With Magic® xpi, we are now seeing greater efficiency and collective agility across the organization. This work of consolidating our exchange platform comprises, in our opinion, the core strength of this digital transformation project, and every day we appreciate the expertise and availability of Magic Software consultants at our side to make this project a success.”
The results
- A central solution providing significant added value beyond the original ERP renewal project
- A platform that allows all applications to communicate with each other on a centralized, real-time, and cloud-based database
- Consolidates the data exchanges and flows, both incoming and outgoing
- Facilitates collaboration between business teams for increased agility and efficiency at all levels of the organization
- Simplified maintenance and supports IS scalability
- Improved delivery times and better inventory and store management
- A successful digital transformation project with significant productivity gains.
