Initially specified by Kingfisher IT Services (KITS), the IT Division of the Kingfisher Group, the main shareholder of Castorama, the project for deployment of the SAP Finance solution in its CASTORAMA Poland subsidiary was entrusted to Sopra Group at the end of 2009.  This inclusive price project, was carried out in line with the plan initially fixed, in terms of cost, lead time and quality, and has just been finalised.

First-rate international cooperation

The success of this project is based on close cooperation and this was the rule applied for a nine-month period by the teams in three companies:

• Kingfisher IT Services France. Based in Templemars near Lille, KITS France supervises the Group’s IT projects in Continental Europe and compliance with the functional specifications defined by the Group. 
• The Sopra Group Pooled Services Centre in Lille. Responsible for implementation of the project and guarantor of the solution, Sopra Group handled steering and the architecture and developed the necessary interfaces with the systems in place. 
• BCC, a company in Warsaw. Already a local partner of Castorama and Sopra Group before this project, BCC is one of the most reputable integrators in Poland. BCC’s Polish consultants handled the setup of parameters, training and user support in coordination with Sopra Group.

According to Catherine LEGRAND, Studies Manager at KITS France, "It’s a real success".
“The atmosphere of cooperation in which we worked was a decisive element in the successful completion of this project,” confirmed Hervé BOMPERIN, Manager of the Project for Sopra Group.

A project with promise for the future

Third-Party Application Maintenance (TMA) of the SAP Finance system has also been entrusted to Sopra Group Lille and its Pooled Services Centre, which, as a result, has added to its customer portfolio.
With 70 stores, Castorama’s Polish subsidiary is one of the largest in Europe. The deployment of SAP Finance in this subsidiary will act as a model for future deployment in other Castorama subsidiaries in Europe.

Press Relations
Virginie Legoupil - +33 (0)1 40 67 29 41 – vlegoupil@sopragroup.com

About Sopra Group
As a major player in information services and consulting in Europe, in 2009 Sopra Group achieved sales of €1.094 billion and has available a human intellectual potential of more than 12,000 people. Thanks to its established culture of excellence and strong sector-, function-, and technology-specific expertise, the Group provides its clients with an overall approach built on a proven business foundation.  Sopra Group’s ambition is to allow its clients to focus on conversion projects having a bearing on their competitiveness and growth. Its range of expertise runs the gamut from strategic thinking on the upstream end to the management of major systems integration projects and application outsourcing. In addition, the Group is continuing with worldwide deployment of its application integration activity and business process management through its subsidiary Axway, a world leader in "Business Interaction Networks", with a complete range of solutions and services. For more information, you can find us at www.sopragroup.com.